Electronic Parking Meters

As at end-2024, there are over 20 000 metered parking spaces in Hong Kong.  The evolution of parking meters are briefed as below:

Year 1998: The old mechanical parking meters accepting coins were replaced with the electronic ones that accepted disposable smart cards issued by the Transport Department.

Year 2004: The electronic parking meters were replaced by the ones that accept contactless Octopus card for paying parking meter fees.

Year 2021: To promote Smart Mobility, Octopus card-operated parking meters were replaced by the existing parking meters, with three main functionalities and characteristics as below: 

1. support payment of parking fees through multiple means including Octopus, contactless credit cards i.e. Visa payWave, MasterCard Contactless and UnionPay QuickPass, Faster Payment System ("FPS"), AlipayHK, WeChat Pay and Union QR;
2. support on-site and remote payment of parking fees through a new mobile application, HKeMeter; and
3. be equipped with sensors to detect whether a parking space is occupied, and provide real-time information to assist motorists in finding vacant parking spaces and thereby reduce the time required by vehicles for locating parking spaces as well as the circulating traffic.