The San Diego Metro Transportation System operates buses, trolleys and light rail that serve most areas of the city. Many stations for the light rail system provide free parking for people who pay to ride the light rail. To save money and save hassle when trying to get to places downtown, where parking is limited and expensive, you can park for free and pay to ride MTS. Not all stations on the green, red, blue and orange lines have parking lots, so you should plan ahead and make sure the station you want to depart from has parking. An all-day pass on MTS costs $5 per person, so small groups of people can save money by parking at a station and taking MTS downtown.
Parking meters usually require pocket change, and if you are caught without change you put yourself in a precarious spot. San Diego replaced 5,262 parking meters with electronic meters in 1998, and those electronic meters accept prepaid cards that the city sells. You can buy a card in $10 or $45 increments from nine different locations in the city, and the best benefit is that the card allows you to recoup any time that you paid for but did not use, according to the website. Simply insert the card into the meter itself, or if the block has a parking kiosk, use your card on that machine.
Different streets feature different restrictions on public parking when there are no meters, so you can't assume that what applies to one area will apply to another one. Some streets in residential areas allow street parking only for residents with valid permits during certain hours. Some streets allow street parking during certain times of the day but then require that nobody parks there during rush-hour times. You will get towed if you are in violation of the rush-hour policies. Some free parking spots in parks and other attractions have a time limit, so you must read the signs to determine how long you can park there legally.
