Boise’s Most Annoying Parking Garage Just Fixed Its Worst Problem

There’s no denying it. Right now, parking in Downtown Boise is a headache. The amount of construction in the downtown core has greatly reduced the amount of street parking that’s available. If you’re lucky enough to find a spot? There’s a 50/50 chance there’s a no parking sign on the meter. 

I’ll be honest. I’m not great at parallel parking, so searching for a spot isn’t a spot that I do often. I almost always duck into one of the downtown parking garages. My go-tos are the Capitol & Main Garage (aka Capitol Terrace) and the 9th & Front Garage (near The Warehouse Food Hall.) 

READ MORE: These Are Boise's 5 Worst Parking Lots 

One is always smooth sailing. The other? Well, let’s just say that the parking garage in BoDo has a reputation for testing your patience, especially when it comes time to pay and get out. It seems like every other time I park in that garage, there’s something wrong with my parking ticket.

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Either the machine can’t read it when I go to pay or the exit gate will keep taking and spitting the paid ticket out instead of raising the arm. But the time I’ll never forget? I had just left BoDo Cinema on a night where temperatures were in the teens. The kiosk took my ticket, my credit card, charged my bank account and wouldn’t give me my ticket back to get out of the garage. 

It took nearly 30 minutes for whoever was on the end of the call box to remedy the situation and free me and several other frustrated people from the garage. 

If you’ve also been personally victimized by this parking garage, rejoice! The 9th & Front garage just got a major upgrade that will save you from frozen fingers, angry honks and endless “ticket did not work” error messages in the future. 

On Tuesday afternoon, I attended an event at the Boise Centre and took my chances parking in the garage. When I pulled to the kiosk, it gave me a thinner ticket with a QR code on it instead of one with a magnetic strip. Above the QR code was the line:

“Scan Code with Phone to Pay” 

I did exactly that when I got back to my car. It took me to a website that quickly gave me the option to use my Apple Pay. After I checked out, it told me that I had 19 minutes to exit the garage. 

I scanned the QR code at the kiosk when I finally made it to the bottom floor and off I went. No muss, no fuss and no pressing the call button to admit that I was trapped in the garage…again. Downtown parking might never be perfect, but at least escaping the 9th & Front Garage won’t feel like winning a reality show challenge anymore! 

Author’s Note: Earlier this year, Capital City Development Corp. announced that they were moving all of the Park BOI garages they operate to this new platform. The upgrades are due to be finished by the end of the summer. I don’t park downtown much, but this was the first of the upgrades I encountered!