Bozeman is an expensive place to live. Mortgage and rent payments are high, the price of gas is high, the price of food is high, taxes are high...you get the picture.

Bozemanites pay a lot to live here.

So when we hear that the city is discussing adding parking meters to the downtown area, well, for some folks that's the last straw. Personally, I'm not a fan of the whole parking meter idea for a couple of reasons.

KMMS-KPRK 1450 AM logo
Get our free mobile app

One; I don't like spending money when I don't have to, and two; it's already hard to find a place to park downtown during the "tourist" season. Downtown Bozeman got rid of parking meters years ago, however, there has been recent talk about bringing them back—and it seems that talk is starting to heat up a little.

According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, there were a few hurdles that the city wanted to make sure were cleared before going forward. One was a second parking garage and the other was establishing neighborhood parking districts.

attachment-RS31175_parking meter-scr
loading...

It seems that there is now a plan in place for both of those concerns, so if the commission does indeed decide to go forth with paid parking, Bozemanites can expect July 1st to be the day folks will start paying to park.

So just how much can we expect to pay?

According to the Chronicle, there are a few options on the table for both parking on the street and in one of the parking garages. Yes, there is a possibility that you would pay either way; if you parked in a garage or on the street. The city would also decide whether to charge all year long, or just on a seasonal basis.

Woman pressing plate number of car to pay parking ticket
payphoto
loading...

What do you think? Are you ok with the city of Bozeman charging to park downtown? Is this something you support? Make sure to vote in our poll below.

Credit: Bozeman Daily Chronicle

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

See the Must-Drive Roads in Every State

More From KMMS-KPRK 1450 AM