Separate arrangements apply for residents. A fee is charged for parking in shopping streets also on Saturdays. A fee is payable in car parks at all times. Parking meters take ordinary coins or parking cards, which can be purchased in advance from R-kioski retail kiosks and service stations. Scratch the card to reveal the year, date, weekday, month, hour and minute at which you park the car and leave the card where it can be seen, for example inside the windscreen on the pavement side.
Traffic wardens come by frequently, especially in the very centre.
Clamping has not yet been introduced in Helsinki, and vehicles are towed away only in extreme cases. There are several parking lots in the centre, such as at the Makkaratalo building in front of the Railway Station, at the Forum shopping mall and the Stockmann department store. There are some places where cards are no good, such as the parking lots at Finlandia Hall and the University Central Hospital, so be sure to have coins along. Watch out at intersections There are about 400 intersections with traffic lights in the city and lights operate quite reliably. Nevertheless, the intersections can be accident-prone, traffic lights or not.