- White zones; you can park free. Very rare..

- Blue zones(parking with blue lines); you can park here for a limited time. There should be a sign in the street which tells you for how many hours. You need the blue disc for this parking, which should show your arrival time. Mostly after 6 pm till 9 am, you can park aslong as you want. Often these rules also apply in the weekend.

- For blue zones you can request a parkingpermit. Do realise; often more permits are handed out then there are available parking spots.

The fines:

Parking outside a valid parking spot: 120 CHF,  after getting to know your car they will sometimes give you a 40 CHF fine. Very generous ;)

Parking time expired in blue zone: 40 CHF

The parking officers in Switzerland are among the most highly motivated employees in the world. Never bet on getting lucky.

As you are shipping a car I guess you might have foreign plates.Till 2,5 years ago I had Dutch plates. Parking fines were never send to the address it was registered in The Netherlands. Parking tickets are handled locally, speedings tickets are a national matter and WILL arrive.

Parking fines were never send to the address it was registered in The Netherlands.

I've heard that if/when you bring the vehicle to the SAN facility for the inspection (to get Swiss plates), those accumulated fines will suddenly become an issue.

Ah, I have no idea, I had my car destroyed. So I suppose that would be an option in such case.

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for the detailed reply that has helped loads :-) Can I ask where I get a permit from for the blue zones? and also does anyone know about underground parking? there is a car park not far but unsure how this works and if it is for a limitied time period again?

the fondation de parkings hands out the macaron permit for unlimited parking in blue spaces -- however you get the permit for the zone you live in on an annual basis. you usually have to show your permis with the address you're registered at with the cantonal authorities or your lease if you have a federally issued permit (international civil servants).  If you're not sure where you're going to live yet you may want to wait to get it.

http://www.ge.ch/parkings/ 

ps the same fondation de parkings sells spaces in the underground public lots.  they are as expensive as getting a space in a building so again, you might want to wait to see if parking comes with the evetnual apartment you find.

You might consider leaving it at a train station outside of Geneva until a better solution comes along.  A one month abo at Versoix is 50Sfr, for example.

If you have a French registered car the fines do get through, plus an admin fee which is almost as big as the fine. There are rumours about the Swiss fitting number plate recognition systems to spot cars with unpaid fines coming throught the customs points. Still with usual Swiss speed don't expect this to be operational in the short term.

Things can be a bit arbitary too. At work I got a 40 CHF fine plus 30CHF costs for parking my motorbike which overlapped another bay (all other bikes badly parked). Yet there is a colleague of mine who has bought an enormous BMW 4x4 which doesn't even fit in a bay, the front overlaps into the road by at least a meter, and he never had any problems.

thanks so much for all your replies..... can i just quickly ask probably some stupid questions but just want to clarify as much as possible before I park the car!

the white zones i presume if I'm luck enough to find one its unlimited parking?

blue zones - how do I know if they are free at weekends/evenings etc? and do I still need to a permit to park in these hours?

thanks again for all your help much appreciated :-)

Hey Lindsay!

I also was new to Geneva 6 months ago and with a car. After getting the first (and thankfully the last) fine I quickly learned all the parking rules:-)

First thing is when you see the parking area (white, blue doesn't matter), you should look for a parking sigh (which is a rather small plate on a stick somewhere at the edge of the parking zone) - all the information is there: allowed parking time (blue zones are for 90 minutes or less int he city center), days and time of validity - from 8a.m. to 7p.m. and from Monday to Saturday (after 7p.m. and until 8 a.m. and on Sundays parking if free and unlimited everywhere and you don't need any permit to park at this time).

If the time is not stated at the blue zone - it's 90 minutes, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

At the white zones sometimes there are also signs (so not all white zones are free and unlimited) of time allowed which is more than in blue zones (2-3 hours), but I highly doubt that you will find free white zones in the city center:-( (there is often a problem with blue ones too). If there is no sign at the white zone - it's free and unlimited!

Good luck!

And don't forget your parking disk, state the time of arrival. What you allowed to do is, for example, if you came at 4:40 p.m. you can already state 5 p.m.

Thats wrong. You have to state the closest half hour, which in this case is 430 pm. Nothing stops you from putting 5pm though if there are no traffic wardens nearby :)

Blue zone is 60 minutes and not 90... at least in the Old Town!

About the blue zone : I quote the official website :  *La flèche doit être placée sur le trait qui suit celui de l’heure d’arrivée effective*

The arrow shall be placed on the line following the actual arrival time.

Hi! Do they put a ticket on your front window or just send the ticket by post without notice beforehand? Until now I was convinced to have been getting lucky so far, (since 2 weeks living and parking in Plainpalais where it`s basically impossible to get a legal parking spot). But when I read all of your warnings I`m starting to get some doubts...

They put a ticket in the front window. And when it rains, they even put it in a small plastic envelope so it doesnt get wet :P

In case of any doubt if you were in luck: Within about 2 to 4 weeks, they will provide you a copy by post with an orange payment slip.

In case you decide not to pay, the fine will go up quickly and after 6 months end up with the "office des poursuites". After ignoring their request to pay, they will contact your employer and they will withhold it from your salary.

Yup! I don't use this trick very often, escpecially in the city center where they can check every 5 minutes!:-)

Hello! This is a great thread - I just wanted to add one more thing for any other people reading it later like me :) Some blue zones are restricted to certain days/hours and other days/hours can get you towed. :-o There is an area near our apartment (near Rue de la Prairie, by Parc Geisendorf) that I thought I could park in because it is Zone K (our zone) blue spaces. But there is a small addition to the Zone K sign - underneath there is a smallll icon of a tow truck with "Mar, Jeu 2-14h" or something on it. It means you will be towed if you are parked there during those times because there is a street market that sets up shop on those days.

I don't know if this is the case in other places, but I look carefully now at the signs for the blue zones before parking! Thankfully my story has a happy ending, as every Swiss is born a little policeman - as I was parking, some man in another car drove up and started honking and pointing and waving emphatically. V. thankful for him and for figuring it out :)

Well, the Swiss did used to be very law-abiding citizens, even if things have relaxed somewhat in recent years.

I can remember a passer-by shouting and waving his fist at me when I crossed the road against a red light even though there wasn’t a car in sight in any direction and still wasn’t when I’d reached the next intersection.  I guess he just stood there, all alone, until the light did eventually turn green.

R. 

I often see CD plate cars parked without any parking ticket. Are CD cars exempt from parking fines in Geneva?

No they are not!

Hi,  there are  also  P+R   around Geneva,  you  pay  for  one  month  ,you  park  and  have  bus free  ride.

Quick question if you park in an area for an hour and then come back to your car and park in a nearby space for another hour is that ok. 

I wouldn't count on it.  If the nearby space is in the same street you could get fined for "rénouvellement de ticket de parking".  The P+R gestapo is particularly zealous on this point -- they are eager to find any excuse to milk money out of you.

If the free space is on another street, I guess it's ok.

Should anyone have other information about it (better with a link to a webpage) please don't hesitate to post.

Hi All,
Thanks to all who provided valuable information.
Can you get a permit for blue zones based on your address for a car with a foreign license plate or only once you're on Swiss plates?
Apart from the blue zones, what's the best part to rent a parking spot in Geneva, in the Servette, Saconnet area?
Thank you all!

> Can you get a permit for blue zones based on your address for a car with a foreign license plate or only once you're on Swiss plates?

It seems that you need to have GE plates, because the carte grise (the vehicle documentation) must mention your address in Geneva -- which won't be the case if you've got a foreign license plate i.e. a foreign carte grise.

Source: http://www.ge.ch/parkings/macarons/macarons-zones-bleues.asp

But you may try to ask, perhaps they'll accept your application based on the address on your rent contract.

Thanks for your answer i'm going to play the long game and see how long it takes me to get another ticket. Hopefully find a garage soon. 

I thought so too but gave it a go anyway thinking, it's Geneva, they're hardly going to say no to taking money off you. And proved right!

I've just got my permit even though my car is on foreign plates. They've accepted the rental contract (and my residence permit) as sufficient proof of address.

I think they (Fondation de Parking) also have a list of available private parking spots but it's not exaustive, e.g. they don't seem to have anything near Servette when I asked.

What I was going to try (had I not got the permit) is sticking ads on entrances to buldings next door to me as there is a private parking which is permanently half empty hoping that I could rent one from someone.

I would keep an eye on glocals classifieds too as occasionaly parking spaces come with rented appartments and people without a car would rent them out.

> gave it a go anyway thinking, it's Geneva, they're hardly going to say no to taking money off you.

Good thinking!

In Homegate and other similar websites, there are also ads for parking spots and car boxes to rent.

hi, if you go to the advertising section you will find parkings for rent ( or send me a message)

Thanks for the useful reminder despite this being a somewhat elderly thread.

Also, just to avoid any possible confusion, the correct name of the tab of what you call the “advertising section” is “Classifieds”.

All the best, R.