The Calgary Parking Authority is dropping downtown street parking rates slightly. (CBC)

Downtown street parking in Calgary will be slightly cheaper Monday, a move meant to encourage greater turnover.

Parking on prime downtown streets between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays currently costs $5 an hour for a maximum of two hours.

The Calgary Parking Authority is cutting that to $2 for the first half hour and $2.25 for the second half hour. The subsequent charge will remain at $5 an hour.

The prices are adjusted to reflect a softened market, said general manager Dale Fraser.

"This new pricing approach allows discounts on short-stay parking," he said. "We want reward to those drivers that park 60 minutes or less with reduced parking rates."

The changes are the results of a review of parking rates downtown that found people were parking on the street for an average of 58 minutes and the parking authority's rates were out of line with rates charged by private companies.

Rates on a handful of other streets with two-hour maximum parking will also go down slightly on Monday.

Parking on Fourth Street, Uptown 17th Avenue and in the Kensington area will go from $2.25 an hour to $1 for the first two half-hours and $2.25 for the second hour.

In the Beltline, parking will go from $3 an hour to $1.25 for the first 30 minutes, $1.50 for the second 30 minutes and $3 for the second hour.

More changes in January

On. Jan 4, monthly rates on three downtown parking lots will drop between $10 and $15. Hourly rates in the James Short and Centennial parkades will also drop 25 cents per half hour to $3.

The move will cost about $1.4 million a year in revenue. The parking authority took in $22.4 million in 2008 — $13.5 million of which went to the city for transit and road maintenance.

Maggie Schofield, executive director of the Downtown Calgary Association, said she realizes it isn't a huge price drop.

"I think this will be an encouragement. Time will tell, of course," she said. "We certainly heard when the rates went up this much that they were very unhappy, so hopefully this will turn some people around."

Parking prices went up at the start of 2009.

Hourly rates for street parking downtown increased by $1 to as much as $5 an hour, depending on location. For parkades, the rate increased to $6.50 from $6 an hour, and the monthly parking rate rose to as high as $465, up from $428.