Visiting the University of Wisconsin-Madison means deciding where to leave the car before you walk onto campus. UW Transportation Services runs the campus parking system, and it splits visitor parking into two clear options: gated garages and ramps where you pull a ticket and pay on the way out, and ParkMobile surface-lot stalls where you pay by app.
This guide follows what UW Transportation Services publishes on its official visitor parking page and rates page, verified October 2026. Rates and enforcement hours change by academic year, so check the live pages before you drive in.
Parking Garages and Ramps: Pull a Ticket, Pay on Exit
The main way to park for a campus visit is a gated garage or ramp. When you arrive, you pull a ticket at the gate and keep it with you. Before you leave, you pay at a pay-on-foot kiosk, a card reader, or with a validation from the department or event you are visiting.
Garages are spread across campus, and the right one depends on where you are headed. Named visitor garages include the Grainger Hall Garage (Lot 7), Helen C. White Garage (Lot 6), the Lake and Johnson Ramp (Lot 46), the North Park Street Ramp (Lot 29), the Engineering Drive Ramp (Lot 17), the Linden Drive Garage (Lot 67), and the Fluno Center Garage (Lot 83).
The University Bay Drive Ramp (Lot 76) and the UW Hospital Ramp (Lot 75) serve the west side of campus and the hospital.
Current availability can shift quickly, so before you drive in, check the interactive campus map or the parking availability tool. If a lot is full or closed for an event or construction, try another location rather than circling one garage.
What It Costs: Garage Rates
Campus garage visitor parking is billed in two bands. The daytime rate is $1 per 30 minutes for the first three hours, then $1 per hour after that, with a $15 daytime session maximum. The evening and weekend rate is a flat $1 per hour, with a $5 evening session maximum.
Enforcement hours vary from garage to garage. Most campus garages apply the daytime rate from 7:00 a.m. to 4:29 p.m. and the evening rate from 4:30 p.m. to 11:59 p.m., with the overnight hours from midnight to 6:59 a.m. free. Some garages enforce parking seven days a week and only the overnight window is free.
The rates page lists the exact schedule for every lot, so check your garage’s column before you commit to a stay.
If you lose your ticket, the garages charge a $20 lost-ticket fee, so hold onto it until you have paid. Departments and event hosts can also validate parking, which reduces or covers the cost, so ask the office you are visiting whether validation is available.
Surface Lots and ParkMobile
Not every visit needs a garage. Many campus surface lots have ParkMobile stalls where visitors pay by app for a shorter stay. Time limits range from 25 minutes to three hours, so read the stall sign before you start a session.
ParkMobile stall pricing is simple. The 25-minute stalls cost $0.65 for each 25-minute block, and the 2-, 3-, 4-, and 8-hour stalls cost $1.50 per hour. To pay, open the ParkMobile app and enter the four-digit zone code posted on the stall sign. Sessions on campus cannot be extended, so set enough time up front rather than trying to add minutes later.
If you do not have ParkMobile yet, you can set up an account through the app, by phone, or on the ParkMobile website before you arrive. The app will not charge you outside a lot’s enforcement hours, so an evening or weekend surface stay may cost nothing at all.
Two special surface-lot cases are worth knowing. The Picnic Point lot (Lot 130) charges $1 per 30 minutes for the first three hours, then $1 per hour, with a $13 maximum. Motorcycle stalls in surface lots follow a similar pattern of $1 per 30 minutes for the first three hours, then $1 per hour, capped at $15.
Free After-Hours Parking
The most useful parking fact for an evening or weekend visit is that many campus surface lots are free after hours. Parking is complimentary from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Monday through Friday, and all day on Saturdays and Sundays, in the lots marked green on the campus parking map.
Always check the lot entrance sign and the individual stall sign.
You must still display a valid permit when parking in accessible, reserved, service, or vendor stalls, even during the free window.
Accessible Parking on Campus
Accessible parking is available in every UW campus garage and the University Hospital garages, so a disabled placard or plate gets you into the structure closest to your destination.
In surface lots, a vehicle with a valid state-issued disabled permit or DIS/VET DIS plates can use designated accessible stalls, and can also park in a ParkMobile stall with a posted time limit of 30 minutes or more without paying an extra fee.
One timing note: during the work week before 4:30 p.m., most accessible parking in surface lots is limited, and the campus directs you toward the garages, where accessible stalls are more plentiful. Our Madison accessible parking guide explains how those permits work across the city.
Special Events and Game Days
Visitor parking rates are the everyday price, and event days override them.
When the campus reserves lots for special events, visitors may have limited or no parking options, and event organizers may require a special event parking permit instead of the regular visitor rate.
If you are coming to campus for a Badgers football game, a Kohl Center event, or another large gathering, check the parking calendar before you drive. Our Madison game-day and event parking guide covers the event-rate garages and which ones fill first.
Longer Visits and Motorcycles
A single-day visit is the easy case. If you are on campus repeatedly, UW Transportation Services also sells daily and monthly permits for longer stays, and its permit system covers students, staff, and regular campus visitors.
Two-wheel visitors have their own rules. Motorcycles may park in designated motorcycle stalls in certain garages or in ParkMobile surface stalls, one motorcycle per stall. Garages with motorcycle lanes include Grainger Hall, Helen C.
White, the Engineering Drive Ramp, the North Park Street Ramp, the Lake and Johnson Ramp, the Linden Drive Garage, the UW Hospital Ramp, the University Bay Drive Ramp, and the Fluno Center Garage. Mopeds are not allowed in campus garages; during enforcement hours they must use a ParkMobile surface stall, and outside enforcement hours they can use open moped lots at no cost.
Before You Go: A Quick Checklist
Run through a few steps before you leave the house. Check the visitor parking page for current availability and any construction or event closures. Decide whether a garage or a ParkMobile surface stall fits your stay, and budget for the session maximum so you are not surprised at the exit kiosk.
Plan for the enforcement window. A visit that lands after 4:30 p.m. on a weekday, or on a weekend, can often use a free green-lot surface space instead of a paid garage. And if anything is unclear, the Transportation Services customer office at 610 Walnut Street can be reached at (608) 263-6666.
UW-Madison sets its rates by academic year, and event rates and construction closures change with the season, so treat this as a starting point. The visitor parking page and rates page are the authoritative, up-to-date sources.
