The days of free parking at the Pleasant Hill BART station will end Feb. 22.

A $1 daily parking fee will be required of anyone who parks at the station between 4 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays, BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver said. Parking remains free there at other times.

New parking fees at eight stations, including Pleasant Hill, were approved by the BART board in May. The fee collection is being phased in one station at a time.

Train riders can pay the fee by cash or with their blue-striped BART tickets, but paying that way requires riders to remember their parking stall number and punch it into the parking validation machine inside the fare gates. Otherwise, riders risk getting parking tickets.

An easier payment method is to use the BART EZ Rider card, train system operators say.

Riders can touch the card on a sensor on an EZ Rider parking validation machine inside the station and the $1 fee is deducted automatically from the rider's credit card account.

EZ Rider card holders also must display a plastic hang tag inside their car to identify themselves to BART parking ticket enforcement officers.

Information about obtaining the EZ Rider card is available online at https://ezrider.bart.gov.

Carpool users and riders of other transit systems will continue to be allowed to park at the Pleasant Hill BART garage — but they must start paying the $1 daily fee as well.

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Earlier this year, BART started collecting the $1 parking fees at the Pittsburg-Bay Point and El Cerrito del Norte stations.

BART will add the fees in May at the San Leandro and Bay Fair train stations, and fee collection will begin at the Richmond station when a parking garage is finished there.

BART will add the fees at the Concord and South Hayward stations when the parking lots there fill up three days a week, BART's standard for implementing parking fees, Salaver said.

Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Read the Capricious Commuter blog at www.ibabuzz.com/transportation.