By Forum Staff
City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Monday unveiled upgraded, modern parking meters that will rollout citywide. The meters’ new Pay-by-Plate technology is paperless and will allow users to enter their license plate number instead of displaying a receipt on their vehicle’s dashboard. Each year the city’s parking meters print roughly 2,500 miles worth of receipts – enough to stretch from New York City to Los Angeles. New Yorkers will be able to pay the meter at a kiosk or use the ParkNYC app. The upgraded meters will also help provide more short-term parking by improving parking enforcement. The meters will provide real-time data to NYPD traffic enforcement agents to help ensure vehicles don’t overstay the meter.
Beginning May 8, parking meters will gradually be upgraded to Pay-by-Plate operation, starting with meters in Northern Manhattan and gradually progressing South. The meter upgrades will continue to the rest of Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.
Once fully installed across all 80,000 of the city’s metered parking spaces, drivers will input their license plate number and state into an on-street parking meter and complete the payment. The process aligns with the payment system already in place via the ParkNYC app — the mobile payment application with over 1.8 million users. As with the app, transactions from the meters are instantaneously synced with the NYPD parking enforcement systems so that traffic agents can use handheld enforcement devices to easily identify which drivers have paid.
Throughout the city, parking meters issue approximately eight miles of paper receipts daily. The length of receipt rolls printed annually totals roughly 2,500 miles, the distance between NYC and Los Angeles. Transitioning to the Pay-by-Plate model curbs the carbon footprint, lessens maintenance and repair requirements, and contributes to cleaner streets with reduced litter.
Pay-by-Plate parking makes paying for parking easier than ever, according to Rodriguez, with drivers no longer needing to leave paper receipts on their dashboards. Retrofitted meters will include a large, modern full color, backlit display visible in all conditions that allows for the display of payment information and the entry of license plate information. Meters will have multiple language options and the opportunity for contactless Tap and Go credit card payments.
The Pay-by-Plate upgrade also helps eliminate the illegal practice of transferring parking time to a different zone or vehicle via paper receipt.
“Our new pay-by-plate parking meters are simple to use and will make short-term parking easier for everyone,” Rodriguez said. “Drivers will no longer need to worry about leaving a paper receipt on their dashboard and can use the convenience of the ParkNYC app to pay the meter while on the go.”
Detailed information on the deployment schedule, how to use the meters, as well as other parking information can be found at nyc.gov/paythemeter. In addition, the location of metered blockfaces across New York City can be found at nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/parking-rates.shtml#parkingratemap.
“Incorporating evolving, smart technology into New York City’s parking management system will enhance drivers’ experiences,” said City Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “This will be achieved by maximizing space availability and increasing turnover. Importantly, it will facilitate the important work of our dedicated traffic enforcement agents and support our city’s overall public-safety mission.”
