Pay-by-plate parking meters replacing traditional paper receipts in NYC

With Earth Day approaching, the city’s Department of Transportation acknowledges that it may not eliminate every car from the streets, but it's embracing a new long-term strategy to aid the environment with the introduction of pay-by-plate parking meters, - Spectrum news NY1 writes.

“We’ve been printing so many receipt papers as part of payment for meters that if we put all of them together we could go from here to [Los Angeles],” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said.

Since the full implementation of digital meters in 2015, which replaced the less eco-friendly coin meters, the annual average of users has steadily increased. A staggering 1.8 million New Yorkers have already embraced the ParkNYC app, which operates in a similar manner. It  syncs the meter or app transactions with NYPD parking enforcement systems, allowing agents to easily identify whether vehicles have paid by plate number.
 

“So this is also not only saving time for people who have to park at the meters,” Rodriguez said. “Helping small businesses because there will be more rotation.”  This is due to the inability to transfer receipts to another vehicle or extend parking time beyond the limit, as transactions are linked to license plates.

Gone are the days of struggling with malfunctioning card readers; the new meters offer tap-and-pay functionality. Despite the option to skip receipts, they are still available upon request.

However, some drivers remain cautious about the transition to a paperless system. “I put it in any way, just in case,” Hector Serrano, a driver, said. “Because you never know with these people. They might give you a ticket, anyway. I’m not taking a chance.”

The rollout of the new meters will commence on May 8 in Washington Heights, gradually expanding southward to Manhattan and eventually covering all 80,000 parking spaces across the city.