Don’t feed the meter — there’s an app for that.
Motorists at all 85,000 metered parking spots in the city will be able to pay the meter from their smartphone by the end of this year, Mayor de Blasio plans to announce in his State of the City address.
Drivers will download an app and sign up with their credit card and license plate number, then punch in the muni meter number to pay with a click.
That means they can add money from anywhere — instead of having to run back to the car to feed the meter when it’s about to expire.
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“No more fumbling for change or scrambling to the meter to beat a ticket. This is a 21st century upgrade that is going to make parking a lot more convenient,” de Blasio said.
The idea has been tried out at 321 parking spaces in the Belmont section of the Bronx, but is set for an expansion to all 13,700 meters across the five boroughs.
The city has already launched a plan for all members of the NYPD, including parking enforcement agents, to get tablets, which will make the new program possible. Agents will see a list of all the license plates paid up for a particular meter then match cars on the street to those numbers.
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Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said the high-tech method will come with another bonus — drivers who don’t use all the time they’ve paid for will be able to get a partial refund. The app will also give warnings when the meter is about to expire.
“It’s pay for what you use, which I think will be popular,” she said.
Pay by phone apps are already in use in several other cities.
Officials say launching the new system won’t cost the city money because the tablets were being bought anyway, and the app is being designed for free by a private developer.
Lower-tech customers will still have the option to pay at the meter and print out a receipt to put on their car.
“You can still pay with quarters,” Trottenberg said. “You can still do this the older way if you want to.”
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Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg had announced in his last days in office that pay by phone parking was on the way, but it hasn’t happened, in part because cops didn’t have the tablets they’re now getting.
Rates for metered parking will stay the same, officials said.
Marco Chirico, who owns the restaurants Enoteca on Court and Marco Polo Ristorante in Brooklyn, said he hoped the new app would entice customers to linger longer and order more instead of running off to avoid a ticket from an expiring meter.
“They say, ‘Oh, sorry, I’ve got to feed the meter,'” he said. “It’s going to give people a little more time.”
