Users will enter their license plate number instead of displaying a paper receipt on their vehicle’s dashboard
Convenient technology will be easier to use and will save enough paper each year to stretch from New York City to Los Angeles
New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today 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.
Starting May 8, 2024, 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 New York City 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, 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.
In addition to these improvements to the City’s meter system, NYC DOT encourages the use of the ParkNYC mobile app, which eliminates the need to pay at a parking meter. Learn more about ParkNYC online, or download the app on your smart device.
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 on the NYC DOT webpage.
The Pay-by-Plate meters are part of the Adams administration’s Curb Management Action Plan to maximize use of the city’s curb space to serve the varied needs of New Yorkers, including improving mobility, access, and the flow of people, goods, and services.
