Monday, May 10, 2010

Money on the Meter

From the NY Times:

Q. I live in Forest Hills, Queens. On Austin Street, we have Muni-Meter parking machines, and we place the vouchers on our windshields for the time period paid for. If I then move my car to Metropolitan Avenue to a spot where there is an individual meter, do I have to put money in that meter if I have remaining time on my voucher from Austin Street?

A. Yes.

“Receipts purchased at Muni-Meters for display on your dashboard are good only on the same side of the street where the Muni-Meter is located,” Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman, said in an e-mail message. “They’re not valid at other locations.”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

How can one tell? Are the receipts coded?

Anonymous said...

Anon-1 did not look at the question carefully. The question was whether a Muni-meter reciept could be used in lieu of depositing coins into an old-style coin-op meter after parking a car at a new location. I would think that would be an obvious "no".

As for the new spot being also being a muni-meter, (a) they are coded but (b) the nearest Muni-meter may not be working so you may need to use "the one on the other side of the street". So I think the police spokesman overstated the limitation.

Anonymous said...

This system is a joke.


There is only ONE reason they went to this system.

Old meter earnings would max out at 25c for each 30min (as example) block of time. So thats 50c an hour, for 10 hours of operation. Meaning a space can only earn the city $5 a day.

Now, as people leave the spot before using all that time, they can now charge again for the same time when a new person parks. That paid-for but unused time remaining is lost.

Now they can get $7-$10 a day, per space, without providing additional services.


If anyone from the city claims their reasoning was anything but this, they are lying.

Anonymous said...

Old meter earnings would max out at 25c for each 30min (as example) block of time. So thats 50c an hour, for 10 hours of operation. Meaning a space can only earn the city $5 a day.

But what happens when there's 15 mins left and you want to leave your car there for an hour? You put in more quarters and still over-pay. I agree with you in principle, though, it's about revenue; now you can squeeze in more cars per-block, so more revenue. And if the city rally wanted to make it fair, they would allow nickles and dimes, instead of forsing you to walk around with a sack of quaters. I'm so glad I don't have to drive to work.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention they made no provision for motorcyclists when installing these muni-meters. There is no way to affix the receipt to a bike.

panzer65 said...

Make the Muni's accept dollar bills!!

Anonymous said...

Gridlock Sam disagrees with the spokesman: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/traffic/2009/06/18/2009-06-18_traffic_forecast_for_june_18_2009.html