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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Council Okays Bill to Reform Muni Meters

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The New York City Council Wednesday approved legislation to further reform the Muni Meter parking system across the five boroughs. This legislation requires the city Department of Transportation to reprogram its Muni Meters so that drivers can pay for parking up to one hour before the regulation begins and to prevent the machine from accepting money when it is out of receipt paper or after the parking regulation has ended for the day.

The bill was unanimously approved at yesterday’s City Council’s Transportation Committee, leading to today’s vote by the entire Council. It was introduced in the City Council last month and also has the strong support of Speaker Christine Quinn, Transportation Chair James Vacca, and 20 other council members who cosponsored the bill. This legislation represents the latest the City Council has taken to reform the Muni Meter system to make it fairer and more convenient for everyone who drives in New York City.

“This important legislation will help eliminate unfair tickets for drivers and represents an important step towards fixing our parking system,” said Councilman David G. Greenfield.

“Today we’re making sure no New Yorker or no tourist will pay a Muni-Meter when they don’t have to,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a press conference, according to the Staten Island Advance.

Meters in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island can immediately be reprogramed once the relevant law takes effect 90 days following today’s City Council vote. Some older meters that cannot be immediately reprogramed, including the majority of those in Manhattan, are required to meet the new standards within two years of the date the bill is enacted.

According to the Staten Island Advance, with the current system in place, drivers can lose lots of money really quickly—all while trying to abide by the law. They will pay the money at the muni meter only to find that a receipt is not printed, so they search for more coins and another meter during the next couple of minutes—in which time they are likely to get ticketed by cops. The net result—if they can’t find another meter or money, for example—might be no parking spot and the money they sank into the meter and will sink into the parking ticket. For this reason—coupled with the fact that meters take money even during off hours—many have dubbed the current situation as the “great Muni-Meter scam of New York City.”

There are roughly 13,00 muni-meters throughout the city, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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