Following in the footsteps of Chicago, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Harrisburg PA, and other cities, NYC is considering leasing NYC parking meters to an outside company. This private company would ideally leverage current technology to:
- reduce congestion and get you to your parking spot faster using real-time NYC street parking occupancy data from companies like Streetline,
- bring in more revenue with remote payment options via telephone, text, or online.
What would the NYC government still do?
- Issue and enforce NYC parking tickets,
- Set NYC parking meter rates,
Issuing and adjudicating NYC parking tickets would not be included in this plan and would stay in the hands of NYC government.
Right now, there are 7,800 muni-meters in Manhattan (1 meter per block for multiple spaces, accepts coins and credit cards) and 31,000 single-space coin-operated meters in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island. In 2011, these NYC parking meters brought in $149 million in revenue. These meters take payments for 82,000 metered parking spaces.
Read all about it from the Reason Foundation.
