Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Take your paid parking time with you

From the NY Post:

City drivers are about to get a rare parking break.

The City Council is set to fast-track new legislation that would allow drivers to use unexpired muni-meter time at multiple spots citywide without the worry of being ticketed, The Post has learned.

The new bill — which has the key support of both Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Mayor Bloomberg — would let drivers purchase time from a muni-meter on a street anywhere in the city, keep the receipt and then continue to use any remaining amount on another street. Still, the transferred parking time must be for spaces with meter rates that are the same as or less than the rates of the location in which the parking time was purchased.

The bill — the subject of a council hearing April 23 — comes in response to a Post report in September that found city agencies had wildly different opinions over whether the practice is legal because the current rules are so vague.

For example, the Department of Transportation claims drivers can already transfer the remaining “time” over to other parking spaces.

But NYPD traffic agents routinely slap summons on drivers who try this tactic — and city Finance Department judges usually side with the agents.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope this also applies to commercial zone parking in Manhattan, where the minimum time purchase is one hour, currently at $4.00. Spend 10 minutes on a block and drive a few blocks down, another $4 please, even if only for a few minutes. A giant scam.