Grace period for time expiration for parking meters

R

redcardigan

New Member
Jurisdiction
New York
I drove to visit my doctor and paid for parking at the electronic meter machine and got a receipt. The wait at the office was intolerable and I ended up coming out two minutes after the time expired on my ticket. New York City is broke and there was a meter maid writing up a ticket literally 2 minutes after it expired. He said once he started he had to write the entire ticket. I still got a ticket from the machine anyway because I recall hearing from someone that there is some type of grace period that New York City allows. My parking ticket said it was 4 minutes after the previous one expired. Is there a 5 minute grace period for getting another ticket from the machine?
 
Most grace periods are informal, NYC actually seems to have codified theirs.

"Drivers have a 5-minute grace period for parking meter and Alternate Side Parking zones. The law gives drivers an extra 5 minutes past the expired time on the parking meter receipt and Alternate Side Parking signs.

During the grace period, parking tickets cannot be issued"

 
Apparently (based on Foamback's response) NYC is different from every other city in which I've lived. In every place I've lived there is no grace period whatsoever. If you've used your hour (or whatever the time was) you've overstayed your spot and may be given a ticket the instant the time expires. Parking Enforcement doesn't have to do that, of course, but in my city the officer writing the ticket usually does not know how long the meter has expired so all the expired ones get the ticket. If you meet the officer while the citation is being written then the officer sometimes uses discretion and will let you slide without a ticket, as long as you promptly move the car. And in some cities where I've lived with busy shopping districts, it's illegal to feed the meter because they want to be able to accommodate all the people coming in and can't have anyone hogging meter space. So anyone feeding the meter gets citied in those cities. If the meter was broken and didn't give you your full time, that was one defense the cities would accept, if you had some proof to back up your claim.

In short, it's best not to rely on any informal grace period that you hear about. And in your case, you were cutting it really fine with the the NYC grace period. I basically treat a meter ticket like a parking garage fee. It may be expensive parking, but that's just the cost of parking in high demand areas like the downtown or major shopping districts of a big city. So I pay it and move on. For me, it is literally not worth my time to challenge the ticket when I can be using that time for client work which pays far more than the fine for the meter violation.
 
Tax Counsel said:
but in my city the officer writing the ticket usually does not know how long the meter has expired so all the expired ones get the ticket.
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I think that what OP is speaking about is called Muni-Meters in NYC. There are no parking meters along the street anymore or in parking lots. Instead, there is a digital kiosk located on the street or in municipal parking lots where you pay by various means such as credit card, currency, or through a smart phone app. You take the receipt and place it inside your car on the dashboard by the driver-side front window displaying the time it will expire.

The length of time you can pay for at one time varies by borough and neighborhoods (1-12 hours).
 
Many cities are using phone based parking metering. In fact most don't even require kiosk or a ticket, just registering a license plate. Parking enforcement drives around with a plate reader
 
Yep, that's how I pay for parking on those days when I take the train to work. Even in my little New England village.
 
My city still uses physical parking meters but now augmented with the ability to take credit/debit cards for payment in addition to using coins. The meters even have little solar panels on the top to power them. But my city is also one that, like a few other Western big cities (started, I think, in San Francisco and LA which is not surprising), is faced with a movement to require the government and most places of business open to the public to continue to accept cash to help those indigent people who don't have the money, credit, or tools (like cell phones) needed to use cashless payment systems. The city would like to save money going all cashless, but politics are interfering with that.

The system Welkin describes sounds like a very efficient one. It would also give the municipal government easy evidence to support the parking citation if a driver chose to challenge the tickets, especially if those writing the tickets use hand held computers to register the violation and print out the ticket to slap on the windshield. Ideally both the parking payment box and the ticket writing computers are on the same system using the exact same time. That would eliminate the squabbles over how much time the driver paid for, how long the car was there, and what time the ticket was issued. Maybe one day my city will have that kind of system too, once political activists get over the cash fixation and instead put in more work to provide accessible means for the indigent to get some kind of debit/prepaid card to use.
 
Foamback said:
Many cities are using phone based parking metering. In fact most don't even require kiosk or a ticket, just registering a license plate. Parking enforcement drives around with a plate reader
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That's what I see private parking lots around here starting to use. A popular one here has QR codes on the signs for each space. You scan the QR code which registers the time you started parking, and then enter the license plate number and payment info for the amount of time you want. Then the driver gets reminder notices on his/her phone when the time is about to expire and offering the option to buy more time. No need to go back to the lot for that.
 
The problems using cashless, credit card, debit card, or other digital modes of paying for goods and services extends beyond indigent peoples. It disenfranchises and discriminates against people without the technology to use such payment methods. There are plenty of people that don't use CC's or debit cards, or smart phones to pay for services or goods.

Not everyone has or wants a smart phone. I am one of those people that does not own or want a smart phone. I have a flip phone for texting and messaging and calling and that is it. It doesn't download apps. It doesn't read QR codes, and it doesn't connect to an internet site unless I let it which I rarely do. I have a desktop computer in my office that I use to pay bills online. I don't want my financial obligations following me wherever I go. And I don't want the incessant messages, emails, and advertisement that come with a smart phone. And I find that I am being increasingly disenfranchised as a consumer because I don't have a smart phone.

A perfect example are the digital coupons that have emerged in supermarkets. You download the store app on your phone, and you get to enjoy a substantial discount on a product that others are not offered. Some stores have setup kiosks in the store where you can add the digital coupon to your store card and in some cases, stores will give you a refund of the difference in price after checkout if you go to the customer service counter.

New Jersey has a bill pending that requires that stores offer paper coupon that match the digital coupons, at the point of sale, but it is not a law yet.

Old habits die hard. But I will still be standing when the rest of the digital world crashes. :D
 
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Foamback said:
Most grace periods are informal, NYC actually seems to have codified theirs.

"Drivers have a 5-minute grace period for parking meter and Alternate Side Parking zones. The law gives drivers an extra 5 minutes past the expired time on the parking meter receipt and Alternate Side Parking signs.

During the grace period, parking tickets cannot be issued"

Click to expand...
A huge thank you @Foamback !!!!

I heard this was the rule but couldn't find it. This is also a great discussion that contains valuable information applicable to many situations.

In New York City we still have some of the old parking meters but now we have these electronic ones and take credit cards. They don't always work properly. I need to learn how to use their parking app which I find confusing. As @welkin says, some of us aren't very good with apps and smartphones. I do appreciate what is happening and we can't always stay in the past but the instructions are often terrible and badly implemented.
 
welkin said:
The problems using cashless, credit card, debit card, or other digital modes of paying for goods and services extends beyond indigent peoples. It disenfranchises and discriminates against people without the technology to use such payment methods. There are plenty of people that don't use CC's or debit cards, or smart phones to pay for services or goods.
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You're right, it is a problem that extends beyond just the indigent. In particularly the elderly are less likely to be familiar with and use smart phones and some of the other recent tech advances. They tend to feel more comfortable with the tech they used when they were younger. I recall trying to set up e-mail for my step grandmother about 20 years ago. At the time she was nearly 90 and she was just entirely confused and lost about it even with me helping her. Her retirement facility offered classes to teach seniors that stuff and maybe she would have benefited from the ongoing help they offered those who participated. She did like the cell phone I got for her, but it was not a smart phone. This was the pre-iPhone era when smart phones were clumsy and unintuitive to use. So I got for her the old style cell phone with a text message feature tacked on to it (which she also never figured out) instead of the early smart phones. That cell phone I gave here resembled the land line phones she was used to using for decades and worked pretty much the same way, except that now she could call from anywhere, not just home.

The disabled may also have trouble using that tech without some kind of adaptation to accommodate their disability.

I think there are solutions that may work for at least most of these people that involve using something other than cash. Developers need to get used to including these people in their designs for stuff like payment systems that everyone has to be able to access to have the same opportunities as everyone else. I think that the advocates in my area that are only focusing on preserving cash as an option are missing the bigger picture. Cash is slowly going the way of the dinosaur for many transactions, and we need to have alternatives so that everyone can enjoy the full range of goods and services out there.
 
Tax Counsel said:
Cash is slowly going the way of the dinosaur for many transactions,
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There was a time long ago when I avoided using credit cards because I just didn't like getting the bill, even though I was able to pay the whole thing without paying interest. I paid cash for stuff or wrote checks.

I threw spare change in a jar and when the jar got full (about $200) I'd roll them and take them to the bank. Haven't had any coins in a couple of years now.

Time marched on and eventually I discovered that credit cards were offering cash rewards and sign on bonuses. I quickly adapted and now the banks pay me to use their money.

More time passes and now I pay my bills online, transfer money from account to account, and even deposit checks by taking a picture of it.

I have a roll of forever stamps from a few years ago that I might last me for years.

I carry a few 20 dollar bills in my pocket just in case but the same bills have been in there for a couple of years now.

Tax Counsel said:
we need to have alternatives so that everyone can enjoy the full range of goods and services out there.
Click to expand...

Here's my solution. Every child, at birth, is implanted with an electronic device for the handling of monetary transactions. It can operate by touch and Wi-Fi. The government will provide the implants for the indigent and anybody else who wants one. As older generations die off, eventually everybody will be connected financially with more efficiency than now.

With that system in place, nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go..........
 
It's been a while since I read them but I seem to remember Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Line series envisioning everyone being issued an ID bracelet that functioned similarly to Jack's implants.

I use the system Foamback describes regularly but it's really more geared for regular participants. I have the app on my phone which I can use anywhere that uses that particular system (which has locations in the US, Canada, and four countries in Europe) but someone who needed a place to park for one day that is not likely to be repeated may find it annoying.

I've also seen the system Welkin describes, but at least in the location I saw, you had a choice; you didn't have to use a credit card, smart phone or even a dumb one; if you wanted to drop coins in the box that corresponded to the specific parking space you were parked in, that was fine. Or, if you preferred the smart capabilities, that was fine too.
 
adjusterjack said:
Here's my solution. Every child, at birth, is implanted with an electronic device for the handling of monetary transactions. It can operate by touch and Wi-Fi. The government will provide the implants for the indigent and anybody else who wants one. As older generations die off, eventually everybody will be connected financially with more efficiency than now.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'd fancy what the upgrade process would be for that chip and what that would cost. :p
 
adjusterjack said:
When the digital apocalypse comes, your flip phone won't work either. ;)
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But at least I will have paper receipts of payments and deposits to prove that bills were paid. :) When I pay bills online with a CC or I transfer money from one account to another, I always print out the conformation page and put it in the proper file.

I am well aware that the time will come where I no longer will have the choice and will have to submit to owning a smart phone or maybe, something that hasn't been invented yet if I live long enough.
 
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I was in Westchester on a sub-freezing day and almost got caught in the municipal parking lot with the same issue. The muni meter wasn't reading credit cards and then I had to figure out how the 'zone ' system worked in the municipal parking lot by going to the website, which was not easy to read on the meter I was closest. There is no standardized method to pay for parking in the state. Each county has its own vendor and it's possible that even townships might control their own parking payment methods.

I absolutely prefer going to the meter to get a paper ticket to be able to present to a police officer in the event I need it. Dealing with a summons after the fact and having to clear can be a massive waste of time.
 

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