ParkNYC Users: We Pay Through the App and Still Get Ticketed
A mobile-phone app designed to make parking easier has proved just the opposite for some New York city drivers, who say they’re getting tickets even though they’re paying the virtual meter.
One of those drivers is Natalie Noel, a project manager who lives in Brooklyn. She uses ParkNYC regularly for her commute to work, but in July 2017 she received a $45 parking ticket at the Canarsie Municipal Parking Field on Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn, despite paying with the app.
“After paying for it, I come home, and I see [a ticket] on the car and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I paid for this!’” she says. “I double-checked, and I did pay for it. …They didn’t bother to check so I got a ticket.”
Noel is one of the many who have complained on social media and the app store about ParkNYC, a parking app operated by Parkmobile, LLC and put into effect by the Department of Transportation in 2016. There’s a lot of revenue at stake: New York City collected $993 million in fines in fiscal year 2016.
The app, which was introduced to alleviate parking pain in a city with 8.5 million people and only 85,000 metered parking spaces citywide, receives low reviews on the Apple Store. As of January 16, 2017, 35 of the 54 reviewers gave it the lowest possible rating of one star.
ParkNYC’s draw is that it allows people to pay for parking directly through the app on their smartphones by entering the zone number listed on the meter decal and sign on the side of the street they’re parking on. That eliminates the need to dig for quarters from the car’s console or insert a credit card into a meter station. NYPD traffic enforcement agents are then able to check linked registered license plate numbers through the app to their handheld devices.
Noel said she was able to contest her ticket and avoid the fine by sending her parking receipt directly to a judge through the NYC Parking Ticket Pay or Dispute app.
ParkNYC has expanded citywide since its limited Midtown Manhattan launch in 2016. Some users were unaware of the launch parameters — and signed up for the app, paying the initial $25 deposit, before it was available in their borough, leading to confusion. Users have also reported issues with the app failing to recognize parking zones listed on meter decals and signs.
While some users appreciate the ability to receive mobile alerts to stay on top of parking spots’ time constraints, others take issue with the fact that you can only increase your time on the app for the selected parking spot up to the maximum time limit for the zone.
DOT officials still support the app. “Drivers no longer have to scramble for change, and they don’t even need to walk to a Muni-Meter to get a receipt that could blow away from their dashboard,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in July 2017. “With no added fees, mobile alerts that let you know when time is running out on your spot, and the ability to extend a parking session without returning to the car, ParkNYC offers a great convenience to New York drivers.”
ParkMobile did not return multiple emails for this story. It did respond in September 2017 to an unhappy user on Twitter with this comment: “We don’t manage or operate the meters; we only offer the mobile payments option.”
