Parking Meters Across NYC Not Accepting Credit Cards, Were Never Programmed To Work In 2020
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A software problem has caused credit cards and pre-paid parking cards to be rejected by parking meters around New York City.
The Department of Transportation said the software had an "established end date" of Jan. 1, 2020 and was never updated by the vendor.
Drivers can still pay with cash or by using credit cards via the ParkNYC app.
We've received reports across the city of parking meters not accepting credit cards. DOT crews are out fixing the issue. In the meantime, meters are still accepting coins & the free #ParkNYC app, available at https://t.co/iCQhX2wHF4, App Store, GooglePlay. pic.twitter.com/yzVU21jyqr
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) January 2, 2020
The DOT said crews were out working on the issue Thursday night, but there's no word on how long it will take to fix the tens of thousands of meters.
The agency will discuss what to do about possible ticketed drivers with the city's department of finance.
"Yeah, payment failed... If it's a system failure I think that's really stupid to still ticket people," Talah Cheema, a driver from Jersey City said.
DOT crews are now trying to reconfigure the software on all 14,000 meters in the city. When CBS2's Ali Bauman caught up with crews in Long Island City Friday – that process didn't seem to be going very well.
So far they say roughly, 1,700 have been repaired. That's about 12 percent.
The transportation department also tells CBS2 it's training and deploying additional electricians this weekend so there will be crews working around the clock to solve this. The city predicts all the meters will be fixed by Thursday night, more than a week after this problem began.