DOT Installs Muni-Meters on Eighth Avenue

The single-space parking meter is disappearing from Park Slope.

This past August, the city’s Department of Transportation heralded a citywide change from the traditional single-space and coin-only parking meters . 

On Monday morning, the DOT started to replace the old coin-fed meters on Eighth Avenue, between Berkeley Place and Flatbush Avenue, with the new, sleek, solar-powered meters. The parking rate did not change, nor did the two-hour limit. 

There will be about 20 muni-meters on the three-block stretch when installation is complete this week. People can pay the meters by coins ($1 and 25 cent coins only), credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover) or with a New York City Parking Card. 

Although the rates have not increased, tempers did get hot during the morning rush to park.

“I hate them! They take too long to print your ticket and many times there is a line,” Barbara Markus said as she used her credit card to pay $2 for two hours worth of parking. “Sometimes these machines don’t even work, so you have to walk across the street to use another machine. I got four tickets on Seventh Avenue so far.”

Markus was ticketed four times, at $35 per ticket, for not paying a meter. She said she tried to pay, but the one on the side of the street she parked on was broken. She believes it is not fair to be ticketed if the muni-meter does not work, but an officer who gave her a ticket said if one muni-meter is busted she needs to get a receipt from one that is functioning.

“It is just not fair,” Markus said. “You end up walking a couple of blocks just to pay the meter.” 

Other people believe the muni-meters are just a way for the city to make some extra money.

“It is obviously a good deal for the city,” Laura Helton said while she fed the new meter on Eighth Avenue, between Berkely and Lincoln places, 75 cents for 45 minutes this morning. “The upside is that you can still use quarters, but I realized that it is a racket for the city because you cannot use someone else’s unused minutes.”

Park Slope was the first Brooklyn neighborhood to be affected by the increased parking rates and was the first to receive the muni-meters this summer. Drivers did not take the change in stride, in fact, .  

Carrol Krische parked on Eighth Avenue this morning at a single-space meter only to be surprised by the new muni-meter when she came back two hours later to move her car. She will pay $8 to park on Eighth Avenue all day and although the rate will not change, she still doesn’t like the muni-meters.

“Luckily I am parked right in front of it, but if your spot isn’t in front of the meter you might have to walk all the way down the block,” Krische said as she was getting into her car. “The single-space meters are so much more convient.”  

Tell us what you think about the muni-meters in the comments!