Parking Card

In 2005, the Department of Transportation introduced "parking cards" to some parking meters in New York City.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/parking/municard.html
Where to use the Card

On-Street Locations Where the Card Can Be Used in Muni-Meters

Manhattan:
Kips Bay area -
Midtown Manhattan
2nd Avenue from 30th to 33rd Street
30th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue
33rd to 59th Street from 2nd to 9th Avenue
72nd Street
14th Street -
Union Square
8th Street -
NYU area
Orchard Street

Queens:
New York Hospital -
Booth Memorial Avenue
Queens College
Melbourne Avenue
Northern Boulevard and Main Street
Forest Hills -
Austin Street area
Long Island City -
Skillman Avenue
Beach 116th Street
Steinway Street
Northern Blvd to Ditmars Blvd
Bell Boulevard
34th Avenue to 48th Avenue

Brooklyn:
94th Street Triangle
4th to 5th Avenues
Ft. Hamilton Parkway
66th to 67th Streets
Bay Parkway
Benson Avenue to 84th Street
86th Street
21 Avenue to Bay Parkway

Bronx:
Westchester Avenue
Overing Street to East Tremont Avenue
Kingsbridge Road
East and West
149th Street
Willis Avenue to Park Avenue
Third Avenue from 143rd to 153rd Streets and surrounding streets
Fordham Road, and the adjacent North/South streets, between Grand Concourse and Webster Avenue
Morris Park Avenue
Colden Avenue to Paulding Avenue
Colden Avenue to Radcliff Avenue
 
On-Street Locations Where the Card Can Be Used in Single-space Meters

Queens:
Long Island City
On Skillman Avenue
From 35th Street to Hunters Point Avenue
Forest Hills
On Queens Boulevard (north side)
From Jewel Avenue to 72nd Road

Manhattan:
Upper West Side
On Broadway, Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues
From 72nd Street to 86th Street

Brooklyn:
Bay Ridge
On 5th Avenue from Ridge Parkway to 94th Street

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/parking/terms.html
New York City Parking Cards Terms

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15 August 2005, Associated Press Newswires, "Meters accepting cards, but nobody seems to have one" by Jim Fitzgerald:
About 1,100 meters on the Upper West Side, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and in Forest Hills, Queens, had been modified to accept the cards beginning Monday in a major expansion of a pilot program, said Chris Gilbride of the city Department of Transportation.
(...)
Gilbride said the city chose neighborhoods with plenty of businesses and high demand for meter parking.

"We want to give people more payment options," he said.

His department sent "coaches" out into the neighborhoods to pass out information and show people how the meter cards work, he said.

The program for single-space meters began in 2003 with 400 meters in Long Island City, Queens. The same cards have been used since 1996 in the city's 1,706 multispace meters, known as Muni-Meters.

Gilbride said sales of the parking cards, which come in $20 and $50 denominations, were up $11 million in the fiscal year that ended in June and now account for 10 percent of all meter revenue, not counting fines.

The cards are available online, at CityStores, by mail and by calling the city's 311 information number. The Web site http://www.nyc.gov/dot is plastered on the meters.

16 August 2005, New York Post, "City Meter Made to Take 'Parked' Cards" by Vanessa Singh and Rich Calder, pg. 2:
Motorists in three of New York's busiest commercial areas can now feed plastic to quarter-eating parking meters.

The city yesterday expanded a pilot program offering drivers the option of using prepaid cards - the kind used in so-called "Muni-Meters" - in 1,100 old-fashioned coin-operated "single space" meters in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

"We are trying . . . to provide people more payment options," said Chris Gilbride, a spokesman for the city's Transportation Department.

And soon, even more options may be available. This fall, the city plans to retrofit 200 meters in the Theater District to accept credit cards, Gilbride said.
(...)
The first 400 "single-space" meters accepting cards were installed in 2003 in Long Island City, Queens.

The same cards have been used since 1996 in the city's 1,706 multispace meters, known as Muni-Meters.
(...)
As Muni-Meters became more popular, the number of single-space meters declined. There are 62,650 now, compared to nearly 65,000 in 1996. Gilbride said sales of the Parking Cards, which come in $20 and $50 denominations, were up $11 million in the last fiscal year.