N.Y. City Puts Out Feelers for Mobile Parking Fine Payment System

New York City has issued a request for information for mobile payment options for the payment and scheduling of parking tickets.

The city's Department of Finance estimates that it collects between $550 million and $600 million annually from 8 million to 10 million parking-related base fines and penalties.

"This RFI is not a request for proposal but rather a request for information that will assist the city in understanding A) the current market environment for mobile payment options that could provide greater ease for vehicle owners; and B) the current market for technologies that would allow someone to request a hearing and submit evidence," the department said in the document.

According to the request, the RFI is also intended to determine the necessary level of integration with the city's existing systems and identify compatible payment platforms such as automated clearing house, or ACH, platforms and the PayPal system. It also seeks to clarify potential costs to the city and public from use of a new mobile system.

Responses are due at 3 p.m. Jan. 15. DOF senior contractor is Solomon Israel.

City officials have been moving slowly on parking technology enhancements over the years, possibly to avoid the kind of fallout seen in Chicago, where many taxpayers believe then-Mayor Richard Daley's $1.15 billion, 75-year public-private partnership deal for parking meters sold taxpayers short.

The subject also triggers memories of the Parking Violations Bureau wrongdoings of the mid-1980s -- one of the most extensive city corruption scandals in decades -- that led to the imprisonment of Bronx Democratic leader Stanley Friedman, one of the city's most powerful political figures at the time. A jury in 1986 convicted Friedman and three associates of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud for their roles in obtaining a contract from the PVB for Citisource Inc., a company in which Friedman was a major stockholder.

The company was to manufacture handheld computers — breakthrough technology at the time — that would write parking summonses and help traffic agents spot scofflaws.

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Transportation industry New York
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