New York residents may soon be able to pay their collective 8-10 million annual parking tickets using Apple Pay, according to a new report from MarketWatch.
Currently parking tickets can be paid online (with a 2.5% charge), via mail, on in person at a courthouse. The city’s finance department is supposedly looking at change this up, however, and could embrace Apple Pay in the process.
The city is aiming for an “aesthetically pleasing” mobile interface which allows users to take a picture of their ticket, or else scan a barcode and then make a payment through a one-tap smartphone system — likely a third-party app.
Seeing as how many online payments are now carried out using iOS devices, this sounds like a shrewd move on the part of NYC decision makers, who are eager to cut down on the $600 million in added fines and fees which result from defaulted ticket payments each year.
There is also discussion of accepting Bitcoins as a currency.
In other Apple Pay news, it was recently announced that Chevron is set to bring Apple Pay to its gas pumps next year. At this rate, it won’t be long before Apple Pay is usable everywhere.
