Press Releases

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release #20-002
Friday, January 3, 2020
Contact: Scott Gastel/Alana Morales (212)839-4850

DOT Issues Update on Credit Card Payment Outage at Municipal Parking Meters

DOT crews continue to work around the clock to reconfigure the software on parking meters across New York City. So far, over 1,750 of the city’s approximately 14,000 meters have been repaired, with a focus on DOT lots and those meters where cards make up the highest proportion of transactions. We are training and deploying additional electricians this weekend who will be working 12-hour shifts, with crews in the field 24 hours a day. DOT will issue status updates via social media throughout the weekend. All Citywide repairs should be complete by Thursday evening.

As previously reported, parking meters are still accepting coins, and the ParkNYC app is available for those who prefer to pay by credit card. The ParkNYC mobile app is available for download at no cost for iPhones in the App Store and for Android at Google Play.

Cities worldwide using the same meters/software began seeing a series of cascading credit card rejections on Wednesday. Dozens of American cities were affected -- including Washington DC, Austin, and Las Vegas.

Statement of David Chauvin, Chief Communications Officer, Flowbird

"Because of a software configuration error, a portion of Flowbird’s meters stopped processing card payments on January 1st 2020, including at all parking meters within New York City. The outage was caused by an anti-fraud security setting that disabled credit-card payments. We have experienced no security breaches, and Flowbird immediately delivered a reconfiguration fix that is now being deployed.

Our company apologizes and deeply regrets the inconvenience that this has caused our customers. Flowbird is taking all the appropriate measures to avoid any similar scenario in the future.

Our top priority remains the total satisfaction of the municipalities that put their trust into our solutions."

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