Brooklyn Lawmaker Wants To Sync Meter, Alternate-Side Parking Rules

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn lawmaker wants to clear up any confusion being caused by parking rules across the city.

Councilman Vincent Gentile is proposing a bill requiring parking meter rules be suspended citywide on all legal and religious holidays when alternate-side parking regulations are scrapped.

Gentile said many drivers often think they don't have to feed the meter on days when alternate-side parking is suspended and are then hit with hefty fines.

Gentile said every time alternate-side parking is suspended and meters are not, ticket agents are out in droves to give drivers what he calls the "gotcha" ticket.

For example, Gentile said the city unleashed a ticket massacre in his neighborhood on Presidents Day.

"There were three, four ticket agents within a couple blocks of each other just scouring the meters up and down hoping to score big and I imagine they scored very big," Gentile said.

The goal of the bill is to get the city to sync all parking rules, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has indicated that he would oppose any such effort.

"I think it's really something that the mayoral candidates will have to address as we go forward and we ride out the rest of this administration," Gentile said.