Paying the parking meter is a daily headache for many drivers in New York City, and with the stroke of the new year, it became even more maddening.

A software glitch that recalled the Y2K bug, which stoked fears that computer systems around the world would crash in the year 2000, was causing parking meters in New York to reject credit cards and prepaid parking cards.

The meters’ credit card payment software was configured to end on Jan. 1, resulting in the mass malfunction, the city’s Department of Transportation said. Parkeon, the vendor that developed the payment system, failed to update the software, officials said.