There may soon be a lot less leeway — and more tickets — for drivers who overstay their welcome at parking meters.

New Jersey is on the verge of allowing municipalities to install “smart” meters that use cameras to monitor traffic flow and enable authorities to issue near-instant tickets for overtime violations.

A five-minute grace period — or slightly more, if towns opt for it — is all drivers would get to feed the meter after parking and to leave the spot after their time expires. Otherwise, they can expect a summons in the mail along with time-stamped license-plate photos that will be hard to refute.

If the Senate approves a bill clearing the way for the devices, as the Assembly did in January, it would head to Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, for final approval or a veto.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, had scheduled a vote on the measure Thursday but postponed it citing the absence of several senators. He said it now may get a vote on March 25.

The bill, S-2579, would permit statewide what thus far has been allowed only on a trial basis in one Bergen County town, where camera-assisted ticketing temporarily replaced the current requirement for enforcement officers to physically affix tickets to windshields.

The new-age meters may help towns manage traffic and free up police for other duties, but they would likely come at a cost to drivers.

Twenty smart meters installed in Palisades Park in 2016 led to a nearly threefold increase in the number of tickets issued over a five-month period.

Dan Phillips, a former legislative liaison for the Administrative Office of the Courts, testified in 2017 that based on that experience, a statewide program could lead to an “exponential increase” in tickets.

“We issue in New Jersey about 2½ million parking tickets a year,” Phillips said at the time. “And the increase from this small pilot, which was about a 190 percent increase in five months, we could go from 2½ million to 6 or 7 million tickets in New Jersey and a commensurate increase in suspensions and warrants.”

The appeal of the meters is that they can increase vehicle turnover in downtowns where it’s often difficult to find parking and would allow traffic enforcement officials to focus on other priorities, such as improving pedestrian safety.

Plus, the meters are “smart” in other ways. They can display ads or alerts in multiple languages, accept credit cards and allow drivers to re-up their parking time using a mobile app.

Then, of course, there’s the money. The meters could be a cash cow for towns, although to what extent remains to be seen.

Brian Cassady, head of the Minnesota-based vendor that installed the meters used in Palisades Park, has previously said that although the number of parking tickets issued after the meters are installed often spikes, that number usually drops “precipitously” as people get used to the technology and towns launch public awareness campaigns.

“In our experience, compliance with local parking laws typically improves from 50 percent to 60 percent to up to 95 percent after the introduction of our meters,” he said in an interview last year.

The state would also make money under a provision in the bill that imposes a $2 surcharge on parking tickets issued by smart meters. The money would be spent on programs to prevent drunken driving, according to the bill.

The prospect of camera-equipped parking meters may trigger bad associations for drivers who lived through New Jersey’s experiment with red-light cameras, a program that was shut down in 2014 after a public outcry.

Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, who called the red-light program “government-sanctioned theft,” was actually in favor of the parking meter bill last year, arguing that parking infractions are far less subjective than moving violations at an intersection.

Reached for comment this week, though, O’Scanlon said he would vote against the bill because it does not include a provision he wanted, to allow people who may have had too much to drink to use a mobile app to leave their cars parked overnight.

That change, O’Scanlon said, “would have dramatically enhanced the ability to deter drunk driving.”

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com

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