The NYC Broken Meters iPhone application is one of a handful of contenders in the NYC Big Apps contest. Other contending apps find dog parks and map restaurants with health code violations. (www.nycbrokenmeters.com)By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
There's a new iPhone application that locates the nearest broken parking meter in Manhattan, allowing motorists to get one-hour of free parking under city law.
NYC Broken Meters, which is a free application, uses city data to find broken meters around Manhattan where motorists can park. It is legal to park at a broken meter for up to an hour in the city.
The Broken Meters application is up against dozens of other Manhattan-centric apps in the NYC Big Apps vote that began Monday, according to the New York Post.
Unfortunately, there are no iPhone applications to get you out of a parking ticket once it's written. (Jim Scott)The design competition features a $5,000 grand prize for best overall and is meant to make the city more accessible, transparent and accountable, according to the Web site.
"This can be a win-win, because it may help motivate the city to fix broken meters," said Raviv Turner, designer of the Broken Meters app to the New York Post.
"We hope in a subsequent version to let users upload information about broken meters and report it to the city."
Like NYC Broken Meters, many of the finalists on the list use city data to let residents know about the services and events around them.
Among the contenders, Hey Walkies locates dog parks in the city, Trees Near You maps the 500,000 trees on city sidewalks and SporkNYC finds out if that delicious-looking restaurant has some less savory health code violations.
Broken Meters uses the phone's GPS to find the meters using data collected by Scout 311, the city's team devoted to finding traffic equipment in need of repairs, the Post reported.
The list included less than 1,000 meters as broken, according to the paper.
Voting for the best New York City App will close on Jan. 7, the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony.
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