The effort is being tested on 200 Muni-Meters in a segment of Midtown bounded by West 56th Street, Fifth Avenue, West 43rd Street and Broadway. The affected spaces are restricted to commercial vehicles during the day and are used by passenger cars at night.

The rate will remain $2 for the first hour, $5 for the second hour and $9 for the third hour, with a three-hour limit, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. On weekday evenings until midnight, and from 8 a.m. to midnight on Saturday, the rate is $2 an hour, with a six-hour limit. Parking is free after midnight and on Sundays.

This is sane city planning - Incentivizing more turnover of parking spaces is good, but even better is that delivery trucks don't have to double park to make deliveries during the day. Also, once you start using credit cards for payment, there is unlimited flexibility in setting variable rates for different times of day and lengths of stay. We should have these types of meters on every block in the city, even those that currently don't have meters.