Pay By License Plate Meters Coming To A Popular Beach Town

Quick! What's your license plate number?

Yeah, I don't know mine off the top of my head either, but coming next month, you'll need to know it to park in one Jersey Shore town.

Starting in February, Asbury Park is instituting pay-by-plate parking meters across the board.

The good news is, you won't have to keep repeating the parking spot number in your head while you find the closest pay station and hope that there isn't a line.

Numbered parking spots will be a thing of the past.

On the other hand, though, you'll undoubtedly end up in line behind unprepared customers who become too flustered to think to just grab their vehicle's registration, which of course has the license plate number right on it.

Which brings me to a friendly suggestion - take your vehicle's registration with you when you go to pay if you don't know your plate number by heart. Don't become that person.

There is another positive to the new system, too - if you move your car after paying, you don't have to start all over again because you've moved to a new spot. You can just extend the time associated with your plate number (although, officials remind you to note which parking zone you're in, as different zones charge different rates).

That's something that always frustrated me, if I paid for an hour at one spot but wanted to move after, say, 45 minutes, I'd have to swallow what I paid for that extra 15 minutes and start anew at the next spot.

The new pay-by-plate system is scheduled to launch in February.

What do you think, will the pay-by-plate system be easier than the pay-by-space number system? Join the conversation on our Facebook page!