Drivers will have to enter their license plate number at a pay station instead of a parking space number. They will pay for the space using a credit or debit card or tap to pay, Cirigliano said.

Metered parking downtown will remain $1 an hour with a three-hour maximum, Cirigliano said. Metered parking for the LIRR station will be a flat fee of $12 for 24 hours of daily parking, Cirigliano said.

“The current parking meters are at the end of their life cycle and we get a lot of complaints that they don’t work and are difficult to use,” he said. “This system provides more convenience.”

The change affects all metered street parking in downtown Huntington. Station parking includes Lot 15 in front of the ticket office and street parking on Broadway and Railroad Street. There are 519 metered parking spaces in downtown Huntington and 100 spaces at the train station, Cirigliano said.

The seven municipal lots in downtown Huntington will remain vacant. The new system does not affect commuter parking at the train station, Cirigliano said.

Drivers will still be able to use the Passport Parking app for on-street parking downtown and at the LIRR station, but they will enter a license plate number instead of a space number, he said.

The new system will also help law enforcement, Cirigliano added. Parking enforcement officers will use vehicle-mounted and hand-held license plate readers to enforce unpaid parking violations.

Drivers will also be able to move to another parking space in the city center if they have time left on the meter.

The cashless system also addresses a safety concern for some public safety officers who collect revenue from current meters.

“To put somebody out there collecting cash to drive around with $10, $15,000 in the car — it’s just a matter of time before something happens,” he said.

The city entered into a five-year contract with Pennsylvania-based T2 UPsafety for the system. The city paid a one-time fee of $199,999 for 25 parking meters and will pay a monthly service fee of $2,375.

Dominick Catoggio, president of the Huntington Village Business Improvement District, which covers downtown, said any improvements that provide increased convenience and safety are a benefit.

“It all comes down to making the new service intuitive and easy to use,” he said.

On a recent afternoon on New Street downtown, Lara Kuby of Lloyd Harbor said she was skeptical of the new system.

It will take longer to enter information into the meter, Kuby said, especially to make sure the information is correct.

“I miss the days of putting a quarter in an old-school machine,” she said. “As technology seems to advance, I find it less convenient and less annoying.”