The city Department of Transportation says it's reviewing legislation that would require it to paint curbs different colors to indicate whether or not a parking spot is legal.
Under a proposal by City Councilman Vincent Gentile of Brooklyn, curbs would be painted either yellow or red to highlight no parking zones, just like the space around fire hydrants. The bill would also cover bus stops.
Drivers can get slapped with a $115 ticket for parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, or between a bus stop and the next parking sign.
Gentile said painted curbs would eliminate the guesswork.
"We have to stop the 'gotcha' kind of ticketing that is going on because not only do motorists not know exactly how far from the hydrant they can park, but sometimes, ticket enforcement agents don't know what 15 feet is," Gentile said.
"There's no markings here. We can never know how far we can park," said one city resident. "We think we're 15 feet, next thing we know, we're at 14 feet. We think we're 20 feet, we're 12 feet. So it would be nice to get a nice little marker to know exactly where we can stand or where we can park."
It's not clear how much the paint job would cost.