Now how cool is that technology?
Time's up for coin-fed parking meters
Solar-powered pay stations that accept money or credit cards pop up along J Street
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 12, 2007
For decades, Sacramento's unforgiving parking meters have required downtown motorists to search pockets and dig into seat cushions for coins -- demanding to be fed and yielding no quarter.
Now, it's motorists who don't have to give any quarters.
City officials are ripping unsightly gunmetal-gray meters out, block by block, around J Street. Over the next few months, 538 meters will disappear.
In their place are green, solar-powered pay stations, usually two to a block. An even 100 have been fired up since Monday.
The "little green machines," as one downtown parker put it, accept credit cards, ATM cards, or any coin, other than a penny.
And, get this: City officials say motorists who don't use all the time they paid for can park anew elsewhere downtown -- even at an old-fashioned meter -- and use the rest of the time there.
