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Wired News: Detroit Parking Meters Go Online

DETROIT — Credit cards, cell phones and even old-fashioned cash can be used to operate the high-tech parking meters going up around town but some drivers find them a bit intimidating.

“You need a master’s degree or something,” said Robert Blackwell as he tried to figure out how to use one of the new meters. “All I’m trying to do is not get a parking ticket.”

The meters are part of a 90-day experiment with battery- and solar-powered, online-operated parking meters.

For those of you without a master’s degree–or just old-fashioned or behind-the-times (perish the thought)–we offer you the Parking Meter Page (quirky, some photos), and the Oklahoma Historical Society’s history of the parking meter (dull, no photos). And a chance to buy one.