I was a bit disappointed because some years ago all parking meters in San Francisco were converted to use (in addition to quarters) a smart card that you can buy for $50 (or $20) that fits a slot in every parking meter and lets you pay using the card rather than having to carry quarters. And I buy and carry one of those cards in my car all the time. I feel virtuous because I never have to dig quarters out of my pocket (or the back seat, or under the front seat, etc.) and just pull out the card.

But these new experimental meters accept debit or credit cards as well as quarters. Probably a better idea because far more people carry credit cards. And they’re solar powered. (And yes, in parts of town we’re testing pay-by-phone.) (And yes, we’re testing pay-and-put-the-receipt-on-the-dashboard, like New York and other places.) I wonder how well these credit-card meters will perform in the rain?

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We see these in the Sierras (the mountains) as well, in some high-traffic publicly-accessible areas of the wilderness. Usually the solar cells in the mountains are powering fans that circulate air into a composting toilet (one that composts the deposits rather than requiring removal to another location). And they’re generally so far from civilization that running a power line would be ludicrous.

But it always seems funny to me.

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