City of Austin installs 500 solar-powered parking meters

The project is part of the transportation department's comprehensive parking technology upgrade that commenced last August. The new meters accept coins and credit cards and began going in Monday with 120 posts in the University of Texas area. The project will be completed early next week.

The city-wide upgrade began last August when 3,800 single space meters were replaced with 700 "modern" pay stations. The devices service several spaces at once and dispense tickets that can be posted in car windows. The single-space, solar meters are being installed in areas with just a few spaces, on smaller streets.

The city said since installing the modern pay stations, 60 percent of parking fees have been paid on credit cards and 36 percent fewer parking citations have been issued. The city received just 2,760 complaints of broken meters between August 2009 and this year, an 85 percent reduction from the 18,000 complaints the same period a year before.