This is a parking meter?

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Get ready to say goodbye to the city's spring-loaded parking meters. Stationnement de Montreal (SDM), which manages the city's parking meters, is getting ready to replace many of them with the newfangled, networked model pictured here.

SDM tested two prototypes in Place d'Youville this past winter to see if they could withstand the city's climate extremes. They performed admirably, says SDM spokesperson Chantal Bouvier, and though plans have yet to be finalized, the new meters could start proliferating on city streets as early as this fall.

But it remains to be seen whether motorists will take to them. Among their advantages: they take credit cards and give receipts, which some people can use for tax purposes.

The potential disadvantages: there will be only two or three of them per block, and all parking spaces will be numbered. Motorists will have to take note of their space number, walk to the machine, punch in the number, insert their money, take their ticket, walk back to their car and place their ticket on the dashboard before finally getting on with their life.

A similar system in St. Petersburg, Florida caused a citizen's insurrection last year and was eventually dismantled. : --Philip Preville

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