Because apparently paying by cash or credit card is too old-school for some folks, the city of San Francisco has begun rolling out parking meters that allow smartphone users to feed the meter with a wave of their handheld mobile communications device.

“It tells me where I’m parked. It tells me what time of day it is,” San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director Ed Reiskin tells KCBS radio. “And then it prompts me for a duration in minutes, so I can just type in five minutes.”

Users also receive texts when their meter is about to expire.

Waving a pay-by-phone equipped device over a sticker on these new meters will launch and app that allows users to pay for their parking. There is also a toll-free number they can call to make the payment.

Of course, all this fancy new fanciness comes with a price tag — an additional $.45 for each transaction.

San Francisco Rolls Out Pay-By-Phone Parking Meters [CBSlocal.com]

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