By Sue Doyle
Los Angeles Daily News
December 14, 2007

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - They take credit and debit cards and will even send you text messages when they need more money.

And no, they are not your children, they actually are talking parking meters. New, fancy, high-tech ones.

About 6,000 of the electronic meters are poised to soon stand guard on Los Angeles streets under a pilot program launched Thursday at a North Hollywood public parking lot.

Costing $5.5 million, the new machines are being installed to help recover money lost from broken meters - estimated at $1.6 million over the past two years.

If successful, the electronic gizmos - which also take coins - will eventually replace all 40,000 parking meters throughout the city, which annually generate about $21 million.

"We're here to make public parking more convenient and reliable," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, kicking off the effort from a parking lot at Magnolia Boulevard and Klump Avenue. "Say goodbye to the day of broken meters."

Public parking in Encino, Studio City, Tarzana and Van Nuys has been targeted for upgrades and electronic meters under the pilot program.

The meters allow motorists to program their cell phones to receive text-message warnings when time is running out on the meters - and can even remotely feed the meters through their keypads.

Drivers register for the feature each time they park by punching in meter identification numbers and parking space numbers into their cell phones.

But drivers aren't the only ones receiving up-to-the-second messages from the new parking meters.

The elaborate software also electronically communicates with patrolling officers from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and instantly tells them which meters have run out of money or where parkers have overstayed time limits.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said the new meters are a step toward updating the city's parking infrastructure, which will help reduce traffic congestion in business districts as motorists circle around for parking.

In just one 15-block city business district, for example, motorists searching for parking added 950,000 extra miles of travel in a year - enough to take 38 trips around the world, according to a study from the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Change is on the way," said Greuel.

However, some things still will stay the same. For now.

The perk of pulling into a parking space with time left on the meter will continue.

Although, eventually, sensors will be added to the meters to detect when cars leave their parking spots - and automatically reset the time left to zero.