ST. LOUIS (KSDK) - It's a program starting in one neighborhood but could spread citywide.
"Who has cash these days? I don't think anyone," says Central West Resident Jack Khoudian.
The days of plugging quarters in the meters in the Central West End could be ending. Beginning Friday, the popular intersection at Maryland Plaza and Euclid Avenue, will have 60 new parking meters, which can accept coins and credit cards.
The early reviews are positive.
"I think it's great because I don't have time to run out of my car and get change and I don't ever have cash or change, so it's perfect," Khoudian said.
If there are no complaints with these solar powered credit card meters in the Central West End after six months, you could see these devices all over St. Louis.
"Our slogan is: 'No Change, No Problem,'" says St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones.
Jones said there will be no added fee to use your card at these meters at least at first.
There have been credit card parking meters on the streets of St. Louis in the past, but they were short-lived, poorly received, and not adequately explained to the public, Jones said.
It works just like the traditional kinds; you won't have to put a printed a receipt on your dashboard.
And unlike automated meters in other cities, you'll still be able to inherit minutes from the last car in your space.
"It's an effort for me to go get cash. So, yeah, it'll stop that, you know, you park your car at a meter, you go to the restaurant, you ask for quarters, go back to the car. You'll be able to use the credit card right when you get out of the car," Jones says.
Kelsey Sementa grew up here -- but lives in Chicago now, where they already have credit card parking meters.
Nobody in Chicago complains about this?
"No," Sementa says. "They only complain about the price."
Each of the new meters cost $500.
There could be an added credit card fee if they go citywide, that's because there are just over ten thousand parking meters in the city.
The transition could be expensive.
If the city adopts these citywide, you'll be able to use an app on your phone to find a parking spot with your phone.
In the future, you may get a text alert telling you that your time is almost up and you can just put more money in the meter, right over your phone.
The city will hold a news conference officially introducing the "no change, no problem" program on Friday.
There are a handful of credit card parking meters on some city owned lots.
The City of Clayton also uses credit card parking meters.
