The NYTimes reports on the decommissioning of the old style single-space parking meters.
The old-fashioned, pole-mounted meter will now yield to the robotlike Meter of Tomorrow: a solar-powered box, equipped with Wi-Fi, that can handle eight parking spaces at once and can shut itself down on free-parking Sundays...
I think they’re beautiful,” Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner, said of the new devices, which feature digital screens and colorful buttons. She laughed: “I mean, maybe I’m just a transportation expert at this point, but I think they’re sleek.”
At 69 inches tall, the new meters “are designed with the environment in mind,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said. A solar panel sits atop their blue head. With no moving parts, there are fewer chances for malfunction, and the Wi-Fi connection allows the city to remotely set special rates and times.
InfraSCAPE Design Lab 
they did this years ago in seattle, much to the dismay of bikers, bike couriers and those interested in not wrecking the environment with their autos…