Which American city introduced______?

Question

Parking meters?

Answer 1

The Parking meter concept was invented by Carl Magee. The world's first installed parking meter was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on July 16, 1935. Industrial production started in 1936 and expanded until the mid 80's. The first models were based on a coin acceptor, a dial to engage the mechanism and a visible pointer and flag to indicate expiration of payed period.

This configuration lasted for more than 40 years, only with a few changes on the exterior design, like the double headed version and the incorporation of new materials and production techniques. Also, the parking meter aspect changed troughout the various decades along the design trends of street furniture.

In the mid 80's, a digital version was introduced, replacing the mechanical parts by electronic components: boards, keyboards and displays. This added various new possibilities to the meter, like programing various and complex tariffs into an EEPROM memory chip that could easily be replaced, as well as accepting payments with more than one coin.

In the beginning of the 90's, the parking meter had sold millions of units around the world, but the market was already looking into new solutions, like the collective pay and display machines and new forms of payment that appeared along with electronic money and communication technologies. As a result, the parking meter industry has entered a period of decline and is now limited to a very narrow market.

Answer 2

In July 1935, the world's first parking meters were introduced on the streets of Oklahoma City. Carlton C. Magee, editor of the Oklahoma City Daily News and a member of the Chamber of Commerce traffic committee, was concerned with the parking problem in larger cities. He came up with a prototype of a device that would charge people for parking. He entered into a partnership with Gerald A. Hale, a professor at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, to refine his parking meter. In 1932, Magee applied for a patent (a government document that grants an inventor the sole right to manufacture his or her invention for a certain period of time) on his invention. Parking meters are now in use in major cities throughout the world.