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New Santa Monica Parking Meters To Reset When Cars Leave

SANTA MONICA (CBS) — Get ready to get nickeled and dimed when parking in the city of Santa Monica.

KNX 1070's Jon Baird reports the city will ramp up the installation of new parking meters and ground sensor Monday which will only accept payment for the allotted time limit.

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Several of the meters are already in place and there will hopefully be more than 6,000 new meters in place by the end of the week, city finance director Don Patterson said.

New sensors will also reset to zero the minute a car leaves a space . . . say so long to stumbling upon a meter with time left.

"That's terrible," said one driver. "The city's obviously being very, very greedy and very selfish."

The new solar-powered meters will take payment by credit card, coin or phone, and drivers can even get a text message when their time expires.

The sensors could raise up to $1.7 million for the city.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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