If you ’ve ever lose an argument with a meter maid or gotten a slate 30 seconds after the timer expired , organize your anger toward Carl C. Magee .
As a member of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce dealings committee in the thirties , the newspaper editor wasaskedfor ideas on meliorate the parking trouble business district . With the ever - increasing popularity of the automobile , business district business owners werefindingthat employee took up all of the parking place , not will any for paying customers . Because they could n’t find place to leave their railway car , customer would move on to constitution with better parking lots .
After much pondering , Magee come up with a brilliant idea that would anger driver for decades to follow : shoot down citizenry to park . A gadget with a coin - operated timekeeper , he reason , could be a winnings - win for the urban center . Either folks would ante up and bear more to stay parked , putting more money in the metropolis ’s caisson , or they would move on and make room for paying customers . Of naturally , there was also option three . remain put , reject to pay , and be fined — another moneymaker for the township .
Much to the mortification of local automobilist , Magee ’s bright idea was approve . It debuted on the street of Oklahoma City on July 16 , 1935 , with a fee of five cents an hour . Some conceive that ask mass to pay for infinite in a public region was unjust , and evenun - American , but the result was too undecomposed to indicate with .
After the achiever in Oklahoma City , it did n’t take long for parking meters to catch on nationwide . By the former 1940s , there were more than 140,000 parking meters across the United States . And Magee in all likelihood never worried about having enough change for his meters : After he was grant the patent in 1938 , he started charge cities$25 per meter—$365 each in today ’s money .
