> Really so much more than a parking meter for every spot?

Do old school parking meters (one per parking space) still exist, and if so, why?

One ticket machine can sell paper parking tickets for 10s or 100s of parking spaces.

Some modern machines even avoid the printed ticket entirely and allocate the payment to the number plate of your vehicle.

The vast majority of parking spaces are free and don't have any meters at all.

Sure downtown there is parking meters, but not in the suburbs where free parking is the norm and most parking spaces go weeks between seeing anyone park in them.

No meters in neighborhoods around here, just painted curbs. I only see meters on very dense downtown blocks, and many seem to be solar powered (which seems feasible for an LCD and a card slot).

In my city, there's maybe a parking meter for every 20 spots. Plus, most spots are in non-metered areas. PLUS, the meter does not require a very high voltage power line...