Al Roth starts a list of comparative advantages of the new electronic parking meters relative to old school coin-fed.
In Brookline, where I live, one can already begin to catalog some of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the old and new technologies, aside from those mentioned above, regarding credit cards in particular.
Waiting time and queues: old meters took your quarters immediately (if they were working well enough to take them at all); new meters take some time even if you are first in line, and since they serve multiple spots, you may have to wait while they take that time for the people ahead of you.
Parking at 7:45am: old meters made you start paying even if you rolled up to the curb before payment was required; new meters know that you don’t have to pay until e.g. 8am, and so can sell you parking until 8:30 without charging you for the first 15 minutes until 8.
Adding time to the meter: old meters let you add another quarter to add time, e.g. if you glanced in at the coffee shop after you had already put money in the meter and noticed that there were no vacant tables, so you would have to go across the street, and wouldn’t be back by 8:30. New meters print a receipt for you to put on your dashboard, and don’t let you add time to the end of the time interval you have already bought.
To which I would add: No Free Riding. There is no more hope of rolling into a space with time still left on the meter from the last guy.
And a spinoff list of disadvantages of both systems. Pre-payment. The meter forces me to bear the risk associated with my own uncertain parking duration. I pay in advance and hope I don’t pay too much or too little. If I pay ex post I am insured against that risk and I am willing to pay a higher per-minute rate. (What is the effect on my incentive to park for longer? With ex-post payment I bear a constant cost per minute I stay. With pre-payment that incremental cost is zero up until the meter expires and from there increases with the probability that the meter maid turns up.)
Cheap Talk 
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September 22, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Mike
In Seattle at least if you have extra time and leave your spot, that extra time is still good if you park somewhere else. This probably balances out the “rolling into a spot with time left on the meter” factor, depending on your parking habits.
September 22, 2011 at 7:11 pm
vivi
My suburb, Carlton (Melbourne, Australia) has rolled out a pay-by-phone trial.
All you have to do is download an app, and then type in the spot number when you park, remembering “sign-off” when leaving the spot so you can be charged for the time you used the parking space.
15 minutes before the maximum parking period is up you get an SMS to remind you to leave (which is also helpful in case you forget to sign-off when you leave).
September 22, 2011 at 7:13 pm
vivi
And here are some links:
http://melbourne-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/pay-by-phone-parking-trial-rolled-out-in-carlton/
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ParkingTransportandRoads/Parking/Pages/PayByPhoneTrial.aspx
September 23, 2011 at 11:19 am
JOSE
In Spain, the “new” system is already an old system. Actually it was an old system already 20 years ago when I was a kid… In any case, since in Europe parking is all about luck, you usually find a spot just when somebody else is leaving. It is customary that if the guy has some time left in her ticket, he would give it to you, so you can use it.
Then you still free-ride, at least if there is enough time left to satisfy your needs.