... and almost had a heart attack just thinking about walking up to half a block!
This isn't just funny, it's also a serious point! TFA has nothing to do with user-unfriendly parking meters. The poster (theodp) is just an angry Chicagoan posting his slant on Slashdot.
TFA does have a point -- Chicago and other cities are getting ripped off by an unholy alliance between city government and private companies to perform parking enforcement.
But it has nothing to do with user-unfriendly parking meters.
To compare, Seattle has replaced its parking meters with similar type meter (ones that accept both coins and cards, and dispense proof-of-purchase stickers). Lots of people love this kind of machine. It makes payment much easier. Walking 1/2 block? What a joke, any urbanite is used to a lot more walking than that.