The first parking meters in the United States went into use in Oklahoma City in 1935.
expired parking meter
The city grew rapidly in the early 20th century. In 1913, the city had only 3000 drivers, but as people traded in their horses and wagons and bought cars, the numbers grew. By 1930, five hundred thousand cars were registered within the county.
Oklahomans who worked downtown arrived early and took the most convenient street parking for themselves, leaving their cars in one spot all day. As a result, shoppers had difficulty finding places to park.
Like other towns addressing this problem, Oklahoma City tried to control this by marking tires with chalk, Cars that were left in the same space for too long were ticketed. But that was time-intensive and took policemen off their regular beats.
