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Question: Is that a new high-tech way to pay for parking?

Answer: Yes, yes it is.

Don’t run away scared. Don’t shoot at it. Most importantly, don’t park without feeding it some money. Baton Rouge Parking has introduced two high-tech payment stations at lots downtown: one near Fourth and Convention streets and one near America and St. Ferdinand streets. They’re solar-powered. They take credit cards. And they’ll do your laundry. Not really, but come on, you know you’re impressed anyway.

Installed at the end of January, the two payment stations come from a Canadian company called Digital Payment Technologies. John O. Hearin, who runs Baton Rouge Parking, researched payment stations for almost a year and half before deciding on these. He even went to parking conventions. Yes, parking conventions. “It’s kind of like going to a boat show,” he says.

Here’s how it works: once parked, walk to the payment station, which has an awning to shield you from the elements. How considerate! Push a button to get started, and as instructed, enter your parking space number. Then pick how many hours you’d like to purchase, then you pay! You can pay with cash, change (no pennies), or credit card. The machine won’t allow for the debit option and will only issue change in bill form. Once you pay, you get a receipt to place on your dashboard. And poof! You’re done.

If you’re like me and you enjoy shoving folded dollars into those slits in the “old honor boxes” as Hearin calls them, don’t fret. They’re not all going out to pasture just yet.

And if you liked the old boxes because you enjoyed trying to stick lizards’ tails into the slots, well, I saw you that one time, and it was weird. Please stop doing that. Thanks to John O. Hearin at Baton Rouge Parking for bringing Baton Rouge up to parking speed.