Detroit COO Gary Brown and Municipal Parking Director Norman White on Tuesday will reveal details of a new high-tech parking system for downtown Detroit and nearby neighborhoods.

The new partially solar-powered, multi-space kiosks will eliminate almost all of the old city meters. They are scheduled to be in place within a few weeks. Once installed, 500 kiosk pay stations will replace about 3,000 meters. Brown and White said the on-street parking system, called, will be one of the easiest to use in the nation — replacing a much-maligned and outdated system.

The aggregate cost of the new system wasn't disclosed in Crain's interviews last week, but just the kiosk portion is $3.5 million.

"For decades, residents and visitors have all been frustrated by our parking system, and our hard-working parking enforcement officers have usually gotten all the blame," Brown said. "But those days are over, because in the coming weeks, the city of Detroit will be home to the most comprehensive and customer-friendly parking meter system in the entire country."

For years, the city has been plagued with broken meters. And consumer habits are moving away from carrying around coins to feed meters. In addition, fees were hiked during the city's bankruptcy reorganization; expired meter parking tickets were increased to $45.

As part of the new system rollout, the parking ticket fee won't change, but a problem that is more vexing to residents and businesses will be: Old parking meters, at least half of which don't work, will be mostly gone.

"This system alleviates all of that," said Jamaine Dickens, city public affairs consultant forin Detroit. "Instead of pay by space, we will have a pay-by-plate system. When a driver pulls their vehicle into a parking space, they punch their license plate number into the kiosk. They enter the time they want and pay with a credit or debit card or coins."

People typically don't have their plate numbers committed to memory, but this system will be easier to use if that number is memorized, Dickens said.