MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The city's conversion to parking machines that accept credit cards could mean fewer tickets for drivers going downtown, officials said. That's because people may be less likely to plug whatever change they have handy into a meter and then risk a ticket if they run short. "We've had very few complaints compared to the number of people using the meters," Dorinda Floyd, who oversees the city's parking, said of the new system. The city is in the middle of a three-year $3.3 million project to convert from coin meters to machines on each block that accept both credit cards and coins. About one-third of the people who park in areas where the new machines have been installed pay with plastic, the city said. The city has focused its conversion downtown, where parking costs $2 for two hours. It makes less sense in outer areas where parking costs less, Floyd said. "On those, people may have two dimes or a quarter," she said. "That may be enough." The new system also makes enforcement easier. As parking checkers drive around downtown, they get updated reports about which parking spaces have expired. City planners will be able to use that and other data collected by the system to improve it, Alderman Bob Bauman said. "The old meters, it was just a sophisticated coin box," he said. "There was no means to measure demand, time of day." ------ Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)