Ever snag the last free parking spot, only to find that the meter doesn’t work? In most places, it’s legal to park there anyway, and if you get a citation you can have it dismissed. But if you place a sign on the meter, you shouldn’t get a ticket in the first place.
That’s where an enterprising Los Angeles woman named Rhonda Talbot comes in. For $6.99 plus shipping and handling, Talbot will send you a roll of red-and-yellow “METERBROKEN” tape you can stash in the glove box.
Each roll is made of biodegradable paper and contains 15 pull-off stick-on messages that won’t harm the meter (as if you cared).
Among the parking-meter facts Talbot offers at meter
broken.com:
As many as 20 percent of all American parking meters (1.2 million) are out of order at any given time.
Most “broken” meters simply are full of coins, not jammed or vandalized. Meters can hold only $30-$60.
In the future, “smart” meters will sense when a car pulls out of the spot and automatically reset the meter to zero. So the days of parking off someone else’s quarter may be coming to an end.
In some places, it is illegal to park at a meter with time remaining unless you feed the meter fresh coins.
There are more than 6 million “single-space” parking meters in the United States that use infrared technology to sense if the same car has been in the spot beyond the allotted time.
In many places it is a violation to refeed the meter. You are technically required to move the car at least 500 feet when time’s up.
In Seattle, Baltimore, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., it is illegal to park at a broken meter regardless of whether you leave a note.
