

Photo by Hungry Dog Creative via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Thought you were safe parking your car at a broken meter? Think again. Angelenos are still getting ticketed for parking at busted meters even though there's a California law in place that banned that practice since Jan. 1

"I just don’t think the city is living up to the law that the state legislature passed last year," California Assemblyman Mike Gatto told NBC Los Angeles.

It seems like the reason why folks are still getting ticketed has to do with how people are interpreting the law. NBC Los Angeles asked LA Department of Transportation (LADOT), which handles parking tickets, what they believed "broken meter" meant and it's definitely not what the everyman thinks it is.

Ken Hustings, senior engineer at LADOT said there's a (seemingly slight) difference between "broken meter" and "malfunctioning meter," in which the latter will still get you a ticket. In order for a meter (which the new ones have different payment options) to be considered broken, all the different payment options have to not be working. For instance, if you put coins in a meter and you get a "fail" or "expired" notice, you can still get ticketed if the credit card payment option is still working. That's what LADOT considers "malfunctioning" but "operable."

Gatto disagrees and says a meter is broken when it can't accept payment of any form.

Well, let's hope this gets sorted out.

Related:

Huzzah! You Can Park At Broken Meters Again!