Failed Meters Explained

After last week's back and forth on fighting parking tickets and whether or not parking at a FAILED meter will warrant a ticket or not, we decided to call the Department of Transportation (DOT). However, DOT has taught us in the past that when you call as "press," they freak out, send you in loops and you might get a call back or you might not. So this time, we just called the city as a regular person and got an answer faster than ever.

So here's what we found out when speaking to a traffic officer. We asked if it was illegal and she said no, but it is "like taking a chance." They will not write a ticket at a FAILED meter (there is no municipal code for this), but if the meter resets, in essence fixing itself, it is going to display 0:00 on the clock and now you are breaking the law (88.13(a) METERS - FAILURE TO DEPOSIT COIN or 88.13(b) OVERTIME USE OF METER SPACE.).

So there you have it. For the complete listing of parking violations, don't go to the FAILED city website because if they have it, you're not going to find it. Rather, LA City Nerd posted all of them last month.