'Meter Broken' Tape

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'll toss in a few anyway.

Here's James Schembari's item from yesterday's New York Times Auto blog.

Meter Madness

You don’t want to get Rhonda Talbot angry. A few years ago, Ms. Talbot got into an argument with a parking enforcement officer in Los Angeles who had just given her a $45 parking ticket, even though the meter was broken.

Ms. Talbot had placed a note on the meter, but the note had fallen off. She explained this to the officer, but he would not budge. So Ms. Talbot went home and stewed. And stewing, as we all know, is often the mother of invention. Ms. Talbot’s creation is Meter Broken tape. It is a roll of sticky bright yellow tape with Meter Broken printed repeatedly along its 15-foot length.

The idea is to wrap the tape around the parking meter, making it perfectly clear that the meter is indeed BROKEN.

“I have a couple of friends who cover it like a mummy,” Ms. Talbot said. But parking laws vary from city to city, so just because you wrap a meter in tape, don’t think you’re off the hook. For example, some municipalities say if the meter is broken, you can’t park there at all. In New York City, you can usually park legally at a broken meter for up to an hour.

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If you don't have any change, slapping a piece of this tape on a functioning meter might pay for itself several times over.

2 fifteen-foot rolls cost $11.