To Park, Or Not To Park?

Updated July 29, 2011 4:37pm

Captain Jackson of the University City Police Department contacted Patch to announce a change to the broken parking meter policy.

“We're going to be using just a couple of switches for the broken meters,” Jackson said. “When the parking controllers are out there writing the tickets for the meters and they determine one is broken, they're going to put a cover over it to...let people know it’s broken, and if it’s broken and we know about it, they can park at the meters until they’re repaired.”

Captain Jackson added that the coverings will remain until the meters are fixed, at which point normal metering rules for the space will resume.

Original Story:

Sometimes it’s tricky knowing what plan is best when parking in a metered part of town, especially when a meter is broken.

Resident Kim Feld told University City Patch she has a particularly hard time finding parking in The Delmar Loop, and she often finds meters with broken screens or that will not accept change.

“Seven times out of 10, I pull into a spot on Delmar, either along the street, at a meter or in a metered lot, and the meter is either broken or missing,” Feld said. “Truth be told, the meters are the main reason that keeps me from shopping The Loop and going elsewhere where it is easier to park and I can count on the meters working when there are metered spaces.”

Captain Jackson of the University City Police Department said if it’s broken, don’t park there, or you could be ticketed.

The official policy is for a ticket to be issued if money has not been put in the meter. If just the screen on a meter is broken and money has been added, that will be taken into account, but Jackson warned that a ticket could still be issued.

The only time a ticket will not be issued is if there is no meter and nothing that clearly delineates the spot as a no parking zone.

Jackson said that the placement and spacing of meters was up to the discretion of the public works department, and the job of the University City Police Department is simply to enforce.

“We don’t have a full-time person on staff to check on the meters,” Jackson said, adding that the department finds out about some broken meters only when someone calls them in.

The University City Police Department does not handle the fixing or replacement of broken meters, which falls under the finance department, but they do handle the reporting of broken meters so that the meters may be fixed.

Jackson recommends calling her personally at 314-505-8654 if you encounter a broken meter. She added that it helps to get a meter number or an address that the meter is in front of, to better address the problem.