Broken parking meters may be causing some Houstonians to get ticketed downtown, according to a new piece aired tonight by KPRC Local 2 Investigates. Local 2 waded through almost 3,000 complaints filed with the city about meters on the fritz:

This month, our cameras found what the records show. We found parking meters that wouldn't take dollar bills. We found other meters that wouldn't print receipts to show drivers paid. Some drivers left notes on the meters or on their windshields, hoping to explain the problem and avoid a ticket.

"We get it into our system," said Liliana Rambo, director of parking management for the city. "Then we try to get to the meter as soon as we can."

Rambo says there are 2,800 parking meters across Houston, but they city has only four mechanics to fix them.

That's, what, only 700 meters for each mechanic? That's a lot of meters -- unless you ascribe to the Cool Hand Luke School of Parking Meter Repair.



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