Bureaucracies have some funny ways of saying they were wrong and you were right. Even if they can't tell you they made a mistake, it's nice to see them fix a problem they created.

The latest bureaucracy to demonstrate this is Massport, which operates the parking garages at Boston's Logan International Airport. Their mistake was issuing me a citation for parking my fully electric 2015 Nissan Leaf in one of their parking spaces for clean-air vehicles.

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The ticket cited me for putting a vehicle that was not a hybrid into one of the green spaces. While that is true, the Leaf is not a hybrid, surely the Leaf is more of a “clean air vehicle” than any hybrid.

The signs were simple and clear:
“Parking for hybrid vehicles ONLY.” One can hardly fault some compliance officer from placing a ticket on the car, right?

Previous sign at Boston Logan airport restricting green car parking to hybrids [CREDIT: John Briggs]

Previous sign at Boston Logan airport restricting green car parking to hybrids [CREDIT: John Briggs]

Nevertheless, I contested the ticket and got a response saying the ticket was “administratively dismissed.”  Note that they didn’t say they made a mistake. Or that they were sorry. Or that they were working to correct the situation. The ticket was dismissed as if there were no problem at all.

But despite the lame-sounding form letter, the bureaucrats at MassPort undertook a serious effort to really fix the problem. They put up a new sign at each of the 173 green parking spots (or at least the two dozen I looked at in one section of the garage).

READ THIS: Illegal parking in charging spots: The culprit? Electric cars

The new signs are more inclusive, welcoming a wider range of clean-air vehicles:
“Parking for Hybrid, Electric, and Alternative Fuel Vehicles ONLY”

This longer-winded sign seems to more accurately reflect the goals for those parking spots and might have prevented my electric vehicle from getting a parking ticket.

John Briggs green-car parking ticket dismissed

John Briggs green-car parking ticket dismissed

Previous secondary vinyl signage stating “Preferred Parking for Hybrid, Alternative Fuel and Powered Vehicles Only” has also been removed as it was surely only adding to confusion.

Strangely, the website has not been updated and does not indicate that electric vehicles can park in these spaces. The spaces are still only listed for “hybrids and alternative fueled vehicles” with alternative fuel being listed only as CNG, propane, and hydrogen. Personally, I’ve never seen any of those types of vehicles parked there. Hopefully the website will be updated at some point.

CHECK OUT: What does a green car mean to you? Take our Twitter poll

So apparently, even though a bureaucracy can’t admit a mistake, it can fix one. Chalk one up for Massport.

Now let me see if I can talk them into having a few DC fast chargers at their parking garages. I’m not sure Level 2 chargers are the right tool for an airport parking lot.