The Parking Authority Follows Up on Blocked Bike Lane Complaints

The Parking Authority has given us the preliminary results of the #unblockbikelanes Twitter campaign and has promised us additional measures to improve the enforcement of parking restrictions in bike lanes.

This past December, we helped the Philadelphia Parking Authority launch a Twitter campaign to identify which bike lanes are most chronically blocked by motor vehicles. The PPA reports that over three months (approximately Jan-March), the #unblockbikelanes campaign generated 55 complaints covering 20 different streets. Over the same three months, the PPA and the Police Department wrote 264 tickets for parking in bike lanes at a subset of those locations.

We took the data they gave us and made a basic map comparing the location of complaints with the ticket locations. Red lines indicate where complaints were made and tickets written. Blue dots indicate where complaints were made but no tickets written. The thicker the red line, the more tickets were written on that street.

The main takeaway of this data is that the bulk of tickets are being written on the streets receiving the most complaints: Spruce & Pine Streets, N. 13th Street (between Filbert & Arch), and N. 22nd (near Lombard Street, in front of the 7-Eleven).

In addition to giving us this data, the PPA has told us they are committing to taking these actions to improve enforcement:

• Have a supervisor do a test run of placing a PPA Officer on a "bike lane detail" to cover Spruce & Pine (Front to 22nd Street), 13th and 22nd Streets.
• Direct more officers to enforcement on Fairmount Avenue.
• Direct more enforcement during peak hours and assign supervisors to the entire lengths of Spruce and Pine Streets.
• Direct more enforcement during morning peak hours on 22nd Street, especially at the intersection of Lombard and 22nd Street.
• Assign more mobile units to 13th Street b/w Filbert and Arch Street between 8am - 2pm.
• Have supervisors review the religious institutions' "courtesy" blocks with PPA Officers.

We appreciate the PPA being responsive to our concerns and the concerns of the thousands of bicyclists who use Philadelphia's bike lanes daily. Data shows that bike lanes make streets safer for all users, drivers included, so enforcing no-parking regulations in those lanes contributes to safer streets and fewer injuries all around.

UPDATE 12:15PM: In our meeting with the PPA, the topic of PPA vehicles blocking bike lanes was brought up. Our contact there said they have noticed those reports, and are instructing their officers to not do that. It is worth remembering that a PPA vehicle can stop in a bike lane to load or unload officers, same as a private vehicle or cab can load or unload passengers.

The PPA Wants You to Tweet at Them About Cars Parked in Bike Lanes

See a car parked in a bike lane? The Philadelphia Parking Authority will now be monitoring a Twitter hashtag you can use to report that car.

Tweet the location of the car to @PhilaParking and use #unblockbikelanes.

From today's PPA blog post announcing this new social media reporting technique:

"We’ll keep close watch of this hashtag to help us identify chronic problem areas throughout the city and make plans for the future. While we can’t promise that enforcement can be dispatched for every single tweet we receive—the logistics of that are just too complicated since cars often move before our parking enforcement officers can get to them—we are committed to working closely with the cycling community on this issue."

This initiative is one outcome of an ongoing conversation with the PPA about blocked bike lanes, and we thank them for recognizing the issue and taking this step. A bike lane is only a bike lane if it is unblocked and for the exclusive use of bicycles. And since the research supports the conclusion that bike lanes make streets safer for everyone, drivers included, we see no constituency rallying behind the disregard of bike lanes.

Should you encounter the new wave band The Cars blocking a bike lane, or know someone with even a child's
understanding of Photoshop who might want to assist this blog with dumb visual jokes, send an e-mail to nicholas@bicyclecoalition.org.

It's worth noting (with a sigh) that this does not mean the PPA will start ticketing cars parked in the Pine and Spruce lanes on Saturdays and Sundays. The understanding between Spruce and Pine religious congregations, the City, the Police Department, and the PPA that permits cars to park in the bike lanes on certain blocks during religious services is a separate issue and remains in effect.

So, when is a car illegally blocking a bike lane?
Seems like a good spot to review the laws. The distinctions between "parking" versus "standing" versus "stopping" are arcane and migraine-inducing. But here are the rules:

If the bike lane is adjacent to parked cars (example: Baltimore Ave, Fairmount Ave):

• Blocking the bike lane is considered double parking, which is illegal.

If the bike lane is adjacent to the curb (example: 22nd Street, Spruce Street, 13th Street): 

• "No person shall park a vehicle within a designated bike lane." [Philadelphia Code, Chapter 12 § 913(1)(c)(iii).]
• Where signs prohibits parking, cars may still stop to load/unload people or goods. [Chapter 12 § 904]
• "Operators of commercial vehicles shall be permitted an additional period of 20 minutes after loading or unloading to transact business incidental to such loading or unloading." [Chapter 12 § 904(2)]

Chapter 12 § 913 addresses the various circumstances in which stopping, standing, or parking are not allowed. It provides that there is "no parking" in bike lanes. Consequently, "stopping" and "standing" are not prohibited. In other words: both regular drivers and commercial vehicles are allowed to stop in a bike lane to load or unload stuff or people.

The difficulty, of course, is determining whether that car has been there for 3 minutes or 30 minutes. (Drivers, take note: flashers help explain your intentions and head off bicyclists' ire.)

The other variable is whether a street's parking signs say "no parking" versus "no stopping or standing." The PPA tells us that they ticket cars stopped in "No Stopping" areas, and give 20 minutes to cars stopped in "No Parking" areas, whether they are stopped in a travel lane or a bike lane.

UPDATE (12/18/13 4:40 pm): We received the following clarification on stopping vs. standing vs. parking from Charles Carmalt at MOTU:

A “No Standing” zone is different than a “No Stopping” zone.

• In a “No Parking” zone, you can leave your vehicle to unload your groceries and bring them inside in an expeditious fashion. 
• In a “No Standing” zone, you can stop against the curb to pick up or discharge someone, but the driver must remain with the vehicle. 
• In a “No Stopping” zone, you shall not stop moving unless ordered to do so by a police officer or directed to do so by a traffic control device –(Sign or signal) or of course if the travel lane is blocked or if a pedestrian is crossing in a crosswalk.

Checking In On The PPA Garage Overhaul At 8th & Filbert

Back in late May, the PPA unveiled designs for an overhaul of the dreary parking garage that straddles 8th street between Filbert and Arch. PlanPhilly covered the story, which features upgraded street-level retail, new lighting, and a design which will make the neighborhood look less like a set location from a Steven Seagal movie about a cop who doesn't play by the rules.

We are keeping an eye on the bike parking included in the final design. The Philadelphia Code requires 1 bicycle parking space for every 10 automobile parking spaces. Additionally, "bicycle parking spaces located in attended parking facilities shall be located next to the attendant booth or within an area under regular surveillance."

Monitored bicycle parking would help satiate the area's high demand for bicycle commuting parking. The design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd held a design charrette earlier this year which generated a word cloud for the project. Prominent in that word cloud was "bicycle parking."

Given the high level of design and creativity put into the plans for this project, and the sincere effort being made to obtain input from stakeholders, we hope the Philadelphia Parking Authority and Wallace Roberts & Todd will take this opportunity to provide innovative, high-quality, protected parking for bicycles. Renderings of the project unveiled at public meetings show a state of the art building. This gateway project deserves state of the art bicycle parking.

Rendering courtesy of Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC 

Parking Meter Removal Hits Ground Zero

It happened!

The Parking Authority's Smart Meter Conversion reached the 1500 Block of Walnut St Today. A block that often sees more than 30 bikes parked to meters, racks, poles and trees.



It's possible to lift this bike off the pole - 1500 Walnut St 8-20-09.

On a daily basis, the Bicycle Coalition has been receiving messages and questions from bicyclists noting the loss of parking meter heads and the rapidly dwindling supply of bike parking in Center City.

We've made several posts on the Coalition's blog here and here about this issue and we've been asking the Mayor's Office of Transportation repeatedly to let us know the progress of the discussions they have been having with the PPA about converting meters into racks.

It appears that while the the Mayor's Office on Transportation has come to some sort of understanding with the PPA that some poles will be converted, they haven't been able to share with the Coalition or the public any details of the agreement or if it is finalized. We don't know 1) how many meters will be converted, 2) the locations of the meter poles that will be converted; and 3) when the conversion will happen, . All we know is that the PPA has hit Ground Zero today and is removing meter heads from the 1500 block of Walnut Street (they are moving westward through Center City).

At Tuesday's Philadelphia City Committee meeting, we did ask Charles Carmalt, the City's Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator to request PPA to not remove the bar that sits on top double meter posts. He said he would make that request. We will post more information as we receive it from the Administration.

If you have problems with you bike because of the meter conversion contact the Parking Authority at - (215) 222-9100‎

or contact customer service

Sue Cornell
Philadelphia Parking Authority
3101 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
SCornell@philapark.org

UPDATE 2:20 PM: Message from Andrew Stober at the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities:

"Just got off the phone with the Parking Authority. It's going out to crews right now that meter heads with bikes locked to them are not be removed. Instead the meter head will be bagged and notices put on the bikes that should be removed in 24 hours.

Doing the Right Thing--Converting Meter Poles into Bike Parking

The Philadelphia Parking Authority's ongoing effort to replace parking meters with kiosks to economize on its operating costs was covered earlier this month by Philadelphia Gay News and Associated Press. Although it may be a good economizing measure, one of the potential costly effects of removing meter poles is eliminating the de-facto bicycle parking they were providing. Given Philadelphia's current bike parking shortage, eliminating over 7000 meter poles poses a huge potential for making a bad situation much worse!

The Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU) does appear to want to salvage the situation and hopefully, so does the Philadelphia Parking Authority. MOTU staff met last week with the Bicycle Coalition and Center City District to discuss where meter poles are most used as bicycle parking in Center City. Collectively, we identified which Center City streets experience high parking demand and agreed that all poles should be converted on those blocks, and for all other street blocks, we concurred that 3 poles per block side should be kept and converted. This comes to 1600 poles that ideally should be kept and converted into bike parking racks. The transportation and parking agencies of Baltimore and Los Angeles did work together to accomplish this and based on the costs they incurred (approximately $125-$175/pole) to retrofit a pole into a bike rack, converting 1600 poles would come to approximately in the range of $280,000.


L.A.'s meter hitches





The Mayor's Office of Transportation will be discussing the pole-to-bike rack conversion project with the Philadelphia Parking Authority this week. We're told that the City and PPA wants to do the right thing here, and we are hopeful it will work out. The PPA is spending $11 million on the pole-to-kiosk project. Given that $280,000 is approximately 4% of the project's budget, we think spending a relatively small amount of money to save and convert 1600 meter poles would make the PPA truly a parking agency for all vehicles, not just cars. Plus, recycling assets and retaining needed bicycle parking capacity is a worthwhile and necessary investment in green infrastructure for Philadelphia. Besides, it just makes common sense.