In May of this year, the Philadelphia Parking Authority launched its bike lane enforcement program and we asked them to provide an update on the number of citations that have been issued up to the present time.
As you can see in the chart the program started off strong, with a 400% increase from April. However, this was followed by a steady decline during the summer bottoming out in August. Even so, those numbers were substantially higher than in previous months That trend has reversed in the fall with October numbers about equal to what they were in May.
Even with all those citations it might still feel imperceptible to the everyday bicycle rider, especially on streets like Spruce and Pine where curb space is at a premium. That’s probably because driver citations have been issued over a wide area, about 62% of the 2,077 citations issued have been issued in Center City and University City from 40th St to the Delaware River.
We continue to support PPA’s bike lane enforcement program and we hope that the program continues to expand and focus on parking hot spots. There are other actions that the City can take to reduce bike lane blocking such as the City’s no-parking ordinance, which was changed in 2019 to allow for parking for up to 20 minutes like adding loading zones where drivers can stop legitimately, ending the practice of handing out permits for dumpsters and construction parking in bike lanes, and expanding Camera-Assisted AI Technology to ticket cars illegally parked in bike lanes.
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