Where can you park? PPA has a map of Philly’s residential permit parking zones
The map comes after years of complaints from residents asking for accessible information. PPA data show that most parking violations were ticketed in Center City, South Philly, and North Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority has launched an online map of the city’s residential permit parking districts.
The map, which debuted in September, comes almost a decade after local web developer Lauren Ancona created her own such map after realizing the PPA didn’t have one.
“Our goal with the launch of the new residential permit district maps is to provide local residents with quick and convenient online access to delineate the numerous RPP districts throughout the city,” PPA spokesperson Martin O’Rourke said in an email.
Residents have been complaining about the lack of an accessible parking map for years.
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“I have sent PPA probably half a dozen RTK requests for this data, and they have repeatedly insisted they do not have any data about parking regulations on Philadelphia streets,” one resident posted on Reddit last year. “I do not believe them, but I’m also not about to sue them over this.”
Redditers shared a variety of tips to figure out where residential parking permits are required, including messaging PPA for the streets in residential zones, going through raw data, and using Google Street view to determine which streets don’t have signage.
PPA data shows that most parking violations were ticketed in Center City, South Philadelphia, and North Philadelphia between 2012 and 2017. The most violations were ticketed in zip code 19103, at 965,334 violations within the five-year span.
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The map, O’Rourke said, took four months to complete, including collecting data and ironing out kinks before uploading it online. In addition to color-coded borders of each regional permit parking area, the map shows where public parking is available throughout the city.
The map has been viewed over 109,000 times online as of Tuesday afternoon. PPA hasn’t received any feedback from residents since launching the map. “However, the sheer volume of views with no negative feedback is encouraging,” O’Rourke noted.