PPA began cracking down on sidewalk parking and five other offenses. The results are in: There’s plenty of bad behavior.
Enforcement officers have been writing tickets in all neighborhoods in the city, though the violations are more prevalent in denser areas such as Fishtown, North Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia.
Space is tight on the streets of Philadelphia, and some people seem to consider parking on the sidewalk or blocking an accessible curb cut as a necessity that harms nobody.
Yet those and similar offenses impede people with disabilities from getting around, and the Philadelphia Parking Authority launched a crackdown in mid-May.
The number of tickets issued for six mobility-related parking violations jumped 154% in the first 45 days of enhanced enforcement — a pilot to test the program — compared with the same period in 2023, according to a new PPA status report.
PPA officers wrote 25,797 tickets citywide during a trial period between May 13 and June 26, up from 10,124 for the same dates last year.
“The goal is, we want the numbers to drop so that we don’t have to write those violations because people are following the rules,” said PPA executive director Rich Lazer. “The numbers are peaking now because we’ve just started.”
PPA hired 30 new officers to carry out the crackdown. Lazer said the initiative would continue.
By far, the largest number of tickets was for sidewalk parking, followed by illegally occupying a parking space reserved for vehicles with handicapped plates or placards and blocking ADA-accessible ramps.
Enforcement officers have been writing tickets in all neighborhoods in the city, though the violations are more prevalent in denser areas such as Fishtown, North Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia.
“A lot of the little side streets only have one side of [curb] parking,” Lazer said, and people have been pulling cars onto the sidewalks for generations. “It was allowed for so many years and it just can’t happen.”
The new focus on accessibility is in line with PPA’s recent emphasis on tackling quality-of-life problems in the city, an expansion of its traditional mission. The agency has a patrol unit looking for vehicles that are blocking bicycle lanes, and started a popular program to tow abandoned vehicles. It also operates citywide red-light cameras and camera-speed enforcement along Roosevelt Boulevard.
Fines for parking on a sidewalk are $76 in Center City and $51 in other neighborhoods, and the same schedule applies to blocking access to accessible curb cuts and ramps. Parking in a space reserved for people with handicapped plates or placards costs violators $301 everywhere in the city.
“If we want to change behavior we’ve got to stay on it,” Lazer said. “The curbs in Philadelphia aren’t getting any bigger. They get more usage, but they’re the same size they always have been.”