SEPTA will officially use AI to ticket cars parked illegally in bus lanes

Parked in a bus lane on Walnut Street? Artificial intelligence could soon help ticket you.

Mayor Jim Kenney signed a law on Thursday that enables SEPTA buses to use cameras outfitted with AI technology to help the Philadelphia Parking Authority ticket vehicles parked in bus lanes or at bus stops.

“One of the most annoying things about this city is people stopping their cars wherever they want to stop them, in bus lanes, double parking. It just screws everything up,” Kenney said at a news conference Thursday.

The bill, proposed by City Councilmember Mark Squilla, followed a springtime pilot of the technology that uncovered thousands of cars obstructing bus lanes and blocking stops on just two routes in Philadelphia and Upper Darby.

The new law is happening alongside SEPTA’s so-called Bus Revolution, an overhaul of the transit agency’s bus network that it hopes will increase reliability and shorten travel times to boost ridership.

» READ MORE: How does the SEPTA Bus Revolution impact you?

At the news conference, SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said blockages contribute to a spiral of bus delays that end up costing the transit agency millions of dollars. According to a 2019 study SEPTA commissioned from Econsult Solutions, Center City congestion causes 1.7 million hours of passenger delays per year, adding $15.4 million to yearly operating costs.

Officials hope the technology will help decrease traffic congestion and improve pedestrian safety while making bus service more accessible for those with physical disabilities, since buses are not always able to deploy ramps when vehicles obstruct stops.

Here’s what we know — and what we don’t — about how the AI technology will work to help ticket illegally parked vehicles.

In essence, kind of like speed or red-light cameras.

Cameras attached to the windshields of select SEPTA buses will use artificial intelligence to determine if a car is stopped or parked at a bus stop or in a bus-only lane. Then, it will transmit the vehicle’s license plate number and precise location to the Philadelphia Parking Authority using cloud technology.

From there, PPA employees will review footage to determine if a violation has actually occurred and issue a ticket if necessary, PPA executive director Rich Lazer told reporters Thursday.

“We want to make it clear that a human being — not a computer — will issue tickets,” a city spokesperson told The Inquirer.

The PPA will issue a request for proposals from contractors able to provide both the cameras and support services, said the city spokesperson, calling the selection process “open and competitive.”

The transit agency used artificial intelligence cameras from Silicon Valley start-up Hayden AI — which have also been installed on public bus systems in New York City and Washington, D.C. — for the pilot.

In New York, bus speeds on routes outfitted with the cameras have increased by 40%, and on one popular route, crashes dropped by 30%. The city has issued more than 224,000 tickets for bus lane violations, generating about $11 million in revenue since February.

The pilot ran for 70 days between April and June on two of Philly’s most popular routes: 21 and 42, which use bus-only lanes on Chestnut and Walnut Streets to run between Upper Darby, West Philly, and Center City.

During the pilot, the cameras detected nearly 36,400 instances of illegally parked vehicles blocking Center City bus lanes and bus stops in West Philly and Upper Darby on those two routes alone. According to a report on the pilot results, on average, just over half the routes’ stops were blocked at some point during the day, and some West Philly stops were obstructed 20% to 30% of the time.

» READ MORE: SEPTA cameras documented more than 36,000 vehicles blocking bus lanes and stops

“When even one car or truck illegally uses road or curb space dedicated for transit service, it creates an obstruction that may cause hundreds of riders to be delayed,” the report said. “Most importantly, it also endangers the safety of riders and pedestrians in our Philadelphia community.”

No tickets or warnings were issued during the pilot.

“We don’t know how many or which bus and trolley routes will be outfitted with camera-based technology at this point,” the city spokesperson said. But officials said they will start by focusing on routes in University City and Center City, given the sheer number of violations that occurred in both areas during the pilot.

According to the law itself, the camera program’s enforcement area includes routes along Walnut Street, Market Street, and JFK Boulevard, between Front and 63rd Streets, as well as all other streets in the area bounded by Spring Garden Street, South Street, and the Delaware and Schuylkill.

The PPA aims for the program to begin within the next six months to a year, the city spokesperson said. Once the cameras are up and running, officials said, the PPA will send out warnings to violators for the first 30 days before distributing tickets.

The city spokesperson classified the law as “a PPA on-street parking program.” Revenue would be returned to the city after operating costs are paid.

The law states that SEPTA and the PPA have the authority to enter a contract with whoever becomes the camera vendor and hire staff “to implement the camera-based enforcement system.”

The city spokesperson did not respond to questions about the program’s projected budget.