Following are notes (augmented with subsequent comment and clarification) covering a meeting the Parking Sub-committee had with the Philadelphia Parking Authority. It was our second meeting with PPA, the first occurring last year to meet supervisors covering the QV area.  This second meeting was with Rick Dickson, a 25-year veteran of the PPA. We will continue to meet and work with PPA to improve parking availability and ease in QV. As you review the meeting notes, we think you will find there is a lot involved in making improvements. So, while the changes may come more slowly than everyone would like, we are working on them. If you would like to help us or any other QV committee, contact us through the QVNA Web site or call the QV office (215-592-7488).

Meeting Notes:
Guest: Rick Dickson, Senior Director for Strategic Planning & Administration, Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA)

Present: Jackie Brown, Vicki Goffredo, Bill Goldberg (last 1/3), Lisa Lewis, Walt Lowthian, Rich Sagall, Steve Saunders, Joan Weiner

Notes by Walt Lowthian – final issue June 3, 2006

Visitor Parking:
Dickson: Recently he has been looking into ways to improve the PPA visitor parking permit program, including looking at programs in other cities. Examples:

Evidently, Boston has streets that are time regulated on one side (i.e., residential parking) and unregulated the other side (theoretically allowing visitor parking). It doesn’t work. The unregulated parking stays occupied by residential, non-residential and non-visitor.

Some cities have “household permits”, but what results is a black market in which the permits are sold to others to allow short and long term free parking.

London has a program in which residents can buy a book of permits. Each is for a limited number of hours. From the information I have been able to gather so far it works like a lottery ticket. A resident scratches off the date and time, enters the visitor’s license plate number and places it on the vehicle. They are sold in books of five. I am requesting a sample for us to look at.

PPA has been “racking our brains” on how to achieve convenience yet maintain program integrity (i.e., prevent abuse). We would like to do a pilot program. (QV Parking suggested possible administering out of the QV office and/or the police mini-station at 9th and South Sts.)

Lisa had contacted Cambridge MA (Lenore Lawrence 617-345-4709) to discuss their visitor parking program. Dickson will follow up (?). He will get back to us in a couple of weeks on progress on visitor parking.

Use of the QV “south” parking lot for visitor parking was also discussed. [The “south” lot is the open barricaded/gated paved space south of the existing QVNA monthly parking lot on Christian St. at Front. The lot space is rented by QVNA from the Interstate Land Management Corp (ILMAC) a state agency and managed by Parkway Corp. The lot was developed by QVNA (then president Colleen Puckett) to mitigate the parking problems in QV. The fact that this was possible was due to earlier QVNA negotiations when I-95 was being planned. Community action has a long (and lasting) history.]

Regarding the “south” lot Dickson said:

-QV can enter into an agreement for PPA to enforce parking on the lot as currently done for Amtrak at the 30th St. Station by assigning an officer to patrol the lot as part of a regular beat. Ticket revenue would go to the City. PPA is responsible for the following neighborhood lots in the area.:

Passyunk Ave. between 7th and 8th (posted for Residential Parking
700 Christian St. (free parking)
9th and Ellsworth (Leased to the 9th Street Business Association)
9th and Carpenter (Leased to the 9th Street Business Association)

PPA enforcement would allow use of the new “multi-space” meter technology (see below). This would allow different rates to be charged to different users (residents, visitors, non-residents, senior citizens, etc.) and for different time periods.

-While not a visitor parking strategy, a possible example of a multi-user parking lot is the no-charge municipal lot on Passyunk between 7th and 8th which is posted for a 3-hour time limit except for residents. The lot effectively operates like on-street parking.

Multi-space Meters:
PPA will begin installing “multi-space” meters soon on all parking spaces on 2nd St. between Lombard and South (in front of Commerce Bank, Rite-Aide, Wawa , etc. Multi-space meters eliminate the old-style meter-on-a-post at every parking spot. Instead, at a central block location a machine that dispenses timed parking permits that are placed inside the car on the dash. This technology allows different rate structures for different times…..even allows to set up “No Parking” for times when the street area will be used for events sponsored by South Street Head House Square business association.

The technology can also differentiate between users. For example, one rate for those with residential parking permits, another for non-residents.

Residential Permit Parking:
The first evening regulations were started about 20 years ago in Society Hill. The typical 2-hour time limit evolved as what seemed to be reasonable answering the question: “How much time do people need to do what they need to do?” In other words, two hours is not written in stone.

We discussed “coverage” (regulated days and hours for each day):

- Basically, the restricted hours (coverage and duration) can be anything the community [specifically each block, that is, one side of a street] wants. If a block is more than 50% residential on the ground floor, it can obtain, change or eliminate posting by petition with more than 50% of block residents in favor. The petition must be circulated by a resident of that block. Evidently, Councilman DiCicco typically has a secret ballot conducted. He then writes enabling legislation for an 8-month trial. If residents are happy with the results there is an ordinance to make the change permanent.

- Sunday is “free” (not regulated) almost everywhere. But, some businesses (e.g., in Old City, the Parkway-museum area and Peen’s Landing) have requested Sunday restrictions as well in order to have rotating spaces available for customers.

- According to a street survey (Bainbridge St. to Washington Ave.) by QVNA Parking, QV is about 70% covered with residential parking with restricted times typically 8:00am – 6:30pm M – W and 8:00am – 12:00midnight Th – Sat. However, there is a fair amount of variation. QVNA Parking is looking at the coverage, duration and variation to determine if these can be upgraded, thereby better controlling abusive non-residential parking in order to open up residential parking spaces.

- One source of problems according to several committee members is the lack of ticketing after around 4:30pm and 9:30 or 10:00pm. Dickson indicated that the day shift is 9 to 5, but on-street is, practically speaking, 9:30 to 4:30. So, this does allow parking, say, at 3:00 pm to go un-ticketed even if the 2-hour restriction is in effect until 6:00pm. Dickson said the PPA is looking at increasing the size of the 2 to 10 shift to extend enforcement hours on weekdays.

A similar problem can occur in the late evening Thursday through Saturday since enforcement ends at midnight. Dickson said it might be possible to extend hours.

- [Comment by Walt: From the above its obvious that the time restriction issue is more complicated than a first look would reveal. As a practical matter, a 2-hour parking restriction with, say 8am to 6pm coverage, means that a vehicle can park shortly after 4pm without fearing a ticket. Since PPA staff effectively leaves the area at 4:30pm (on those days with 6pm end), the effective time a vehicle can park without fear of a ticket moves up to just after 2:30pm. This is a whole side of “enforcement” that hadn’t occurred to me, at least. It looks like we have a great deal of head scratching with PPA to move toward more effective enforcement.]

- In most cases a residential permit requires the owner to show car registration and proof of address, meaning that only PA licenses meet this standard. However, there are two cases when the license plate may be from a different state: a person with military orders to be located in this area and a company supplied vehicle (which requires verification from the company as well as proof of living address.)

Parking in Front of Garages:
The idea that owners should be able to park in front of their own garages was discussed.

- Legally there are a couple issues involved. One is a state law that prohibits blocking a driveway. The other involves a state law that prohibits “reserving a specific spot for a specific person”; for example, handicap spaces cannot be so reserved. [We need to get the state code to look at this.]

- Dickson said that even so, the PPA up to a couple of years ago had a policy of not ticketing unless the owner requested. However, [with increasing scarcity of spaces] this policy was not protecting the owners against having their driveways blocked. There were numerous complaints and inconsistent enforcement. Therefore, the PPA policy is to ticket.

- Also, in the case of side-by-side garages, there have been problems with one neighbor blocking the other.

- Dickson says that a system of placards does not work.. [Where has this been tried?]

- We wondered about assigning the space to a specific license plate, but were back to the legal problem.
Bus Stops

It was noted that busses don’t pull over to the curb at bus stops on our one-way streets, but nevertheless a bus-length (or more) curb space is marked “No Parking”. Dickson said this is the situation city-wide and that PPA has gotten little cooperation from SEPTA in reducing the length of the No Parking zone. Also, the Streets Dept. actually sets the length of the bus zones. PPA does its best to squeeze what it can. [It sounds like this will take some digging to talk with all the parties involved.]

Business Loading Zones:
- There is an application and review process and a fee for the installation of the zone. The contact person is Timothy Thornton, 215-683-9428, tthornton@philapark.org.

- If the zone extends over to another property, the consent of the property owner is required.

- If the zone appears to be abused, is obsolete or the hours don’t appear to match those of the business, contact the PPA area analyst who will investigate.

- Currently, there is no process for considering residential parking or comments.
Temporary “No Parking” Signs

- PPA recognizes that these are often a problem since a resident doesn’t know when they are put up. These signs are posted by the Police based on a permit issued by the Streets Dept. The Streets Department contact is Dwayne Bowens, 215-686-5525.

- Legally, the signs can be put up as late as 8pm the day before the posting is effective. It the sign is put up late a ticket can usually be rescinded. [We need to determine the procedure to do this.]

- Walt stated that from what he understands, simply contacting the Police Community Relations Officer…Ace Delgado in QV’s case…is sufficient to get a batch of signs that a group like QVNA can put up…..for example, for tree planting. Dickson was unaware of police issuing signs for neighborhood use.

Badly Placed Signs / Obsolete or Confusing Signs:
- QV has a link on its web site for residents to report badly placed, obsolete or confusing parking regulation signs. Go to qvna.org; then click on “Help Create More Street Parking” and submit the requested information.

- According to Dickson the legal requirement for “setback” of parking signs from a corner is 20 feet from the crosswalk or where the crosswalk would be marked. As a practical matter PPA makes the distance a short as possible without creating a safety hazard.. PPA may extend the clearance (demarked with a sign) where visibility is a problem.

-“No Parking School Hours”. Dickson said these signs will be changed to the specified times: “No Parking 7:30 am to 3:30 pm” [Presumably Mon –Fri.] to avoid the problem of not knowing when parking is allowed. [Then the question arises about summer time, vacations, etc.]

- It was decided that QVNA Parking will work directly with Ketura McCleary, PPA Area Analyst, to move or correct) signs that we identify and she verifies as being badly placed or incorrect. In Washington Sq. West, PPA walked the streets to relocate signs and meters that were located when cars were longer.
Various Enforcement Issues

- Parking on sidewalks. Illegal. PPA should enforce (ticket) parking on sidewalks

- Parking in crosswalks. Illegal. PPA should ticket a vehicle for being in a cross walk even if not marked (i.e. within 20 feet of the corner). However, the car cannot be towed unless the location or block is posted “Tow Zone”. [Committee to discuss the possibility of posting all QV blocks “Tow Zone”.]

- Construction or construction dumpsters that block a sidewalk need a permit with time limitations. Permit is obtained from the Streets Dept., Traffic Coordinator, Dwayne Bowens at 215-686-55525. [We need to find out more about this. How is the permit issued? How can we be informed of the terms of the permit? Suppose no permit has been issued; who is contacted; what is the enforcement mechanism?]

- PPA officers will soon have hand held computers. This will check permit validity, be data entry terminals for tracking parked vehicles, maintain a record of the officers’ activity and locations.

- PPA has about 230 enforcement officers.

- PPA Enforcement Requests. PPA can be called to report a problem or request enforcement (during hours PPA officers are on the street). Phone number is 215-683-9773.

- Saving parking spaces with a cone, chair, etc. Illegal. In this case the police must be called to enforce.

- Parked Trailers. If parked on-street in a residential parking zone Dickson said “If the trailer has a license plate [PPA] will find a way to issue tickets.”

- Painted lines on the street in front of a garage. An owner must obtain a permit from the Streets Dept. to paint lines. If the area appears too large it can be reported to the Streets Dept., Traffic Engineering Div. The engineer for Queen Village is Kristen Delrosi, 215-686-5535. [We need to find out more about this. Specifically, what is the size (length) allowed?]

- Blocking a street is a highway violation that carries a $35 fine. [The Committee believes that only the police can enforce this; for PPA to issues a parking ticket the street must be posted “No Parking in This Street” or similar.}

- “No Parking” signs on a narrow street enable PPA to write a ticket for “blocking” the street as a parking violation. [However, the “Enforcement Directive” indicates that the parked vehicle must be timed for 20 minutes (to allow for loading/unloading) before ticketing. This seems to be an important practical constraint on the enforcement in this situation. The committee needs to discuss this.]

Disputing Parking Tickets:
- If the ticket was written at a time when the regulation should not be enforced, you can call the number on the ticket (215-561-3636) and request an investigation. If that is the case, the ticket can be cancelled.

- If the license plate year sticker is missing from the plate, but you have renewed the registration, a ticket can be appealed with a copy of the registration and, pending confirmation from the state, cancelled.

- In general, situations that can be independently verified (i.e., ticket with a valid permit, broken meter, ticketed during unregulated hours, etc.) can be handled by mail; other disputes must be heard at a hearing.

Smart Cards:
PPA is pushing “Smart Cards” as the most convenient way to pay for parking and various transportation. PPA is negotiating to have “Smart Cards” used on SEPTA, PATCO and for taxi fares. PPA hopes to integrate with Easy Pass to create a Universal Transportation Card.

Philly CarShare:
Dickson: Incredible job of eliminating cars (many second cars) on the streets. PCS claims a reduction of 3000. According to Dickson CCRA (Center City Residents Association ?) is reviewing a proposal from PCS to add several additional “pods” in their area.

Efficient Car Parking:
- There is no law or regulation requiring a driver to pull up or back to the “No Parking” sign in order to maximize space usage.

Action Items:
- Bill and Vicki will work on verifying complaints/suggestions regarding parking sign locations and language.
- Lisa will continue to investigate Visitor parking permit programs.
- Walt will publish the meeting notes on the QV web and talk with the QVNA board and Jeff Rush (on ILMAC board of directors) about the QVNA “south” parking lot area.

- Rick Dickson will:
Continue to look into visitor parking programs and get back to us in 2 –3 weeks.

Look into moving the Philly CarShare spot on 400 block of Catharine to either end of the block between Leithgow and Lawrence to improve parking space efficiency. (This will require sign relocation and changing pavement markings…..the latter done by PCS.)

Follow up on the Kenny Klemowiecz complaint to put up 7/22 permit signs in the vicinity of 6th

Other:
There is a lot of information here. I wonder if we can begin to organize it into a “handbook” or “information sheet” concerning parking issues. Perhaps other “transportation” information (e.g., SEPTA use, bicycle routes, etc.) could be included in a QVNA publication. Comments?