Parking in Philadelphia

Recently the City of Philadelphia increased parking meter rates from $1 per hour to $2 per hour. Some people support it, some hate it and some have mixed feelings.

Parking is a complex issue in this town. There are many factors at work:

1. The Philadelphia Parking Authority is widely hated, and not just because they are efficient at giving out tickets. The PPA is not controlled by the City of Philadelphia. Instead, it's controlled  by Republicans that were appointed by the State Legislature. To be a "Parking Enforcement Officer", it really helps to be a registered Republican and to make contributions to the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. The Parking Authority has red-light cameras throughout the city which are run by a private company owned by Republican donors. The reason why the Parking Authority is so diligent in writing tickets is because Republicans in the middle of the state hate Philadelphia. Even worse, the money the Parking Authority brings in is supposed to be helping Philadelphia schools. Instead, they've largely been stiffing us for the past five years - because Republicans in the middle of the state hate us.
2. In any story you'll read about parking rates, it will all be about Center City. If you're not familiar, Center City Philadelphia is the downtown area with all the big office buildings. The definition of the area is flexible, with most people drawing the boundaries as Vine Street to the north and South Street to the south. Personally, I define it more broadly, from Spring Garden to Washington Ave., which makes it roughly two miles on each side, making it perfectly walkable to the central Market St. corridor where the majority of the office space is. In the Inquirer story linked above, the businessperson who got the ticket lives within Center City, about two miles from the parking space. That's a 40 minute walk or so, but an 8 minute drive. It's also a $7 cab ride, but he would rather drive his own car and risk a $36 ticket. The point is this: The people who park in Center City really, really don't want to consider an alternative to (a) driving their own car and (b) parking it as close as possible to where they are going.
3. The rate hike is justified as a way of freeing up parking spaces by causing people to park in garages. That's either a lie or misguided. The primary purpose of the rate hike is to bring in more revenue. Either people will pay the higher rate or they will more frequently get tickets, the fines for which have themselves gone up. And if they want to feed the meter, they're more likely to buy the preloaded smart card, in $20 or $50 increments, which means the Parking Authority gets a lot of revenue up front and doesn't have to deal with coins in the meters. The secondary purpose of the rate hike is to deter people from driving, which will have the effect of people taking more cabs, which themselves are regulated by the Parking Authority.

So, people hate the Parking Authority for reasons not related at all to the meter rates. The Parking Authority is actually evil, which taints everything that they do. But the bottom line is that most people who are complaining about the meter rates going up are people who value their own convenience so highly they would feel put out by anything that prevented them from parking directly in front of their destination.

Having said that, public transportation into and out of Center City outside of rush hour really does suck. It's not reasonable to expect people who have variable schedules, who have to make it to multiple appointments in a day or have family obligations to always take the train, because they are guaranteed to be delayed. When I was commuting to Philly before I moved here, I would park at the Spectrum parking lot in South Philly and take the Broad Street line up to City Hall. That was during rush hour, so I could count on the subway. I have long thought that any effort to move cars out of Center City should be based on satellite parking lots with relatively cheap rates with cabs or shuttles nearby to bring people downtown. I still think that would work for the commuter set, and for the infrequent visitor, they really should use a garage.

Comments

[miss bee]

to be fair, 40 minutes is a long walk in any type of shitty weather (whether it be cold or hot or precipitating).

but i agree with everything else you say. boo PPA.

[Frank]

I agree with Miss Bee, and it's not just about the weather.

A 40 minute walk to and from work turns into an hour and a half of walking. As relaxing and entertaining--often more entertaining than relaxing--as that may be, it's not something most folks, especially parents, can give up every working day.

When I lived in Narberth and worked in Center City (which I define as Spring Garden to South and river to river), I took the train. My little car would not move from Sunday to Saturday. It was great.

But, if I were to take the SEPTA train and the El from northern Delaware (that's state, not county) to, say, Letitia and Chestnut, it would take at least an hour and a half, assuming a short wait for the train at either end.

So I just save up my quarters.

[Atrios]

47 bus runs up 7th about every 6 mins. change at walnut, where buses cruise by about ever 3 mins. 25 min. trip, max. $2 or $20/wk.

drive time is 8 mins. if you don't count the "looking for a parking spot" bit.

[Mithras]

drive time is 8 mins. if you don't count the "looking for a parking spot" bit.

Right. I should have thrown in there that people perceive driving themselves as much faster than it really is.

[washedmass]

ewwww.....huddle on a bus with the unwashed masses.

id rather get the ticket.

when i was 13 i started 4 years of commuting 5 days a week the 1 1/2 hours from my home in south philly to my school in roxborough. trolley, subway, bus. i cant believe my parents let me ride the freakin broad st subway at 6:30am every morning when i was 13 yrs old. and that was back when it really was a toilet. with giant rats. i would never ever let my kids do that. i was a suburban mom and drove them everywhere. and as a result they would never even think of taking public transportation. it just would never enter their head as a viable thought. i think i failed them in some way because of this.

by the way my ex husband is a transportation planner specializing in bike, pedestrian and public transport....he was fired last year (by a loon admin guy who was hired to fire people and save money...the parking lot people werent let go of course) and since there is a hiring freeze in philly there are very few people working on these issues in the city. ex is only seeing job listings in colorado, oregon, and brazil.

[Glomarization]

Frank writes:

A 40 minute walk to and from work turns into an hour and a half of walking. As relaxing and entertaining--often more entertaining than relaxing--as that may be, it's not something most folks, especially parents, can give up every working day.

And yet people, including parents, spend the same time commuting by car every day. Commute time is commute time, whether it's by car, foot, or transit.

[phillygrrl]

I never knew about point #1. Interesting, M. Also, have you ever seen Parking Wars? Great show on A&E.