Parking in Philly, We All Hate It

In my previous post, I explained what my reason for trying to solve the parking problem was. That reason is mainly because of how much it affects me and my family and everyone around me everyday. When my teacher told me to think about something that related to me and that I wanted to see better, I immediately thought of this. So, the last post is just looking at the problem, and seeing what I could possibly do about this, and why this is even a problem in the first place. Then I conclude with the main reason why people park illegally, which is pretty much just tradition.

Since my last post, new articles have come out due to Covid that are surprisingly related to parking. So because of the city being practically shut down, a lot of the travelers that usually come here to eat, tour, and party, now don’t. That means much less cars, and much more parking spots. Also, no one is going into work, so you can account for that too. I haven’t found many articles on this, but it’s pretty much a given. That being said, parking also may have also gotten a little worse. Let me explain, so restaurants are just now opening back up to their inside seating. So what have they been doing for the past year? Outdoor seating. But where do the seats go, we live in the city. They go right in the street, blocking the way for traffic and parking. I’ve personally seen this many times, but it doesn’t speak for every restaurant, so this is slightly less of an issue.

Wanting to do a little more research on this project, I reached out to my neighbor who works as a meter revenue collector. He told me a lot about how the PPA has worked in the past, and how it is changing today. The interview is linked [here] (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FHjv6_8-NYTpM_P63iPwdAvHs_p7sE1D/view?usp=sharing0) is very interesting and talks more in depth about the coronavirus and how it conflicts parking.

I feel that these changes are much needed. If people see that there are less spots possible to park in, maybe they won’t take the car out as much. There are many different means of public transportation that are cheap and pretty easy to use. This would significantly cut down on traffic, and most of all, parking problems. Road closures for pedestrians and outside seating might just be the accidental solution to this problem.

What I pursued for my agent of change is a bicycle taxi service/informant. Basically, I ride around on my tandem bicycle and pick up people and take them where they want to go. While im riding them, I talk to them about parking issues and inform them on how they can help. This has worked well for me because I don’t even ask for payment, I just ask where they are going. I do this because I think that any trip to center city without a car is a worthwhile trip.

Above is shown parking conjestion