Weekend Parking on Spruce & Pine:

Survey & Analysis of Car Parking in Bike Lanes on

Spruce, Pine & 13th Streets for Religious Service Attendees

February 2015

Introduction

The City of Philadelphia has a policythat allowscar parking in the buffered bike lanes on Sundayon designated blocks near religious institutions(formerly allowed in travel lanes, prior to bike lane striping),primarily on Spruce and Pine Streets. The Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Bicycle Coalition have been working together to address concerns of the bicycle community regarding parking on these street segments that violates the policy.

There appear to be at least three types of non-compliance with the parking policy. The first is congregants who do not display a placard. At least one religious institutionprovides information on their website about where parking may occurbut does not mention placards. The second group is congregants who stay past the time limits of the policy. The third is drivers not attending religious institutions who see other cars parked and assume that they can park on these street segments, too.

On February 8, 2015 a team of volunteer surveyors counted the number of cars parked in the bike lanes on Spruce Street, Pine Street, and two blocks of 13th Street. Surveyors noted whether or not the cars were displaying a parking placard from a religious institution[1]. The results of their observations were collected and analyzed. This survey revealed a number of insights into parking behavior along these corridors. The three main findings from this survey are:

  • non-placarded carsare parked in the bike lanes on 14 blocks of Spruce and Pine Streets and 2 blocks of 13th Street
  • a portion of the non-compliant parking is likelycongregants without placards, and
  • lack of parking signage on the street may inadvertently add to the problem of illegal parking.

This information should be very helpful in developing strategies to curb illegal parking on these street segments.

Methodology

On Sunday, February 8, 2015 surveyors counted cars parked in the buffered bike lanes on Spruce (Second Street to 22nd Street), Pine Street(Front Street to 21st Street) and the 300 and 400 blocks of 13th Street. Observations occurred from 8:30 AM to 1:30PM to determine the extent of parking policy violations on the street segments where the city has a policy allowing congregants to park in the bike lanes during religious service hours. A second survey was performed on Sunday, March 6, 2015 of the 1600 through 2100 blocks of Spruce and Pine from 1:30 to 3:00 PM to capture the parking behavior later in the day.

Results

Summary

The survey data indicates that a large percentage of parked cars are not displaying a religious institution-issued placard. The top five problem areas are: Pine Street 300-400 blocks and 1600-2000 blocks, Spruce Street 400-600 blocks and 1600-1900 blocks, and the 300-400 block of 13th Street.

Pine Street

There were no cars observed parked in the bike lane on the following blocks: 100, 200, and 500-1500. The highest number of cars parked without placards occurred on Pine Street, where surveyors observed 100% of the cars in the 300 block at 10:00 AM, 10:30 AM, noon, and 12:30 PM. In the 400 block of Pine Street surveyors observed 100% of the cars had no placards at 10:00 AM and 92% of the cars had no placard at 10:30 AM. In the noon to one PM time slot 71-75% had no placard.

West of Broad Street on Pine Street, 100% of the cars observed on Pine Street in the 1900, 2000, and 2100 blocks did not display placards. On the 1900 block observations were made at 9:30, 11:00 and 11:30. On the 2000 block observations were made at 11:00, 11:30 and 1:00. On the 2100 block observation was made at 1:00 PM. At 3 PM there was still one car parked on each of the blocks 1900, 2000, and 2100 without a placard.

Figure 1 graphically illustrates the proportion of cars with placards to cars without placards. The orange represents cars without placards and the blue represents cars with placards. Each bar representsthe individual survey observation times. The x-axis is the block of Pine Street and the y-axis is the number of parked cars.

Block of Pine Street

Figure 1

Spruce Street

There were no cars observed parked in the bike lane on the following blocks: 200, 300, 700 through 1500 and 2000 through 2100.

On the 400 block of Spruce Street surveyors observed non-compliant parking throughout the day though at lower levels than on Pine Street. At 10:00 AM, 40% of had no placard, at 10:30 33% had no placard, at 12:30 PM, 59% of the cars had no placard. On the 500 block of Spruce Street at 12:30 38% of the cars had no placard.

West of Broad Street, the 1800 block of Spruce had 35% without placards at 11 AM, 39% at noon, and 56% at 1PM. On the 1900 block of Spruce at 1 pm 50% of the cars had no placard. Figure 2 graphically represents the data.

Block of Spruce Street

Figure 2

13th Street

Non-compliant parking was high on the 300 and 400 blocks observed near St. Luke’s Church. At 11:30 AM there were 69% of vehicles without placards. At noon there were 72% with out placards on the 300 block of S. 13th and 60% on the 400 block of S. 13th Street Block.

Comments:

Turnover times are a critical time for enforcing parking regulations. Several surveyors observed congregants leaving services and, upon moving their car, non-congregants immediately pulled into the parking spot. This supports the hypothesis that some portion of non-compliant parking occurs, possibly innocently, due to the assumption that these are legal parking spaces. In the absence of proper signage and standard parking placards this behavior is inevitable.

Surveyors also observed carsnot displaying placards whose occupants appeared to be attending services.

Conclusions:

Non-compliant parking in the bike lane is a great concern to the biking public. The areas where the non-compliant parking occurs are well defined and therefore should be manageable through a series of actions detailed below. To change the behavior will require a coordinated effort involving the Streets Department, Mayors Office of Transportation and Utilities, Philadelphia Parking Authority and the religious institutionsthat enjoy this privilege.

Suggested Actions:

Clarify the weekend parking rules by:

  • Creating a uniform policy regarding placards
  • Creating a uniform placard design
  • Requiring parking times and locations to be included on placard
  • Placing parking signs on street that make regulations clear

Require religious institutions requesting this parking privilege to:

  • Educate their congregation as to the limited hours and locations where parking is permitted in the bike lane
  • Provide their congregants with placards designed to the city standard
  • Emphasize to their congregants the importance of being good neighbors by abiding by the limits of the privilege

Placard design should include:

  • Name of issuing institution.
  • Blocks where parking in the bike lane is permitted.
  • Hours when parking in the bike lane is permitted.

Increase Philadelphia Parking Authority enforcement

  • On those blocks known to have high numbers of cars without placards
  • During transition times to prevent cars from parking illegally in spaces recently vacated by placarded cars

[1] Some placards had clearly been “issued,” but most looked like they were just photocopies, and some were handwritten.