Camera-enforced loading zones in Philadelphia nearly doubled freight use of the curb
Fifteen months into an automated curb enforcement pilot, the reporting finds delivery vehicles using Center City loading zones up 97 percent and traffic moving faster, with safety effects still unmeasured.
This is not our reporting
This story was reported and published by Streetsblog USA. What follows is our summary of it, and why it matters for people writing policy.
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The Philadelphia Parking Authority put more than 50 license-plate-reading cameras on Center City loading zones and paired them with a registration app: three minutes free, then ten cents a minute, a $51 fine for going unregistered or over an hour and $76 for double parking. Fifteen months in, according to the piece, freight vehicles using those spots rose 97 percent and traffic speeds went from about 7 to 10 mph. Safety gains remain unproven — city crash data is not current enough to show them, and a researcher quoted cautions it is too early to judge. Authority staff advise other cities to run grace periods and review images internally before ticketing.
Read the full story at Streetsblog USA ↗
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