Report parking violations to the PPA in 30 seconds with a new tool

Submitting a parking violation to the Philadelphia Parking Authority just got easier.

Philly Bike Action, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to improving infrastructure for bikers, last month launched Laser Vision, a digital tool that allows users to report parking violations by taking a picture. Laser Vision reads the photo to capture the make and model of the violating vehicle, the location of the offense, and other requested information to complete the PPA form. Users of the platform are able to review information before submitting the report to the PPA.

“The vision for this was really just to have it be as streamlined and effective as possible,” said Ee Durbin, a technical lead at Philly Bike Action.

Laser Vision sends information to PPA, which has been collecting user submissions since May 2024. Laser Vision has been used more than 1,700 times to submit violations, according to the Philly Bike Action data.

Some examples of violations that Laser Vision has collected include vehicles allegedly blocking bike lanes, handicap ramps, or crosswalks.

“Anybody who’s noticing these issues and seeing the way that it impacts their ability to move safely through the city, that’s really the target audience for this,” said Durbin.

PPA gets a couple hundred requests about parking violations each week through its online form, which has been available since last year, according to PPA spokesperson Martin O’Rourke.

The form asks users to identify what kind of issue they are reporting, how frequently it occurs, and attach a picture.

With the addition of Laser Vision, users only need to take a picture of the parking issue, which is processed to extract information and review the details before submitting the violation to the PPA.

That information populates the PPA’s original web form and submits it as a new entry to the parking authority, according to Durbin. In total, the process takes about 30 seconds, they said.

For now, Philly Bike Action has a few volunteers reviewing entries as they are logged.

“This is mainly to ensure that people are submitting truthful and reasonable things and not spam or problematic results. So far, we have not seen any of such thing,” said Durbin.

Once a violation is received, the PPA can assign it to an enforcement officer, O’Rourke said. PPA notes that reporting a violation “may not result in immediate enforcement action,” but its “enforcement team is committed to investigating recurring parking violations that affect the pedestrian right of way.”

If the vehicle reported via Laser Vision is illegally parked and found by the officer, a citation is issued, said O’Rourke. If the vehicle is not there, that incident is logged as “unfounded.”

People can also report violations to PPA’s communications phone number, and can reach the parking authority through its social media platforms.

So far, Laser Vision has been beneficial to PPA, O’Rourke said. “It has been tremendously helpful in tracking where blocking bike lane violations are occurring.”

Some kinks are still being ironed out, acknowledged Durbin, who noted that there are some issues with older operating systems. Philly Bike Action is working on turning the platform into an app, they said.

The data submitted by residents could also help Philly Bike Action with other efforts down the line, says Durbin.

“In time, we really want to use this data to help in our own advocacy and help in advocacy for other causes in the city around pedestrian mobility rights, et cetera,” said Durbin.