Ad Disclosure
This Glazing from People About the New SEPTA and PPA A.I. Ticketing Crack Down is Ridiculous
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
SEPTA and the PPA are teaming up to become the most hated tag team of all time by using artificial intelligence to crack down on cars parking illegally in bus lanes. I’ve only seen positive reaction to this on the Internet and from news hits and I can’t believe people are having the wool pulled over their eyes by some of the worst agencies in Philly:
“It’s about safety. That’s the goal.” What a load of shit from the guy running the PPA. Does he think we’re stupid?
The PPA and SEPTA are just kicking the can down the road like a Howie Roseman contract. Remember when they designated bus zones on Chestnut Street and said it would stop congestion by 30-50% because they painted them red? That was supposed to be a game changer. People were going to be held accountable and receive $100 fines for parking illegally. That obviously proved to be a bust now that they called in the robots. Kind of dystopian if you think about it, and who knows where that video data is going, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Don’t get me wrong, people shouldn’t be parking in bus lanes and endangering riders, but lets be honest – there is no place to park and make deliveries during rush hour anywhere in Center City. It’s survival of the fittest out there. If you’re delivering pallets to a store and they don’t have a loading dock you wouldn’t park a block away. If you’re driving Uber you wouldn’t make your customer cross the street or walk half a block down to the light. You’re going to take the chance you won’t get popped. How many people and businesses are going to pay half of these fines anyway? Plus, it’s only a matter of time until these cameras stop working and SEPTA decides it’s gonna cost them more to fix them. The pockets of the PPA get fatter and SEPTA’s get skinnier. This is a disaster waiting to happen and we’re going to get left with the burden per usual until the next shiny idea comes along. There’s a reason SEPTA finds themselves in the hole they’re in and it’s not because people are parking illegally in bus lanes.
What I don’t get is have people forgotten about the incompetence both of these companies show daily? The PPA should not be allowed to gain more power and accrue even more money in this city. They might be the most corrupt agency in the entire country. The money they make from tickets is supposed to go to places like schools and city infrastructure. The only problem is it typically doesn’t and no one holds them accountable. Instead the Philly School District faces a $300 million deficit and the PPA tells them to pay back the $11 million they claim they overpaid with no sufficient evidence. This is an agency that made $264 million in 2020. Almost double what the Chicago parking authority made that same year and they’ve got a million more people living in the city. We’re dealing with Meter Nazis here. The worst of the worst. Was anyone at Action News or any other channel in this city thinking maybe we should sneak that caveat in there when doing this? That’s why you need places like us, the Channel 6 of the Internet, to provide you with real unbiased journalism:
@kylepagancb Channel 6…of the Internet #channel6 #actionnews #6abc #news #macys
They also mentioned this program is happening in other states and that there are problems with thousands of fugazi tickets being written to the wrong cars. But don’t worry the PPA will have their employees scouring through every single video and every single picture to give what I’m sure is honest and thorough analysis. There’s no chance they’ll face pressure from their bosses and the higher ups to squeeze as much money as they can out of the hardworking Philadelphian’s pockets. There’s no chance the tired PPA agent poring over 36,000 violations they received in two months won’t just say screw it and approve every one. You think the PPA is just going to let you dispute it and correct their mistake? We’re talking about the PPA for god’s sake. They’re monsters! The same organization who smoked some woman’s car in the middle of the night and refuses to pay up so now she’s stuck in Philly (Ximena Conde at the Inky):
Beanca Gordner, 57, was passing through South Philadelphia, visiting her son who’d just had a birthday, when a Philadelphia Parking Authority employee crashed into her parked car in late January, pushing it halfway onto the sidewalk.
The only clues left for her were two notes on the windshield of her white 2014 Chevy Cruze.
“Vehicle involved in accident call PPA,” read one of the notes, with a number said to belong to a “manager.” The other slip of paper listed her police report number, which she would later learn got her name and some of her vehicle information, including registration, wrong.
Though the PPA said it is limited in what it can say publicly regarding a personnel matter, Gordner feels she is entitled to all the details related to the accident. All she knows is based on the one-paragraph summary of the incident in the police report, which says the PPA employee’s “clipboard got caught in between the steering wheel,” causing the driver to lose control as she drove eastbound on Bainbridge Street.
Adding to Gordner’s frustrations, she and the PPA disagree over what is owed to her and how long it has taken to reimburse her. Gordner asked the authority for $15,000 for her troubles. The ask was immediately rejected by the PPA, she said.
The PPA would not cover a rental car, and Gordner thinks the PPA should reimburse her for towing and storage — her car remains in a lot after the crash. The PPA alleges that it was waiting on Gordner to submit the necessary documents and that some of her demands, including reimbursement for lost wages and $3,600 for emotional distress, were unreasonable.
You gotta hand it to the PPA though for trying right? Correction: you do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to them. The PPA is the Devil. Just listen to all of these Philadelphians that have had their lives ruined by their bullshit:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com