Fattom23

Fattom23 OP t1_j6zumxl wrote

I take a both/and approach, but your example of Center City is exactly what I'm talking about. In the areas where there's actual enforcement, people behave better and it's overall more pleasant to walk/bike/exist. Sadly, because of all the baggage that goes with them, that area is almost entirely patrolled by the PPA, who are monumentally better at enforcing parking violations than PPD. If we could get a comprehensive enforcement division as efficient as the PPA that wasn't up to its eyeballs in political corruption, we'd really have something.

Instead, we have a city where the powers that be have decided you can just park wherever you want as long as you remove your tag and cover your VIN first.

2

Fattom23 OP t1_j6yl85x wrote

My only disagreement with any of that is that, even if frequency, safety and speed are all improved, people still won't take public transit as long as driving is more convenient. Driving will always be more convenient as long as city government as a whole refuses to enforce any meaningful limitations on driving. When you can just drive where you want running every red light, blowing every stop sign and just throw your car on the sidewalk when you get there, that's going to beat a bus every time. Then, instead of paying for storage of your car, just put it on a bus loading zone at night or throw out a cone so that other users of the street are afraid to take "your" spot.

Actively making driving more expensive/harder is part and parcel of improving other transit modes.

2

Fattom23 OP t1_j6x985t wrote

I hear you, but transit is complicated. I ride it because I like it, but recognize that other people won't until it's more convenient than driving (people are self-interested, you know). As long as people can just do what they want with their cars, it will always be more convenient to drive and transit ridership will be depressed. If people get out of their cars, they ride SEPTA. When people ride SEPTA, it improves. So, while I support direct efforts to clean and police SEPTA, I feel enforcing the laws on cars will actually have a bigger positive impact on SEPTA.

23

Fattom23 OP t1_j6x762l wrote

Maybe so, but "I believe our bike lanes should should be safe and usable, our crosswalks and sidewalks accessible to those with mobility issues or strollers, and our intersections should have sufficient visibility for drivers to drive safely" sounds a bit more positive and is a viable message for a progressive candidate.

21

Fattom23 OP t1_j6wzbft wrote

You don't have to sell me, but I take your point. I'm looking for candidates that are actually serious about improving options for non-drivers. I firmly believe, though, that the first and easiest step to improving other modes of transit is enforcing the laws we already have about what you can and can't do with your car. I'm looking for candidates who want to do that.

34

Fattom23 t1_j5h8ww8 wrote

I don't know. The power of inertia is extremely strong. However, the people who want the PPA out (because they want to put their cars wherever) would be very motivated. I'm fairly certain there would be at least one incident of violence or threats of violence over it (trying to get signatures that way).

People are weird about their cars and where they're going to put them. We can't just let people park wherever; the city would soon be covered with so many abandoned/unneeded cars that there wouldn't be room for anything else. That's why city leadership needs to make the unpopular calls on it (that's why we have governments). Unfortunately, we have the government we have, so they just say we can have a solution if we can convince 51% of our neighbors to agree. That way, no one at Council ever needs to make a choice.

4

Fattom23 t1_j5h5z8p wrote

Which brings us back to why "just opt in to PPA coverage" is totally inadequate as a response to why PPD isn't helping with this.

PPA opt-in is still insane for other reasons, though. The "voters" that you're trying to convince have probably noticed that instead of paying for a permit, they can have a reserved space for the low price of a stolen traffic cone and a threat to shoot someone, so their motivation to cooperate is low. But that's another whole conversation.

5