Finding a cell-phone parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport shouldn't be this hard.

State police began a needed crackdown this week along I-95, ticketing drivers who park on the shoulder of the highway while they wait for arriving flights. It's a dangerous habit, and fines of up to $147 should drive home that point.

In a rare and unexpected example of coordination among state agencies, PennDot simultaneously erected signs along I-95 warning drivers not to park on the shoulder. The signs advise motorists in fine print to "Use Bartram Ave. Park & Ride Lot to wait for arriving flights."

And thus the adventure truly begins for drivers who are reading and puzzling at 55 m.p.h.

Where is this wondrous, free haven known as the "Bartram Ave. Park & Ride Lot"? The red-and-white signs offer no clue.

And why would someone go to a commuter park & ride lot to wait for an arriving flight? Well, it's actually Philly's version of a cell-phone lot, although the signs don't explain that because, technically, the Philly airport has never built a cell-phone lot.

What about those green-and-white "park & ride" signs? Do they refer to the mystical "Bartram Ave. Park & Ride Lot"? Yes, they do.

But those signs give no indication that it's an approved place to wait for arriving flights. Unless you saw the red-and-white signs first, the green-and-white signs won't mean much to you. And even if you see them in the proper order, it's a guessing game.

Got it? If you do, you are probably in Delaware by now.

If, by some miracle, you follow the unhelpful signs through a legal U-turn, you will be greeted at last with a chartreuse-navy-aqua (new color scheme) sign informing you that you've arrived at the "Cell Phone Lot." For successfully navigating this maze, the airport authority doesn't even reward you with a bit of cheese.

The real message here is not even on the signs. Those responsible for this chaos want drivers to surrender and go to short-term parking. At $5 per hour, the hack-infested Philadelphia Parking Authority will be overjoyed to take your money while you could be parking for free.

This confusion and hazardous parking has been going on for at least five years. The various agencies involved should have managed to sort out the problem by now. Instead, they've enhanced the bewilderment. PennDot might as well have erected signs that proclaim, "You're On Your Own."

So here's what needs to happen: Mayor Nutter should convene a meeting of airport management, PennDot, the state police, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, Councilman Frank Rizzo, and AAA Mid-Atlantic (which has offered to pay for intelligible signs).

Together, in a locked, windowless room, these adults must imagine themselves as actual drivers approaching the airport on I-95, with no idea how to find the cell-phone lot.

And then this task force must devise a new set of clear, color-coded signs directing drivers safely to the correct lot.

Further, these adults must work together on the goal of building an honest-to-goodness cell-phone lot. First-class airports in first-class cities have these facilities, with helpful electronic signs to inform drivers about the status of various flights.

Right now, in Philadelphia, all we have is an invitation to either get lost or burst a capillary.