Having trouble finding that cell-phone parking lot near Philadelphia International Airport?
Kathy Smith of Cherry Hill feels your pain.
"There are lots of signs, but the signs suck," Smith said yesterday, while waiting for her husband to call when his flight touched down.
Smith managed to find the free parking lot - after a trip past the airport, into Essington, then back again.
This week, state police began issuing tickets of up to $147 to motorists who park on the shoulder of the ramps and roads leading to the airport. Although illegal, it's been a common practice for years.
Now, cops are cracking down. New signs erected by PennDOT tell drivers coming off I-95 that "no stopping or standing" is permitted, and that they should wait at the free "Park & Ride" lot on Bartram Avenue.
There's just one problem.
"They don't tell you where Bartram Avenue is," Smith said.
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Democratic primary, waded deeper into the bureaucratic turf war yesterday, calling out PennDOT, Philadelphia and the Federal Highway Administration for not working together. He compared it to past intelligence failures by the FBI and CIA.
"I'd like to see no tickets issued until this is resolved," said Sestak, who admitted to previously parking on the roadside while waiting to pick up a relative. "A hundred and forty-seven dollars is an awful lot in the midst of this recession. We should give them a warning and let them go."
Sestak, of Delaware County, was joined at a news conference in Tinicum Township by Catherine Rossi, public and government affairs manager for AAA Mid-Atlantic. She acknowledged that stopping on the roadside is hazardous, but questioned how drivers can be expected to locate the parking lot without clear directions.
"What we don't want to see is motorists navigating the airport with cell phones up to their ears, trying to find a place to safely pull over," Rossi said.
One driver from Maryland took a creative approach yesterday afternoon: creeping along the shoulder on the I-95 ramp at a snail's pace, just fast enough to keep his wheels turning.
Rina Cutler, Mayor Nutter's deputy secretary for transportation, has planned a meeting for Sept. 14, when city, state and federal officials will discuss posting better signs leading to the free lot.
Andrew Stober, director of strategic initiatives at the mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities, said the city can't post the new directions without federal approval.
"It's been a lot of finger-pointing," Rossi said. "Hopefully, a solution is on the horizon. It's not rocket science."
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