Scooter Owners' Parking Issues
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--Scooter riders may look carefree zipping through city streets, but when it is time to park, they have the same problems as everyone else.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority says scooters are motorized vehicles and therefore they belong on the street, not the sidewalk, even when they are parked.
In 2009, the now-defunct Motorcycle and Scooter Coalition prevailed on the Parking Authority to establish special parking areas for their two-wheelers, areas where normal-sized cars could not fit.
Scooter rates are half what car drivers pay.
Deputy Parking Authority Director Corinne O'Connor says there are more than forty scooter zones in Center City and University City.
Scooter riders who park a scooter on the sidewalk, regardless if there is a zone there or not, are subject to a parking ticket.
Before the dedicated parking zones were established, some scooters used to park at bike racks or against a wall, but O'Connor says state law makes that illegal and that law is unlikely to ever change.