June 06, 2025
Molly McVety/PhillyVoice
Philadelphia will begin enforcing its No Stopping Anytime legislation this month, ticketing cars that stop in bike lanes across the city.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority will soon start handing out warnings to drivers and pedestrians who are blocking bike lanes and will begin ticketing violators of the No Stopping Anytime regulation on June 19.
The legislation aims to protect cyclists from collisions, but it has been met with a legal complaint from a neighborhood group that alleges it's unnecessary and unlawful.
In September, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson introduced the "Get Out The Bike Lane" bill in the wake of a crash that killed 30-year-old pediatrician Dr. Barbara Ann Friedes, who was riding her bike along Spruce Street in July before being struck by a drunk driver. The fatal incident led to activists calling for safer conditions for cyclists around Philadelphia.
Violators in Center City and University City will be fined $125; tickets in all other parts of the city will be $75. Residents who live on the side of bike lanes can apply online for a permit to close the road for things like construction work or moving trucks.
Philadelphia also announced this week that new loading zones would be installed along Spruce and Pine Streets over the next two weeks to accommodate drivers who need to make a brief stop.
Loading zones will be sized around 50 feet at the start of each block and 20 feet at the end of each block. According to the city, these areas will revert to overnight parking in the evening. A map of the where there will be new signage can be found on the project homepage.
Later this summer, the city will begin implementing the second phase of the project, which involves adding curb-separated bike lanes and continued enforcement measures.
Friends of Pine and Spruce (FOPS), a neighborhood organization, has been a longtime vocal opponent of the No Stopping Anytime legislation under the rationale that the policy is unnecessary and impedes accessibility for disabled and elderly populations. A legal complaint was filed in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas in May on behalf of FOPS against the city, the Streets Department and the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems.
The group believes the city moved to install concrete barriers, signage and loading zones before asking input from residents. Public meetings were held in October 2024 between city officials and Center City neighborhood groups, including FOPS, but the group wrote in a letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker that "these meetings exclude public participation."
Philadelphia's Spruce and Pine Streets Bike Lane Safety Upgrades Project update for January 2025 cited 368 exit surveys that were completed, finding that the perception was generally supportive.
Legal representatives for FOPS alleges in the complaint that for the city to install loading zones or penalize cars, they would need to adjust city code, which they have not done. FOPS also writes that incidents such as Friedes' fatal collision are few and far between in Center City, and that the tragedy was "exploited by anti-car, bike activist groups."
In 2009, when the city began installing bike lanes along the Pine-Spruce corridor, individual members of the group expressed their concern with Mayor Michael Nutter's office. Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger addressed the group's concerns in an August 2009 letter.
"We recognize that taxis will continue to stop to pick up and discharge residents as they do today, and that residents will stop to unload groceries, etc.," the letter stated.
On Wednesday, the group posted its X account: "Mayor Nutter PROMISED Pine-Spruce residents they could ALWAYS STOP in front of their homes in exchange for bike lanes. That was the deal."
FOPS, their legal representative and the city didn't respond to a request for comment about the ongoing litigation.
