In case you missed the news, state police last week began vigorously enforcing the no-parking law on the shoulders of I-95 and other highways leading to the airport.
This dangerous parking practice has mushroomed since we all got cell phones, and since Philadelphia police, after 9/11, began showing no mercy to drivers who pause outside the airport's baggage-claim buildings.
Signs on the highways and on the airport itself direct drivers to use the Bartram Avenue "park-and-ride lot," which also bears a small sign calling it the "cell phone lot." PennDot owns the lot and lets the airport use it.
Some motorists manage to locate the lot, and a few say it works just fine as a place to wait.
But many others say that the lot is poorly lit at night and that it is hard to find because none of the signs provide good directions to reach it from I-95 or within the airport.
The place the airport staff has studied for a new lot is the western end of the now-abandoned stretch of Route 291 that runs between the south side of I-95 and the airport's entrance roads.
The four-lane road has been closed to traffic since 291, also known as Industrial Highway, was rerouted a couple of years ago onto Bartram, north of I-95, so the airport could lengthen its north-south runway.
Airport spokesman Mark Pesce told me last week that Philadelphia International's engineering staff has studied how to use part of that pavement for the new cell-phone facility, including providing access to and from the arrivals road. The estimated cost to get it ready would be $250,000 to $300,000.
The plan will be one possible solution to be discussed at a meeting scheduled for next Monday by Rina Cutler, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, with airport managers and state and federal highway officials.
