Thanks to a change in Center City parking regulations last fall, trucks - like the big ones portrayed on the no-parking sign - are permitted to park only between 6 and 10 a.m., to make deliveries. The idea behind the ban was to help unclog city streets by shifting truck traffic to a time when fewer cars are on the street.
The thing is, the Ford Ranger is Meyers' only vehicle. It has no lettering, no advertising on it, the only paint being what was applied by Ford. It is, in effect, his car.
But the parking-enforcement officer reacted to the license plate, which says "truck."
The parking ticket points to a slippery spot in the law.
Meyer did notice a sign, with a graphic of a large truck, prohibiting truck parking. He remembered hearing about a prohibition of delivery trucks on Chestnut, but his is not a delivery truck.
What makes a truck a truck, I wondered, while not gazing at my navel.
Could Meyer have registered his Ranger as a car?
PennDOT Community Relations Coordinator Danielle Klinger said that no, he couldn't. The state bases its title and registration "upon the information listed on the ownership documents (i.e. the Manufacturer Certificate of Origin/Manufacturer Statement of Origin), or a Pennsylvania title or out-of-state title," she said.
After finding the ticket, Meyer said, he turned on the Ranger's radio - more irony - to hear Mayor Nutter urging people to come into the city, to have fun here. "But not if you drive a truck," Meyer said, because you can't park on Chestnut or Walnut between 6th and 20th, and garages that charge cars $7 an hour charge him $12 an hour, he said.
He appealed the $51 ticket, lost at adjudication and was hammered with an additional $45 fee, for a total of $96.
