Writer vs. Philly parking kiosk, part 2

I wrote a blog post Dec. 14 about a frustrating interaction with a Philadelphia Parking Authority kiosk in Center City, and wanted to do a quick followup on that. The incident made me curious about how many complaints the parking authority receives about its kiosks, and how it handles them. I filed a request for records with the PPA asking for three months worth of documentation about parking complaints, and records on how the PPA responded.

Right to Know requests should be answered within five days, though the agency has the ability to request an extension. That's what the PPA did. I got a letter Tuesday saying the Authority needed an additional 30 days to respond, "to determine whether the identified records are public records subject to access under the Act and/or if the request requires redaction of non-public information before the documents can be provided or made available."

The letter was dated Dec. 18, so I'm putting January 18 on the calendar. We will see if the parking authority is able to provide some information about user satisfaction with kiosks then. Stay tuned...

Also, this is probably going to be my last blog post for a few days. I'll be visiting family out of town for the holidays, but should be picking things back up here before New Year's Eve. Thank you for reading In Transit as it's launched over the past few months. It's been a delight to have the opportunity to write about transportation in ways that are a little more casual and off-beat than I get to for the paper, and to get your feedback to the posts. I appreciate everyone who's emailed comments, story ideas and questions. Please keep them coming to jlaughlin@phillynews.com.

Hope you all have great holidays yourselves.