If you think you can sneak into a bus lane for “just a minute” to grab your Wawa order, think again. The “eye in the sky” is about to get a lot more common on Philadelphia streets.
SEPTA and the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) announced Tuesday that their controversial AI-powered camera enforcement program is expanding. Starting Monday, January 19, buses on five of the city’s busiest and most congested routes will begin automatically ticketing vehicles blocked in bus lanes or double-parked at stops.
The Expansion
The program, which launched its pilot phase in 2024, uses cameras mounted on the windshields of SEPTA buses. The AI instantly identifies license plates of vehicles obstructing the bus’s path.
Following a 60-day warning period (which ends this weekend), drivers on the following routes will face automatic $101 fines starting Monday:
- Route 23: (Germantown Avenue / 11th & 12th Streets)
- Route 47: (North & South 7th/8th Streets)
- Route 52: (52nd Street / West Philly)
- Route 6: (Broad & Olney / Cheltenham)
- Route 66: (Frankford Avenue)
Sticker Shock
The numbers from the first year of the program are staggering. According to a PPA report released this morning, the initial pilot routes (Routes 21, 40, and 42) generated over 100,000 violations in 2025 alone, netting the city millions in revenue…