Car Insurance in Philadelphia

Never a dull moment trying to drive and park in Philadelphia

Don’t rely on the resident’s “brotherly love” to keep you safe when driving around Philadelphia.

Lax cell phone bans, low insurance requirements, scary red light violation statistics, and strict parking enforcement makes for an interesting combination for drivers in Philadelphia. But don’t let these reasons prevent you from driving in the City of Brotherly Love. Just be more cautious than the state government requires people to be and you should be fine.

Less Distracted Driving Enforcement in Philadelphia

Prior to March 2012, Philadelphia had their own cell phone ban in affect that was much stricter than the statewide law on cell phones and driving. The Philadelphia law banned the complete use of cell phones no matter what while driving.

With the passing of a new law statewide that only bans texting, it overrules the stricter Philadelphia ban.

But for the sake of keeping you safe and not getting into an accident, don’t use your cell phone while driver…regardless of what the state or city law is.

Philadelphia Parking

When parking in Philadelphia, it is so very important to pay attention to the parking signs and the color of the parking meters.

The blue parking meters indicate the spot to be for those with handicap/disability license plates and placards only. If you park in one of these spots and do not have either the plate or the placard, you can get a $300 ticket on top of your vehicle getting towed.

For regular parking spots, they are never the same 24 hours a day. They can change from 2 hour parking during the day to 3 hour parking at night, or even to being a no parking zone during certain hours. Again, you will be qualifying yourself for a ticket and a tow if you are parked in the wrong spot at the wrong time, even if the parking spot was a legal spot when you parked your car.

Smile for the Philadelphia Red Light Cameras

Philadelphia likes its red light cameras. So if you have a habit of trying to get through a traffic light at the last minute or are a daydream driver, be prepared to help fund the Philadelphia Parking Authority who runs the cameras.

In just 2011, drivers in Philadelphia racked up 8,257 warnings for running red lights. These were just warnings telling them that they were being watched and not to do it again. The ones that weren’t so lucky and ended up with tickets had plenty of good company because there were 141,571 actual tickets issued for running red lights. Broken down, that means that there are 388 people a day running a red light in Philadelphia. Yikes!

Philadelphia Insurance Requirements

In Pennsylvania, all car insurance regulations are created and enforced on a statewide basis. So the insurance coverage required to drive in Philadelphia will be the same is all of the other cities in the state.

These insurance requirements include:

• Bodily injury liability coverage of $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident
• Medical payments coverage of $5,000
• Property damage liability coverage of $5,000

With just the information above on the red light traffic violations, you may want to consider higher insurance coverages than what the state requires to make sure you are really protected while driving in Philadelphia.