If you zip around the city on a motor scooter, chances are good you've gotten ticketed whether or not your bike was parked illegally.

A set of bills introduced by former scooter rider Councilman Frank DiCicco would take the guesswork out of where to leave the stylish motor bikes by replacing some handicapped spots with parking for scooters and other two-wheel motorized bikes.

Each space would accommodate five bikes, would probably be metered and would feature a metal bar or rack for locking the bikes. It's still unclear exactly how many spots would be designated for scooters.

Last week council gave its unanimous OK for scooter parking, but the measure cannot take effect until council amends and passes a companion bill reducing the number of handicapped parking spaces. (DiCicco will pursue the issue next year; council's next scheduled meeting is Jan. 24.)

A preliminary Philadelphia Parking Authority study found that on any given day a minimum of 40 percent of handicapped spaces in the core of Center City, from Walnut to Arch streets and from river to river, went unused, DiCicco says. That amounts to about 100 spots that could be used for scooters.

Disability advocates have raised concerns about eliminating that many spots so DiCicco now proposes dedicating one handicapped spot on each block for scooters in areas where 50 percent or more of handicapped spaces went unused according to the PPA study.

Pedro Rodriguez, of the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia, wants to take a closer look at each spot on the chopping block, but he understands the need to accommodate scooters, especially in areas traditionally frequented by young people, such as South Street.

Vincenzo Mercuri of Vespa Philadelphia in Manayunk says he would like to see scooter parking "anywhere there's a higher population of residents and businesses."

The benefits of owning a scooter include affordable insurance, less gas usage and little pollution. As sales increase, parking must be more carefully regulated.

Some scooter riders will inevitably resent being told where to park and forced to abandon their free sidewalk niches, but Larry Wang of Philadelphia Scooters on Passyunk Avenue says, "It's better to have something on paper than nothing at all."

Scooter parking has been called a "grey area," but PPA spokeswoman Linda Miller says scooters may now park where a car parks, at a bike rack or on the sidewalk if the space is inside the building line. (For example, it's fine to lock your Vespa to the railing of a row home stoop, but not on the sidewalk locked to a parking meter.)

Lots of cities support scooters, but if it passes, DiCicco says this legislation would make Philadelphia the first U.S. city to have scooter-specific parking. Even though he noticed a plethora of unused handicapped spots before hopping on a silver KYMCO People, he made the connection to scooters when he got a ticket for parking at the bike racks on the apron of City Hall.

"I thought, This is crazy," DiCicco recalls. "More and more people are using these things."

And in Mercuri's words, it's great PR: "Philadelphia is a hot, young town. Innovative. At least that's what we're trying to believe."