Bensalem, PA Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

Chapter 107's Solid Waste Management article defines 'abandoned vehicles' at Sec. 107-3 as motor vehicles and trailers discarded on public or private property. A vehicle with an expired license that is not inside a protective enclosure or an area used for stripping, processing or scrapping is automatically abandoned, and even a currently licensed vehicle counts as abandoned once it sits in nonworkable condition on a public thoroughfare for 48 hours or longer. Sec. 107-5.12(g), the article's prohibited-activities section, turns that definition into an enforceable rule: it is unlawful for any person to allow an abandoned vehicle to remain on public property for more than 48 hours, or on private property once its license has expired.

The same subsection carves out three exceptions the Township will not treat as abandoned: vehicles at a licensed salvage yard, specially licensed historical vehicles, and vehicles that are screened from sight. The Coordinator, the individual the governing body designates to run solid waste management under Sec. 107-5, along with the Bensalem Township Police Department, enforces this rule alongside the article's broader ban on accumulating solid waste for more than seven days under Sec. 107-5.2(a). Because Chapter 107 sits in the Solid Waste Management article rather than the Vehicles and Traffic chapter, an abandoned vehicle is treated first as a nuisance and refuse problem, with towing and disposal following the same enforcement and inspection powers the Township uses for illegal dumping.