Pittsburgh councilors may change the city parking code to close a loophole in the rules around prohibited parking areas, including sidewalks.<\/p>\n
City code currently includes a provision allowing drivers to park in places where they otherwise wouldn\u2019t be allowed if doing so is for the sake of a vehicle\u2019s safety. The provision is one piece of a code section noting exception scenarios for typical parking rules, including \u201cto avoid conflict with other traffic,\u201d or to comply with a police officer or traffic control device\u2019s directions.<\/p>\n
But according to Councilor Bobby Wilson, who sits on the city\u2019s Parking Authority board, the provision on vehicle safety has been used by some drivers as an excuse to park where they shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Wilson said drivers took their parking tickets to court and justified parking on a sidewalk or in a bike lane as \u201cprotecting [their] vehicle.\u201d He said he worked with Pittsburgh cyclist-advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh on crafting a bill to remove the loophole. Council gave that bill preliminary approval on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s hundreds of tickets that have been given for people that are parking in a bike lane,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cSo I think this would further enforce that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilor Erika Strassburger said she believes the legislation is \u201cgreat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m glad that you’ve seen this play out in court and then learned that we actually need an ordinance change to be able to make this defensible in the courts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But she also noted the city should probably have a broader conversation about parking enforcement, especially around sidewalk parking. She noted that parking on sidewalks is common in some parts of the city due to street layouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be black and white about it, but the reality in the world is that it’s very dependent on narrowness of the street and alternatives to parking, and alternatives to non-vehicle transportation throughout the city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Councilor Anthony Coghill said people often park on the sidewalks and block sidewalks for pedestrians in his district.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are abusing it \u2026 If you’re in a wheelchair, you can’t get by. Baby stroller, you have to go out in the street. Even kids walking by just to go to school, they have to walk out in the street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he noted that enforcement in such situations can be difficult when people are accustomed to parking on the sidewalk. He also worried that pushing those drivers off the curb could make narrow streets harder to navigate for ambulances or fire trucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I hesitate to enforce it because I don’t want to ticket the whole street,\u201d Coghill said. \u201cI’d like to put out a warning, actually, and say, \u2018Look, we’re going to be citing this in the near future,\u2019 so we don’t burden them all with a fine right away, but we let them know moving forward we want you off the curb.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s a really, really big problem,\u201d Strassburger added. \u201cThe solution is not going to be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson said he\u2019d be happy to talk about a more comprehensive approach to parking enforcement in the future, but emphasized that breaking parking rules can cause legitimate hazards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re parking on a sidewalk and a wheelchair can’t get past, and there’s houses on that street, you’re doing the wrong thing,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou need to park somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council will hold a final vote on the bill Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh councilors may change the city parking code to close a loophole in the rules around prohibited parking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-255083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}