Pittsburgh council looks to extend parking zone program for delivery drivers

Pittsburgh City Council members this week advanced a proposal to expand parking zones for delivery drivers which, they said, could be improved by tickets by mail for unregistered motorists.

The pilot program, unveiled in the spring, was initially scheduled to last one year. Legislation advanced by council Tuesday would extend the program for three years.

The smart loading zone program aims to allow delivery drivers for companies like Door Dash, Uber Eats and Amazon to use designated parking zones for short-term parking while they pick off and drop off food orders and packages.

To encourage people not to linger in the spots, the smart loading zones use a graduated payment system. It costs 7 centers per minute to park in the smart loading zones for the first five minutes, but the cost jumps to 27 cents per minute for cars that are parked there for 30 to 60 minutes.

Related:

• Pittsburgh implements new parking zones for delivery drivers
• Pittsburgh looks to extend smart loading zone program

Drivers who work for companies like Amazon and Door Dash can register to participate in the program. Once they’re registered, they can park and automatically pay at designated smart loading zone spots without having to stop to pay a meter.

Cameras at the loading zones scan license plates to automatically charge the registered vehicles for the time they park there. When the program was unveiled, officials said they could use those same license plate scanners to ticket people who parked there without registering to ensure they weren’t parking there for prolonged periods of time without paying.

But that ticket-by-mail system hasn’t taken off yet, said Angie Martinez, assistant director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

There is “some ticketing for folks that are not registering and parking illegally,” she said, but that’s being done manually by Parking Authority staff who are writing tickets at the scene.

“It’s definitely of interest,” she said of ticketing by mail. “It’s just taking time to get necessary provisions in place. Ticket-by-mail enforcement would certainly become easier and smoother for an application like that.”

Most of the smart loading zones are located in the city’s Downtown and Oakland areas, Martinez said, but there will be room to potentially expand with the extended pilot program.

So far, the program has collected less than $2,000, Martinez said.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger highlighted concerns that there may not be enough loading zones in some areas, and that could contribute to common problems of people parking in bike lanes or right-of-ways.

Council advanced the measure to expand the pilot program on Tuesday. Councilwoman Deb Gross abstained from the vote, as her husband is involved in the program, but all other council members voted in favor of the measure.

The legislation could be ready for a final vote as soon as next week.