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| - This is one of the slowest, most inefficient, and most disrespectful parking establishments I have ever dealt with (and I thought I have lived, parked, and got ticketed in many cities across America and other parts of the world). Paper is the king, efficiency is of no concern, and inconvenience to customers is the rule. (Wait, somebody said customers? who are they other than mere *things* whom money should be sucked out of at all costs?). Most of the people who work at the Blvd of the Allies office, the Parking Court, and on the phone have the aura of kings and queens; the aura that governs those who want to be in control and assert their superiority to others who actually need their services. They act as if they would be doing favors to you, whereas they are only supposed to be doing their job. The goal of the whole establishment seems to be not making parking easier for people but doing things such that they can suck the most money out of people who park (and especially those who need to park in the city boundaries) in the very limited parking resources.
Enough of the rant. Let's move to some concrete examples.
Example 1: I live within the city boundary, so I need to get a zone permit to park in front of my apartment. It turns out I have to renew this zone permit every year via mail. I am happy to pay more to get a 3-year or 5-year zone permit so that I do not have to deal with this snail mail renewing process which is invariably prone to the forgetfulness of human mind. But, you have no choice. You have to pay $20 to renew your residential parking permit every single year. So, what happens? I forget to pay one year because the Parking Authority did not mail me my renewal notice, and lo and behold I see a ticket on my car parked in front of my apartment. A $35 ticket for parking in a residential zone without permit. The permit itself costs only $20. How reasonable is this? A $35 ticket for a $20 permit, which did not get renewed because the Authority did not send a renewal notice.
Let's say we accepted that. Now, I want to renew my residential permit online. I am not allowed because you cannot get or renew a residential permit online or even on the phone. You have to be physically present in front of the Authority to accomplish this monstrous task. So what do you do? You go to the Blvd of the Allies office and renew your residential parking permit, for one year. You have to sign documents, bring your lease, etc etc (Thank God some of this information is on their website, even though it might take a while to find.) So, I do that and I ask if I can dispute the $35 ticket I got for not renewing my $20 permit. Of course you can, apparently, but they do not do this sort of business at the Blvd of the Allies office: you have to make an appointment with the Pittsburgh Parking Court, go there on a separate date, explain your case to a judge (don't judges have better things to do in this city? more important problems to solve?), and pray to God that the judge actually has some common sense left in him. Good luck!
Technology has really not seem to have caught on in the Parking Authority of the city of Pittsburgh -- except when they demand payment from you. If you want to simply renew your residential parking permit online or on the phone or even via snail mail, there is no way. But if they ticket you, all options are there for you to pay. You want the phone to pay your ticket? You got it. You want the internet to pay your ticket? You got it. You want the good old snail mail? You got it. You will get charged a fee for the first two (thank you very much), but you have all the convenience to fork your money over. You just cannot have the same convenience when you actually want to do the things that would prevent you from getting tickets in the future, like getting a residential parking permit.
Example 2: They will find a way to ticket you in any way, shape, or form they can. They will not fix meters and not clearly mark where parking is disallowed, just to keep open the option of ticketing you. If there is an opening that looks like a parking spot but you are not sure, be very careful. If you are lucky once, it does not mean you will be lucky the next time. Basically, many spots are not clearly delineated, so you can get a ticket even though something looks like a spot to you and there is no sign saying "No Parking." They will ticket you. And, if you want to dispute, you are in for some pain.
Example 3: To dispute a ticket, you have to go to the court. And, the court has limited hours. There is no other way to handle a disputed ticket, even if the issue is trivial. Actually, there is a way. Their website says you can call a number if you believe the ticket is unfair and if you were issued the ticket for a very limited number of reasons. Apparently, some very limited cases can be handled without going to the court. In theory, they can... If you get an answer to your phone call, that is. Good luck with that!
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