You can park there for 2 hours with no parking permit between 11 AM - 6 PM Monday through friday. On Saturday, you can park there with no permit for 2 hours between noon and 6.

After 6 PM on weekdays and saturday and all day sunday parking is not enforced.

[deleted]

Yes. And those with a permit can park unlimited.

To expand on this:

If it's within the posted timeframe and you've parked there for two hours, you can't just move your car to a different spot and expect to be good for another two hours: this sign applies to the entire "U" zone; you'd need to park somewhere that is designated with a different letter.

Thank you!

I’ve always wondered how that worked. Do they scan your license plate at certain times throughout the day?

Yes

If you don't have the relevant permit, just ignore that part and only pay attention to the parking limit and the enforcement hours

If you do have the relevant permit, ignore all of it

And technically the “2 hr timer” starts when they scan your plate the first time — else you’re not in their system to enforce the 2 hr limit. Once enforcement comes back 2+ hrs later, if you’re still parked there, you will get ticketed.

A real rolling of the dice… playing the game.

Which does raise another question, let's say i parked for 2 hours at 10-12. Then came back to another u zone at 4pm. Would that trigger their system?

It should since that would be parking over 2 hours in the U zone in one day between 11-6, which is against the rules according to this sign.

Better question is if you parked from 10 to 10:30, they scanned you at 10:10, you leave and come back at 5 and park from 5-6, and they scan you at 5:30. They must assume you parked for 7+ hours right?

I just moved here, and I’m always confused by the parking signs. Thanks for clarifying. I just freak out and pull a Tina Belcher.

Yeah that’s how it works. There’s no practical way for them to know you were gone , or at least not for how long.

Yes, this happened to me. Had a receipt and everything during the time I was gone.

Challenged it in traffic court, Judge upheld the ticket, but reduced it to a $10 fine and said don't do it again.

That's not always true. I had a rental car when mine was in the shop a few months back, and when I forgot to renew the temporary permit for one day, I got ticketed at 8pm.

This was in Oakland.

I don't think many people interpret these signs as 2 hours per day. The sign should say per day in that case.

"15 min loading zones" have the same language. Should you only be allowed to load/unload once per vehicle per day?

Parts of oakland go to 7 PM. There's also a one hour grace period in Oakland vs the 2 hour grace period in OP's pic (shadyside).

The scanners can come by almost on the dot in oakland, based on their routes. IIRC, this also means your home is surveilled almost every 2 hours during enforcement hours. The photos can be requested by the police, or randos

Clear as mud

Don't feel bad OP, it's not just you.

yes it does, i got a ticket for that exact reason. the judge threw it out but warned me next time they wont

i guess i got lucky. for me the judge threw it out but i had a similar situation

I've always wondered this. Thanks for posting

That there would be no feasible way to enforce anything but a "per day" rule I guess helps with the implication, at least. (It also does not state that it's referring to the street and not about parking mid-air, for instance)

No, but Yes. The Theory Yes ooor Nnnoo

Plate scanners could record gps coordinates, use an area, then look at times. Was the plate in the same general area at 1pm? Then not again until 5pm with scans at 3 and 4 not registering the plate? Then they weren't there for more than 2 consecutive hours.

Will it have false negatives if as the scanners going across it misses you? (Say, someone walking and blocking the image) sure. But that's a better outcome than ticketing wrongly.

Seems feasible to me?

Re: parking mid air. Please don't start with strawmen. If the ordinance is 2 hours per day, adding per day is not a ridiculous requirement. The signage should convey the ordinances accurately.

Either way the parking authority is waiting to fuck you as many times in a day as humanly possible

There is a real chance you're the only person who does not think the 'per day' isn't the only possible implication from that sign. Otherwise, there'd have to be so many other rules about "how long can you leave until you're allowed to park again?". Sooo complicated that there is, truly and surely, no way to enforce it (or communicate it on a little sign).

The way you understand the sign without 'per day' means that it's good for someone to leave and come back again... for how long do they have to leave? How would the sign communicate that? How lucky would the person have to be that the scanner comes the exact point and time that they were gone to register they left and came back? It's so spooky and messy that there's no way that that could be the way that it works, so (nearly) everyone recognizes that must not be the way that it works.

I asked a cop what it meant once, he said it means "up yours, kid".

Wow. They did a fucking pathetic job on the sign then, because it very much does not say that - if it indeed says anything intelligible.

Yup, you can see parking authority vehicles patrolling sometimes and just scanning every car they pass by (I assume thats how it works). I often spend a couple hours in the afternoon in Shadyside and start in zone Y, then move to zone U before the 2 hour mark and haven't had issues.

https://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/faqs

Literally the city itself states

"Those without a permit may park for only a limited amount of time, which may be no more than a 2-hour period"

If they mean per day they should state per day. But they don't.

Because that's not what is intended.

The ordinance is to prevent long term parking on the street. Not limit total cumulative time you can be doing business in a zone (imagine, for example, a maid sevice doing several houses in the same parking zone)

Maybe

So it is your genuine reading of that rule that someone can leave for 1 second and then come back because that falls within your dictionary-words-only reading of the policy? Or is there a chance that, in general, policies require the smallest amount of interpretation to see how it would make sense in the real world? Or are you just being a contrarian for fun? If not one second, how long? How can you determine that with it not being written in the policy? With the complete lack of guidance about "how long you're allowed to be away", only "per day" makes sense. There is no other way to read it.

/r/CrappyDesign

A tip for everyone: The O and 0 on a PA license plate are indistinguishable by both human and machine. Do what you will with that inf0rmation. 😉

Yes, the system isn't designed to follow your car around the city, and it's not like they're checking every street every hour. They might've come by for the first time at 10 and the second at 4.

>If you do have the relevant permit, ignore all of it

Unless you also see a street sweeping sign. That takes precedent over it all

Thank you to everyone who contributed to explaining this parking sign, I confidently believe I understand it now!

Also if you park close enough to the car behind you the camera can’t scan your plate, kind of screws over the guy behind you tho

Touché

This happened to me. I was in the spot for 20 minutes. Left and went to another part of town for a meeting and lunch where I was paying them to park. Came back for 15 minutes to drop something off and got a ticket while inside. I had GPS proof of my timeframe and location. And proof I was actively paying in another zone and still had to pay the full ticket. The judge did not care.

Interesting, I only figured the after 6 rule and sundays only applies to metered parking. So I can park basically almost anywhere that requires a permit after 6 PM or on Sundays?

O0B8 are my entire plate characters no spaces hah in a randomized order

Yeah coming from a rural/suburban area it has been a real fuckin treat to try and rapidly parse out what these signs mean as I drive past trying to find a place to park. What's worse is streets that are clearly wide enough for street parking, with no fire hydrants, curb cutouts or garages to block but just no visible parking or no parking signs to be found

I live my life a quarter mile at a time

So a random citizen can request? Kind of creepy

Yeah, the parking authority isn't staffed 24/7.

(But the regular police will still ticket you for blocking hydrants/driveways/bike lanes/etc)

2 things:

1. They're not recording/saving video all day long.
2. Anything visible from the street isn't considered private. This includes illegal parking.

[deleted]

It also allows warrantless, near-real time tracking of street visible vehicles in the city by the police, but it has been a while since I read about it and I forget if Pittsburgh utilizes this.

I'd recommend not traveling by car if you don't want to be tracked.