Pittsburgh Homes Daily

The Pittsburgh Parking Authority has a slogan: Downtown Pittsburgh Parking Made Easy.  I’m not surprised by the slogan.  If I were getting their revenue from parking, I’d make it easy as well.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported yesterday that the Pittsburgh parking tax is the highest in the nation at 50 percent.  It is now the second leading source of revenue for the city, behind property taxes.  The article suggests that there is space for debate about the parking tax.  That’s an understatement!

One thing for which there is no debate is that the cost of parking in Pittsburgh is high.  According to Colliers’ 2005 Parking Rate Survey (pdf), Pittsburgh ranks in the top 10 in the nation for the cost of both reserved and unreserved parking.

If you have to park downtown, arm yourself with information ahead of time.  The Pittsburgh Parking Authority provides maps detailing the ease of access of parking from local highways, the day and evening rates (pdf), call ahead reservations, and an interactive map linked to parking rates and information about the garage.

Alco Parking is the biggest operator of downtown parking facilities.  They provide a list of discount parking options, a list of parking by destination for those unfamiliar with the downtown area, and information about long term leases. 

I was curious about the impact that the high parking rates would have on individuals purchasing condos downtown when I discovered the solution: a car elevator!  One would hope that this development, as well as the expansion of parking options (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 2006), would lessen the cost of parking downtown. 

Unfortunately, with a parking tax of 50 percent (scheduled to be reduced to 35 percent by 2010), it appears that public transportation or commuter parking is the only relief really available.