City of Pittsburgh changes purple curb program rules after community concerns

PITTSBURGH — Look up and down Murray Avenue, and you’ll see a purple-painted curb indicating a loading zone. The program was designed to make it easier for deliveries some say is now cutting into business.

“It’s too expensive and nobody wants to pay just to pick up one bag of food. Nobody wants to park there anymore,” said Victor Barboza the owner of Coriander India Bar & Grill.

Barboza says since the pilot program began, it has created a challenge for customers, especially delivery drivers, who are charged by the minute to use the space.

“It was almost like $15 one time,” he explained.

The program is also costing business owners like Barboza money. He says the majority of the businesses use their front doors and those parking spaces to load and unload large drop-offs.

“When we have catering for 300-400 people, we need time to load and unload all the food. It usually takes us a half-hour,” Barboza said.

After hearing these concerns, the city recently changed the program. Cameras will still monitor the spaces, but instead of charging per minute. The first 15 minutes will be free, anyone parked up to 30 minutes will be charged at meter rates. Fees will increase for times longer than 30 minutes. Anyone parked for up to an hour will be charged 200% of the hourly metered parking rate while those parked for up to two hours will be charged 300% of the hourly metered parking rate.

Barboza said that didn’t help him and said nothing was wrong with the old ticketing system, so why change it?

“It’s not good at all, it’s not good, they should move back to the regular parking tickets,” he said.

For more information about the new smart loading zone pilot, click here.

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