2016 represented a breather for the boost in Pittsburgh Public Parking Authority rates that occurred under a 2014 board approval for increases in 2014, 2015, and 2017. We wrote in 2014 about the potential impact of the hikes and in 2015 of the results of the 2014 increase. Now it appears as though the final round of increases from the 2014 plan won’t involve some of the price changes that were anticipated.
Based on the documentation from the 2014 plan, the changes that were planned, for example, show that the day rate for a patron parking from 4 to 24 hours at the Third Avenue Garage rose from $12.75 to $16.00 in August 2014, from $16.00 to $17.00 in August 2015, and would have risen another $1 to $18 in the coming August. That $1 boost at Authority garages is what will be done away with.
We noted in another 2015 piece that forecasted parking tax collections for the City (which it collects from Authority and private garage operators on parking transactions) that private operators were probably going to set their prices based on what would happen to Authority rates under the rate hike plan. But from comments in the article on the decision for the Authority to modify the 2017 plan it seems they will wait to see wait happens with rates at private garages.
