The optics are not good. And the reality is worse:
In an apparent attempt to crack down on handicapped parking violators, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is eliminating the steep discount that the handicapped pay for their preferential spaces.
Airport officials say handicapped parking patrons have been complaining that others without handicapped placards and/or handicapped license plates have been taking spaces reserved for them in PIT’s short-term parking lot.
That, they say, has forced them to use spaces either farther away from the landside terminal and/or standard spaces not wide enough to accommodate their handicapped needs.
Enter the brain of the bureaucrat:
To combat this chronic, and perhaps growing, problem, airport officials have decided to, effective May 1, triple the cost of handicapped parking, from $13 to as much as $36, the latter being the going rate for regular parking spaces.
Furthermore, a PIT official defends the change to the Post-Gazette, saying the pricing equalization “aligns with best practices across the industry and locally throughout the region,” arguing that most other large venues do not offer handicap parking discounts.
Since when is it a “best practice” to target the handicapped by turning them upside down and shaking more money out of their pockets?
How about some beefed up enforcement by Allegheny County gendarmes patrolling the parking lots? How about confirming that exiting handicapped parkers have a handicapped placard and/or license plate?
Gee, how about increasing the penalties for the non-handicapped taking handicapped spaces? Tow more violators and raise the fines of between $50 and $200 to, say, a nice, tripled increase, from $150 to $600.
But, good grief, just stop attempting to transfer the cost of the ever-rising new midfield terminal project at PIT onto the backs of the handicapped who have had the temerity to complain about bad actors taking their reserved spaces.
Poor form, PIT. Poor form.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
