That 4 p.m. anxiety for Downtown street parkers? It started 100 years ago

Pittsburghers know the feeling.

It’s a minute before 4 p.m. and you’re running errands on Wood Street, Downtown. But your car is parked on Smithfield, one street up and several blocks down.

You sprint frantically. When you get to Smithfield, you can see the tow trucks circling like sharks, ready to hook your vehicle and take it away.

Today’s car owners can take comfort, if there is any, in knowing that someone was probably doing the exact same thing 100 years ago, worried about seeing their Model T or “Tin Lizzie” hauled away. (It was actually more likely that they would receive a stiff fine.)

It was in February 1921 that parking anxiety was born in Pittsburgh.

That’s when, in order to relieve traffic congestion, Pittsburgh City Council banned parking on Downtown streets between 4:30 and 6 p.m. — just a half-hour less than the 4-6 p.m. evening rush hour ban in place today (in addition to the 7-9 a.m. ban).

One might think the Pittsburgh Parking Authority would be planning a centennial celebration. However, Executive Director Dave Onorato was surprised to learn of the anniversary.

“I was not aware of this,” Onorato said. “City council controls the parking regulations, loading zones. They control the streets.”

Just like 100 years ago.

A 1921 letter sent to City Councilman John H. Dailey from Public Safety Director Robert J. Alderdice proposing solutions for parking Downtown stated: “No doubt you are very well aware of the fact that, at the present time, there is no subject in this or any other city in the country that is requiring so much public attention as that of parking of automobiles.

“It is now a problem that assumed a serious aspect, requiring a lot of thought and attention to solve in such a manner as will keep our already too narrow and crowded streets sufficiently free from congestion.”

But Alderdice was proposing longer range solutions, and the city needed to come up with a measure sooner rather than later.

So, an ordinance was adopted that prohibited parking “between 4:30 and 6 o’clock p.m.” on the following streets:

• 3^rd Avenue, from Grant Street to Market Street.
• 4^th Avenue, from Grant Street to Market Street.
• Diamond Street, from Grant Street to Smithfield Street.
• 5^th Avenue, from Sixth Avenue to Penn Avenue.
• Oliver Avenue throughout its entire length.
• 6^th Avenue, from 5^th Avenue to Liberty Avenue.
• Penn Avenue, from 9^th Street to 4^th Street.
• 6^th Street, from Liberty Avenue to the Bridge.
• 7^th Street, from Liberty Avenue to the Bridge.
• 9^th Street, from Liberty Avenue to the Bridge.
• Market Street, from Liberty Avenue to 5^th Avenue.
• Grant Street, from Diamond Street to Webster Avenue on Court House side.

The ordinance goes on to say that “any person violating any of the provision or regulations above set forth, upon conviction thereof before any alderman or police magistrate of the City of Pittsburgh, shall be fined not less than Five Dollars ($5) and not exceeding Twenty-Five Dollars ($25).”

Wow, that’s a hefty sum — equivalent to about $365 today— even for the prosperous Roaring 1920s.

But it was better than the 30-day jail sentence a person received for not paying it.