PITTSBURGH — An awareness campaign is underway to discourage drivers from parking on sidewalks within the City of Pittsburgh.
“It’s in every neighborhood, on almost every street around Pittsburgh,” said Scott Bricker, Executive Director of Bike Pittsburgh. “We’re just telling people that one, it’s illegal. Two, we need to watch out for our neighbors and really protect them.”
The campaign, called “Protect Pedestrians,” was launched by the nonprofit on Monday.
Bricker said that while drivers may perceive that what they’re doing is harmless, they are in fact often forcing pedestrians onto streets.
“Let’s think about the people who are dependent on our sidewalks to get around and to be safe, especially our kids and older Pittsburghers, people with mobility needs, people with disabilities.”
Bike Pittsburgh intends to spread its message through social media, neighborhood flyers and community engagement.
Channel 11 visited Lawrenceville on Tuesday, where we saw numerous vehicles parked on curbs and sidewalks. Many had their side mirrors tucked in.
Pedestrians we spoke with said that while they understand the campaign’s message, they believe that many city streets are too narrow for every vehicle to park on the street.
“I can speak from experience, if you’re not parking even a little bit on the sidewalk, you’re going to get sideswiped, often,” said resident Haley Gault.
Another neighbor, Craig, agreed, telling Channel 11 that “if you don’t park on the sidewalk...an ambulance or a fire truck on some of these streets cannot fit down the road.”
We spoke with him while he was jogging, and while he noted that it can be tough to dart around vehicles on the sidewalk, he said “You have to do what you have to do to make parking available.”
Bricker, however, told Channel 11 that more often than not “The street is plenty wide to park on the street and not on the sidewalk.”
He encourages drivers to tuck in their mirrors and to think of their vehicles secondary to pedestrian safety.
Ultimately, he said the solution could require changes to the roads.
“We’re going to be having conversations in the future with the city about redesigning our streets so that, maybe we can’t have a two-way narrow street and cars parking on both sides,” he said. “There has to be a place for pedestrians and a place so that people can drive and bike and park safely, but it’s really unacceptable to park on the sidewalks.”
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