Parking guest passes and privacy. (Pittsburgh, Erie: homes, authority, license plate)

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Do you have a parking permit, even though you have off street parking? If so you could give your guests your off street parking spot, and you park on the street.


That way the govt doesn't know who is visiting you.

That is typically what I would do. We have multiple holiday visitors, and someone is going to have to park on the street.

I am fortunate enough to have off-street parking so this will rarely impact me. Most people in the neighborhood don’t, and will have to log every visitor.

[Copanut]

I agree with GH. Having a physical guest pass that can be placed on a dashboard is one thing, having your guest's plate number registered is another. Of course when we are all riding in driverless cars Big Brother will know where we are all the time. That will be double good, Komrade.

[szug-bot]

Again, I think it is just a more efficient way of running this operation. Is it possible that using placards can invite abuse or fraud?

Tracking the license plate is a better way of keeping the system fair.

I really do not think this information is kept long term. Frankly, the government does not care about anything except preventing angry calls from people who have been ripped off. People are very dishonest with privilege passes, like handicap permits.

[rowhomecity]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

Again, I think it is just a more efficient way of running this operation. Is it possible that using placards can invite abuse or fraud?

Tracking the license plate is a better way of keeping the system fair.

I really do not think this information is kept long term. Frankly, the government does not care about anything except preventing angry calls from people who have been ripped off. People are very dishonest with privilege passes, like handicap permits.

I agree with you 100%. I think it is a better system and as a resident I would advocate for this, so not to abuse the guest pass privilege and free up space for residents who pay the taxes to live there TBH. And if anything it is SO MUCH easier because I can just do it online from my home. I do not have to go to some crummy PPA office to pick up a pass. I did that once, it was a pain in the ass.

Again it is not uncommon to visit areas when parking in cities and require to give over your license plate number. Whether it is the parking meter, the hotel, the parking garage or now guest parking. Especially when you enter your license plate # into many parking meters. That information is 100% recorded into a database with the location. It is very much the same scenario you are referring too. It is simply designed differently. They are not tracking your guests gps location. lol

Everything is digital. There is NOTHING NEW in this matter. Lol. But call your councilmen because this is the new biggest problem to really be worried about in the City of Pittsburgh. lol

[Paul2421]

i think there are bigger issues where privacy is a concern, but i guess it is an issue. i think it is a slight inconvenience for your guests at the gain of the homeowners that are able to park near their house. if you want free ample parking on worthless land, the suburbs await, as they say on here.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Paul2421

i think there are bigger issues where privacy is a concern, but i guess it is an issue. i think it is a slight inconvenience for your guests at the gain of the homeowners that are able to park near their house. if you want free ample parking on worthless land, the suburbs await, as they say on here.

I don’t think it’s an inconvenience to the guests, at all. I think the city recording the dates and times people visit me is a gross invasion of my privacy. No one is asking for free parking for all. I was fine with the permit system. I simply don’t like having my guests logged. Call me old fashioned. This isn’t simply a record of a person parking on a block, it’s a record of a person visiting a specific home.

[gladhands]

I want to clarify, for those who do not understand. Under the new system, when you have a guest, you go to the PPA website, log into YOUR account, and enter your guest’s license plate, creating a record, tied to YOUR identity, of your visitors. This is not simply entering a license plate into a meter on the street.

[rowhomecity]

Originally Posted by gladhands

I want to clarify, for those who do not understand. Under the new system, when you have a guest, you go to the PPA website, log into YOUR account, and enter your guest’s license plate, creating a record, tied to YOUR identity, of your visitors. This is not simply entering a license plate into a meter on the street.

To clarify how this system use to work:
When you request a guest pass the old way, your account (or when I did my license/address as I do not own a car) was still logged as the guest pass is issued specifically to your account. And when the PPA would walk past/or drive past in their car on your block your guests license plate would 100% be recorded into YOUR account to prevent them from accidently being ticketed by a scanning PPA car. But rather than YOU doing it on the computer, the PPA officer would do it on theirs. But the guest license plate number and your account HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LOGGED/LINKED.

*PPA officer entering in the guest license plate number into the same system the PPA office used to issue out a pass to you. Therefore the plate was logged just in a different way, in essence your account and your guest license plate number were still being recorded together just in a less efficient way.

I have seen them do it. They walk or drive the beat, they record the plate so they know it is in there records. Everything has been electronic for well over a decade now. And it all goes into the same software system. Just because you have a physical piece of paper in the dash/mirror, does not mean they never recorded your guests license plate, and the guest pass number is linked to YOUR records.

The system has not changed whatsoever. It has become more efficient and I prefer it as I no longer have to go to some damn PPA office and wait in a stupid line for 30 mins.

[PghYinzer]

I must have some very boring visitors because none of them are cool enough to cause concern if someone knows they are at my house.

[shadowfax]

Unless you and\or your guests are involved in some major illegal activity, the governemt really is not interested in you. Just get your guest pass and get on with your life.