Y Y E
ILL L
E B Y AC
N TE A P
I T
WR A UR
L wo hundred and
twenty lane miles—
that’s how much
street exists in Mt.

Lebanon if you
count every lane
from every road. Since the aver-
age human walks just more than
three miles per hour, it would take
a person three days to cover the
whole town.

Now you understand the chal-
lenge of Mt. Lebanon’s parking
enforcement officials in getting
around to ensure all drivers have
paid for their meters, are cur-
rent on their parking pass fees
and have properly signed up for
overnight parking, not to mention
making sure cars are not parked
too long in areas with a maximum
parking time.

That’s where technology comes
in. With Commission approval,
Mt. Lebanon is ready to begin
the process of integrating car-
mounted automated license plate
recognition cameras (ALPRs)
to simplify and improve parking
enforcement. Just by driving past
a row of cars, the enforcement
officer can instantly see if every-
one is paid up or signed up and
if not, print out a ticket instantly.

The upgrade is a project of the
Mt. Lebanon Police Department,
the police parking enforcement
office and the Mt. Lebanon
Finance Department. The system
is expected to making parking
enforcement more fair but it also
means you’re going to need to
pay close attention to the rules.

38 mtl |NOVEMBER 2019
Mt. Lebanon’s parking enforce-
ment has long been handled
by one civilian meter enforce-
ment officer, who can cover
three to four rounds of metered
spots, parking lots and limited-
time parking areas on foot in a
daytime shift. Mt. Lebanon has
1,022 parking spaces in the
business district, 441 of which
are metered, with another 567
in our North and South garages.

In addition to meters and
parking lots and garages, Mt.

Lebanon has limited-time park-
ing areas. That setup prevents
someone from parking on the
street all day while they are at
work, making it so others can-
not easily find parking. Officers
used to keep track of how long
cars were parked in those areas
by making chalk marks on the
tires during a set time period.

But in April, a federal court
ruled physical chalking uncon-
stitutional, akin to committing
trespassing and conducting an
unreasonable search.

For Mt. Lebanon’s new system,
the officer will make many pass-
es through all public parking
areas, allowing the cameras to
read plates. ALPRs are efficient
and can read approximately 95
to 98 percent of all the plates
the driver passes even in bad
weather, says parking enforce-
ment supervisor Mark Quealy.

The reader is then tied into Mt.

Lebanon’s parking software to
confirm such things as per-
mit status or time left on the
parking session.