The Unspoken 'Parking Chair' Rule Tourists Need To Know Before Visiting Pittsburgh

The city of Pittsburgh has a lot of quirky traditions, such as the "Terrible Towel" and the "Pittsburgh left." But none is stranger — or more revered — than the "parking chair." Before you drive around the Steel City, please know that this vigilante placeholder is serious business. That chair next to the curb isn't rubbish waiting to be picked up. It's not free furniture ripe for a dorm room. That chair is claiming a parking space, and woe to the driver who dares to move it.

There are apparently photographs from the 1950s that show parking chairs posted on Pittsburgh streets, and many locals believe the practice is nearly as old as cars. While Pittsburghers proudly claim to have invented the parking chair, there are similar practices in other cities: Chicagoans call "dibs" on parking spaces, especially when they've shoveled out a spot in the wintertime. Bostonians use "space savers" to mark their territory, which could be anything from furniture to construction cones.

Why do they do this in Pittsburgh? Because the city is dense and hilly, and most of the motorways are narrow. The population exploded in the 19th century, when thousands of immigrants poured into small ethnic neighborhoods to work in the factories. The surface streets were built for horses, streetcars, and workers commuting on foot. The steep slopes and prevalence of pedestrians caused the city to build more than 800 outdoor staircases, most of which are still in use today. In short, the city was not designed for automobiles, and when you're cruising through potholes and five-way intersections, or gunning up a breakneck side-street that's still paved with brick, you'll believe it.

Pittsburgh is also a "big small town," and people tend to know each other on the block. This social connectedness is part of what makes Pittsburgh such a great place to visit on your Pennsylvania road trip. So if Edna sets up a folding chair in the street to guard her patch of asphalt, her neighbors will remember whose it is — and they won't take kindly to an out-of-towner removing it.

Is this practice "legal"? Sort of. Pittsburghers can put a chair in the street, as long as it's not blocking traffic. But turnabout is fair play: Almost any passing driver can set it aside and park a car in its place.

As more people discover Pittsburgh and make it part of their longer, adventure-packed road trips, the city's idiosyncrasies have become better known to travelers. "Yinzer" (someone who identifies as a Pittsburgher) is no longer an obscure pejorative but an increasingly proud moniker for life-long residents; Primanti Bros. has made it okay to put french fries in your sandwich; and above all, even if you've spent 20 minutes circling the block in a vain effort to find a parking spot in the South Side, you will resist the urge to drag that chair to the curb — because you know Edna wouldn't like that. While you're in the area, consider a drive to some nearby waterfalls. Western Pennsylvania is gorgeous.