Is it the most populated town in PA without a highway? Every time I drive through there, they have LA traffic.
OT: Bethel Park
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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Just imagine if they had a Chik-Fil-A.
Is there a south hills town that doesn't suck to drive through on a Friday afternoon?
They all suck because there's no main highway but at least the other towns have 19. Bethel doesnt even have that. 33,000 people squished together without a highway
We stayed in Bethel Park when back in September. Pretty much the entire South Hills are roaded that way. And the road names that randomly change every few miles or even blocks. Walking was very dangerous there, too. No footpaths and at many places barely any shoulder on the road to walk.
But what really did my head in were the signalled intersections beside the T tracks. My wife basically screamed every time we went through one of those.
But remarkably we survived and are much stronger from the experience.
Yea, all of the South Hills is similar. I just cant believe there's another town as big as Bethel Park without a highway. Its really amazing that 33K people choose to live there without having a highway or nearby access to one.
The topography doesn't help.
Well for the ones born in the South Hills, it suits us perfectly fine.
I dont know but it doesn't meet my criteria since its one lane on each side most of the way. I would categorize 19 and 51 as highways but bad ones.
And yet … everyone still survives.
My knuckles are still white. But that was mainly from trying to remember which side of the road to drive on whilst everyone was honking and flipping me the bird and I just didn't want to get squished by the T.
I would think that the T really helps those in the South Hills get to the city and back, making a large highway less of a necessity.
If they put a CFA in BP, I am certain it would take 5-6 hours to drive through that town at times. I've never seen a town so large consisting of only one lane (on each side) roads.
I dunno. I have never had an issue with it.
Now McKnight Road and Saw Mill Run Blvd in the overbrook area near the Rt 88 intersection…those are two areas that make me want to jump out of my skin.
Now McKnight Road and Saw Mill Run Blvd in the overbrook area near the Rt 88 intersection…those are two areas that make me want to jump out of my skin.
There must be something about a Friday afternoon. In my little burg of Windber 3 cars at a traffic light is like a traffick jam. But on Friday afternoons it’s hard to even cross the street.
For me it's when the farmer is moving the sheep down the road to a different paddock.
I’d live out of the trunk of my car before I’d live in the south hills.
I live in the South Hills, but I've also worked in Pleasant Hills for like the last 15 years (and 50% at home now), so I don't have to deal with any road I don't want to, basically. I commuted to Pitt, then worked downtown, then worked in Robinson when I was younger. Not a chance in hell I could ever do that again.
My wife’s family lives in Bethel Park. I hate driving in and around the South Hills. We live in Cranberry where they keep expanding the roads and use timed traffic lights. Easy access to all areas. I’m very happy with the decision.
Lived in the South Hills for all 58 years, past 32 in USC. No issues here.
Funny, I feel the same way about the North Hills and the East side of town as some of you do about the South Hillls.
Funny, I feel the same way about the North Hills and the East side of town as some of you do about the South Hillls.
There is an increasing phenomenon in recent years of more and more people walking along and randomly crossing McKnight Road much more than I ever remember (about 30 years of time here). Including at night. I don’t think it can be workers from the bus either; there has always been that (and they get on and off at designated corners). It is far more people than ever, just all over the place now on the sides (barely any shoulder) and just fleeing across in midchannel.
I’m all for walkability and would happily support installing walkways and trails in more places…including that stretch. But fact is those things are NOT there on McKnight Road, so, sheesh, engagement in that kind of stuff is Russian roulette
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If I have to drive on McKnightmare rd, I stay home.
This thread is dumb. Rt 19 goes thru bethel and the chick fil A is not technically in bethel but it’s across the street from bethel. Rt 88 goes thru bethel too
People from the south hills don’t want to drive in the north hills and people from the north hills don’t want to drive in the south hills. It’s always been that way. You aren’t comfortable with your surroundings, it’s annoying.
Moving to an area cause it has a highway in it might be the dumbest take I e seen on here and that is saying something
I lived in bethel and could be in Oakland in under 30 minutes. Done it a thousand times.
Lebo is probably the most convenient, lived there and could be downtown in under 10 minutes, parkway west in 10 minutes etc. problem is, if u live in lebo for more than 2 years, you turn into a liberal douchbag. It’s part of the HOA
It’s really weird, even for him. He’s posted about driving through Mt Lebo, and has never complained about that. How’s Lebo any different?
I’ve lived in Lebo and USC and my in-laws were from BP. It’s all the same to me other than maybe an additional 5 minutes to a commute into the city depending on the neighborhood you’re commuting from.
Let’s face it we live in Pittsburgh. We don’t have the best roads period.
Yeah, If I have to go downtown, driving on the “highway” in mt lebo that is RT 19 (wash rd) is the last way I’d go.
There is a red light on this so called highway every 25’ thru the lebo business district and parking on this highway too so it goes from two lanes to one in several spots
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And that only gets you to dormont, where you do it all again. And then to Brookline, and finally the tubes.
Listen, if someone in the north hills says they hate tunnels so they moved there, then I get it. But someone in one part of the south hills complaining about the driving in another part strikes me as peculiar.
If you work in town and hate tunnels as part of your commute, then fine. But for everyone else, it’s Pittsburgh regardless of where you are from.
Heck with all of this being said, I can get from my doorstep to Heinz field quicker than someone from the East End of town.
It means that in the south hills that you can’t get there without going through a tunnel or a goat path, winding, red light after red light, stop and go, congested, bottleneck, pain in the azz road.
Can’t get there from where? Cranberry? Wexford?
Yea, there is a mountain and a river, I guess that is an obstacle lol.
I’m going to blow your mind here. Getting to the north hills from the south hills i just as difficult to get from the south hills to the both hills. Lol. I know, right? Weird.
Pittsburgh has rivers. If you don’t have to cross one, it’s not as bad. Mind boggling.
Except there’s a highway called i79 that folks from Wexford can take and be in Lebo in 20 minutes. And there’s no tunnel for tunnelphobes.
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Lol. Don’t bother. It’s not even worth it.
Like I said, people from north hills don’t like south hills and vice versa. This has been an ongoing battle for 50 years.
The one thing we can agree on is, at least we don’t live East and have to deal with the squirrel hill tunnels
I grew up in the south hills but have lived outside Pittsburgh for the last 25 years. When I go back now, the roads and traffic patterns drive me nuts. Like @USN_Panther mentioned the topography is largely to blame… but it is one of the biggest things holding me back from coming back to the Burgh someday. I hate it taking 10 minutes to go 2.2 miles.
And this is common in bigger cities, they aren’t as adverse to going to other parts of the city pretty regularly and they have similar expressways they use. I visit a good friend who lives in suburban Atlanta, lots of good things to do near him (Marietta area), but we never hesitate to get on the interstate and hit other areas around the city. The traffic on those highways is frankly pretty awe inspiring, 8 lanes can be packed at any given time of day or night, insanely fast (when there aren’t accidents) but it doesn’t hold them back.
I think it’s largely available to yinzers now as well, given I79 and the turnpike. There still isn’t a good expressway yet in place for South to East, until the Mon Fayette project eventually finishes. But otherwise there actually are fairly fast conduits from every other quadrant to quadrant.
However, it’s a familial thing here, old habits die hard and they get passed down. So South Hills people still instinctually avoid the thought of going North, or West or East etc. and vice versa. As I said it is interesting to note when you go somewhere else and you see that those self imposed limitations don’t exist.
I lived I. South hills and worked in Monroeville for a few years, it was pretty awful. Basically taking banksvilke into the city then parkway East. Outside of work, really zero reasons to ever go to the East if you live in south hills
Going west to airport or Robinson is super convenient now with that new connector.
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Ok, so I google map'd it. Apparently, there is a 0.3 mile stretch of 19 that goes through a far-western jut-out of Bethel Park. So I'm not counting that. If you are traveling up 19 through USC, you cross into Bethel Park for essentially one or two city blocks. There's a CVS and that shopping centet that has Chipotle and Piada Italian Street Food that is Bethel Park. Right behind it is USC. And once you pass that block on 19, you are back in USC for a half mile or so until you cross into Lebo.
The whole SH sucks to drive though. Just saying Bethel seems to be over-populated (33K) for not having a highway actually in it
A major artery in BP is Clifton Road, and I think it’s 25 MPH. Try going 25 on that road…it’s literally impossible.
Going from south Fayette/Bridgeville/BP/USC/Lebo/Peters/
Canonsburg to pleasant Hills area is an absolute nightmare. It’s like 7 miles and takes 45 minutes. When I coached club soccer and had to drive to Breisinger Field, whether from those south hills areas or the city, it sucked and ended up being the reason I quit. In many areas, 8 miles means 10 minutes doorstep to doorstep. Not Pittsburgh. It’s really no different in the north hills either.
I always thought of it like there being 2 different “south hills”. The Baldwin/pleasant hills area and then the areas mentioned above.
