I think the people sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on West Liberty or 51 look up on the hill and think "hmm, that looks better than the traffic going on down here."
Semi-OT: Pittsburgh's Third-World Public Transportation
- Thread starter Pitt_Boss
- Start date
They wanted to build those routes but political/social forces killed it because tha T was "only going to white neighborhoods". The original plan was to link the airport via a spur along Rte 65, Oakland by "cut and drop" under Forbes, North Hills via a spur along 279 and the S. Side via the Birmingham Bridge.
cool, thank you. since you know about some of this....
Will the new San Fran to LA line go all the way to San Diego? or will you have to transfer over to the existing LA to SD train?
Hear anything about extending the San Diego trolley right into Tijuana? heard they are looking at doing that, but am confused how it will work with passports and such...
We honestly had no issues with the subways in nyc including the train back to jersey city m, nj where we parked
so many people have a mental block or stigma about public transportation .
I took the trains in Atlanta , too . The BART works well in the Bay Area
In major cities you don’t need a car .
pittsburgh just isn’t a major city -
So if you live off the beaten path the busses won’t be convenience
Between negley, Stanton. , Euclid , and highland - busses are frequent and plentiful near me
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They do in the east end and downtown .
Bike lanes actually very much improve traffic flow .
The only people who whine about them are people who don’t live here
Which is greater, Pittsburgh’s rush hour bike riders, or WVU fans at the football game last Thursday night?
LA to San Diego via the Inland Empire, and Merced to Sacramento are both part of a planned “phase two” (i.e., not anytime soon)
That traffic has caused me to be late for appointments and resulted in me moving to be on the T line so that I could take advantage of a gridlock free commute. I know some other comments have raised complaints about reasons for choosing the T to serve the South Hills over other neighborhoods, but I do think that the tunnel situation that you have coming from the south made it the higher priority for a public transportation system with a dedicated right of way. It really is problematic when you have practically everyone trying to enter downtown from that direction being funneled through 2 tunnels.
I drove up route 43 from Morgantown tonight. They must have spent a fortune building that road. It was basically my own personal road the entire way. Which was good, because I was having trouble keeping it in the lane (steering wheel is on the wrong side of the care here).
But they can't be drawing much in tolls from that stretch. That money could have been better utilised elsewhere in the transit scheme. But yes, I know they have turnpike allocated funds that had to build on to the PA turnpike.
But they can't be drawing much in tolls from that stretch. That money could have been better utilised elsewhere in the transit scheme. But yes, I know they have turnpike allocated funds that had to build on to the PA turnpike.
I've been on that road a couple of times, and I'll wager that they spend more on salt and snow removal than they get in tolls. By a wide margin.
All of those bridges can't be easy to keep clean in the winter.
The turnpike is billions in depth with the highest tolls. $450 million/year goes to the general budget.
Welcome back to PA. The PA Turnpike is the most expensive toll road in the world, and by a large margin.
Amazing where these dolts spend the dollars. See my post about the amount of grift in the system. They do what's best for themselves.
I used to ride the trolley from Library or South Hills Village to downtown. Absolutely loved it as a kid.
I don't get 43 and don't get the toll spur from the Airport to 79. When so many other areas that are much more heavily traveled have no development.
Had to deal with the turnpike For Mon Fayette Expressway effecting land near my work location. When asked if there was a chance that the road would not be built, the turnpike folks said no because the money would go across the state. In essence even if there were better uses for the money in this district it could not be allocated for it. Your tax dollars at work.
Wouldn't it to have made more sense to build an expressway a bit north of rt 228, connecting I 79 and rt 28 as Pittsburgh's metro area now seems to be growing more northward and this would help development.
I don’t have any issue with the T being there -
That it doesn’t extend to Oakland is beyond silly .
granted we have an easy ride down 28 for 6 miles to be door to door in 25 minutes for games , but my wife and I always say how nice it would be to take the T instead
Pittsburgh's highway system is lacking in relation to many other major cities. Part of this is because much of the Pittsburgh area was already built before better highway innovations came into play. Few want to destroy established neighborhoods and businesses to improve it. The topography also makes it difficult to bypass existing infrastructure.
However, topography does not preclude building a good subway system.
One area that definitely should be developed is a subway system out toward Squirrel Hill/ Shadyside. There are 5 universities and a multitude of hospitals along the way. A route going past Duquesne University out to Chatham would be a wonderful addendum to Pittsburgh's rapid transit system.
Mark me down as a proponent of a university/hospital subway line.
However, topography does not preclude building a good subway system.
One area that definitely should be developed is a subway system out toward Squirrel Hill/ Shadyside. There are 5 universities and a multitude of hospitals along the way. A route going past Duquesne University out to Chatham would be a wonderful addendum to Pittsburgh's rapid transit system.
Mark me down as a proponent of a university/hospital subway line.
The new toll road from the Airport to 79 has value. The corridor from Montour Run Road through Robinson and into Carnegie gets really congested at certain points of the day, anything to alleviate that is great. It will be better when the section to then get from 79 to 43 is done (and 43 is extended further to the East). So, this will all help keep people from parts of East/South/West off the Parkway when heading to and from the airport.
Now, what they need is an expressway from the Airport to somewhere North of the city that will allow people from the North to get the Airport without going directly through city.
Now, what they need is an expressway from the Airport to somewhere North of the city that will allow people from the North to get the Airport without going directly through city.
taking the T home AFTER the game is awful, and i mean AWFUL. did it for the steeler/titan game last year and man was it a bad call. i had little man with me so i would have normally just went to a bar and grabbed a beer or 4 to wait for the crowd to die down but with him, i wanted to get home.
I am talking 60--80 minutes in a line just to get up the stairs and on the platform of the T. Now that's a steeler game so pitt games wont be so bad. In theory, a good idea but give yourself an extra hour or three on the commute home.
That new road from Southpointe to the Airport is a joke. No one is ever on it. It costs like $3 each way to save 1-2 minutes
getting to the airport from the south hills has never really been that hard. my little man had multiple baseball tourneys out in beaver this summer and it was a very easy commute. A tiny stretch of road in Campbells Run gets a tad backed up at times but once you get over the hill by Ikea (right before Robinson) it's wide open.
It was a very pointless project.
43 was touted as a way to revitalize the Mon Valley, when it was being built.
Has anyone heard of any business, job growth, population growth, better quality of life for any Mon Valley town since it’s been finished?
Well that's the rub ... can you really call it finished when the one terminus is the middle of Jefferson Hills on Route 51? Running it up to 376 as proposed would be better than nothing, but I'd argue that truly isn't the road that was envisioned as the life line to the Mon Valley.
The Parkway West can be bad, sometimes simultaneously in both directions, particularly during rush hour times. I do think this project helps get folks coming from south (I'm talking Washington County and below, further south than the south hills), as well as anyone coming from New Stanton and points further east, more reliably to the airport.
They’re doing that now, it’ll be done in a few years. It’ll connect to 376 near Monroeville, snaking roughly up the Turtle Creek valley.
Agree it’s a bad project though, but I think it’s a better project than the insane connector through Southpointe - at least the Mon-Fayette is pretty much done and you’re just finishing off an underwhelming project, rather than embarking on a whole new useless highway.
2-3 times per month, I pick up a family member in Bethel Park and drive them to the airport, and then at some point pick them up at the airport and return them to BP. If were going at like 9pm or 6am...no need for the new toll road, just header over to Vanadium/Collier/79/Parkway...there in 35-45 minutes depending on other factors.
But, if we leave the airport at like 4:30pm on a weekday, we now take the toll road and it saves way more than 1-2 minutes. During rush hours, the Airport to say Bethel Bakery is legit 60 minutes. If it rains forget about it, add 10-15 more minutes. The weird part to me if that you'd think afternoon rush would just be people heading away from town toward Robinson, but it definitely is not, there is an afternoon rush heading through Robinson towards town too.
Anyway, this 60 minute rush hour ride is about 40 minutes on the toll road and well worth the $3. Easy driving too, ass you said, no traffic.
But, if we leave the airport at like 4:30pm on a weekday, we now take the toll road and it saves way more than 1-2 minutes. During rush hours, the Airport to say Bethel Bakery is legit 60 minutes. If it rains forget about it, add 10-15 more minutes. The weird part to me if that you'd think afternoon rush would just be people heading away from town toward Robinson, but it definitely is not, there is an afternoon rush heading through Robinson towards town too.
Anyway, this 60 minute rush hour ride is about 40 minutes on the toll road and well worth the $3. Easy driving too, ass you said, no traffic.
Are you sure on this? I think the part under active construction now just extends 43 from Jefferson Hill to like Duquesne/East Pittsburgh area. The final leg to Monroeville 376 is marked "planned' but has no funding.
But when all is done, you'd be to leave Monroeville on 43 take it all the way to new (not built either) connector from 43 to 79 and then take the new (recently opened) connector from 79 straight to the airport. So, Monroeville to the Airport on all wide-open highways and going nowhere near the city. That's at least a start on a beltway of sorts around Pgh metro area.
There is no road in the North (which is growing more than the Mon Valley/Monroeville) that links up I 79 with say Rt 28 going across Southern Butler County, that doesn't have stoplights or is totally 4 lanes or more. Rt 28 which has existed for almost 40 years, and is a major spur into Pittsburgh, still doesn't have a complete stretch of 4 lanes (though this is finally changing).
Bad use of money. It was originally supposed (wink wink) to go to the Northside neighborhood where people actually live and could use it everyday. Instead they stopped it at the Steelers front door. Insane.
Should have used the money for rail linking Donwtown to Oakland. F'n Rooneys and Pittsburgh politicians.
Yeah, I'm not really an expert on things North of the city. But it's dumb that the way to the airport from points North is to go through the city via 279, or go to 79 and skip the city but still have to go through Carnegie/Robinson area which is where the most congestion is outside of the ft pitt tunnel area. I know there are ways to use 65/51 and cut to the airport, but they are not too swell either.
Since we are building expensive toll roads for fun, I'd think a toll road right from the airport to say 79 near Wexford would be an asset. People in the North could get to the airport without going through city or Robinson/Carnegie area and really help reduce traffic in those areas. Would also open up the West corridors for the great North Allegheny School District to hire staff - they are one of the region's largest employers!
I see the purpose to the Southern Beltway project, but wouldn't an alternative have been to just add lanes to the Parkway? It seems like every other major city has 8 and 10 lane interstate highways. Why are ours 6 lanes, or in many spots, only 4 lanes?
That would help too. They recently added lanes near the Parkway/I79 interchange and it has helped a lot
