Semi-OT: Pittsburgh's Third-World Public Transportation

[Zeldas Open Roof]

You have to have business friendly policies AND good roads.

i used to take that every day from finleyville all the way south of uniontown, for years. i kid you not, i wouldnt pass 3 cars to or from for most of that stretch, not until i got almost into uniontown.

I could accurately predict the minute i'd get home, to the minute. I'd play blackjack on an app on my phone every afternoon driving home, it was that wide open. of course this is not a good idea so please dont do this..

 

[PittPharm2002]

You have to have business friendly policies AND good roads.

And people who actually want to go shop there
I mean look At pittsburgh mills being a ghost town .
Nobody is going out of their was to shop or eaT at chain places

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

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 a better chance that one of us wins the Powerball than the final leg of that road to Monroeville will be completed before every single person on this board is dead.

That part of the road is not only NOT currently under construction, they aren't even doing anything to prepare for it yet. And if they ever get to that point they will have to deal with the same NIMBY stuff that has delayed it for the past couple of decades.

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

We need Sky Bus!!!! (look it up!) Pgh has been run by knuckle-draggers forever. Some of the nicest suburbs, and great people. I grew up in Philly......trains, trolleys, subways, buses all over. Couldn't believe how bad it was here. But traffic is generally OK.

And if someone spends much time looking it up, they will see what a fiasco Skybus was. Focused on the South Hills, the rest of the County rebelled. I read somewhere that PAT actually had plans to eventually build it throughout the County, but they kept those plans under wraps (which has to be one of the all-time public relations blunders).

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

And people who actually want to go shop there
I mean look At pittsburgh mills being a ghost town .
Nobody is going out of their was to shop or eaT at chain places

My god, that place should be a business school case study in poor planning. First of all I blame the weird folks of the AK Valley, who still, even after the Mills mall was built, preferred to drive to Ross Park or Monroeville. Plus the AK Valley people are notoriously cheap and backward. Also, that place was built just as malls started to grow in disfavor and now completely irrelevant because of online shopping. I was there last night, at Loews. Just a sad place.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

And if someone spends much time looking it up, they will see what a fiasco Skybus was. Focused on the South Hills, the rest of the County rebelled. I read somewhere that PAT actually had plans to eventually build it throughout the County, but they kept those plans under wraps (which has to be one of the all-time public relations blunders).

Skybus Experiment

pittsburghtransit.org

 

[NTOP]

And if someone spends much time looking it up, they will see what a fiasco Skybus was. Focused on the South Hills, the rest of the County rebelled. I read somewhere that PAT actually had plans to eventually build it throughout the County, but they kept those plans under wraps (which has to be one of the all-time public relations blunders).

My post was sarcasm. The pols here are really bad, because most of the big $$$ folks gave up.
We still have the colleges and hospitals, and great people.
Complaining about the lack of transpo generally is silly, since our traffic is minimal.

 

[USN_Panther]

My post was sarcasm. The pols here are really bad, because most of the big $$$ folks gave up.
We still have the colleges and hospitals, and great people.
Complaining about the lack of transpo generally is silly, since our traffic is minimal.

The road infrastructure around Pittsburgh is pretty poor. That's just my observation of a few days driving and not having been here in a while.
Politicians seldom think any further into the future than the next election. Transportation infrastructure requires a long-term view, and that's just not sexy enough to get re-elected.

 

[Saboteur II]

Which is greater, Pittsburgh’s rush hour bike riders, or WVU fans at the football game last Thursday night?

According to Jerry DePaola, Mitch Trubisky seemed to kinda indicate that bikes made more noise that the WVU fans.

 

[Saboteur II]

The road infrastructure around Pittsburgh is pretty poor. That's just my observation of a few days driving and not having been here in a while.
Politicians seldom think any further into the future than the next election. Transportation infrastructure requires a long-term view, and that's just not sexy enough to get re-elected.

The Fort Pitt and Squirrel Hill tunnels were designed to support the number of vehicles on the day each opened, but not the day after that.

 

[Saboteur II]

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?

No, because it stops in the middle of nowhere. It was like building a room with no doors. To be effective it had to be able to flow freely…like arteries do.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

The SWPA area is way too parochial to combine any resources! There are more school districts in Allegheny Co than 7 states in the US! Don't even get me started on municipalities!

 

[HailtoPitt]

My post was sarcasm. The pols here are really bad, because most of the big $$$ folks gave up.
We still have the colleges and hospitals, and great people.
Complaining about the lack of transpo generally is silly, since our traffic is minimal.

Got to plan ahead for growth within a city. Other places do that much better because they think about what's best for the people. Here we think about what's best for business and divide people along class lines so that politicians and their backers can run away with more money.

They needed to have built a rail line from downtown to Oakland built decades ago. That was/is painfully obvious and should be a case study in how to eff up. Instead we got a tunnel so that the Steelers and Succos can have a stop at their front doors. Screw the people who live in the Northside. Screw the hospitals, students in Oakland, and people who live and work east of downtown! The Rooneys got what they wanted... and in Pittsburgh that's what matters!

 

[cbpitt2]

The sad thing is....with all of the rail lines that are no longer used, it would not require a whole lot of investment to make real live mass transit trains that go other places than Bethel Park. The AK Valley (and wouldn't those who drive 28 daily enjoy) up to say Tarentum, would be one route. I am sure numerous routes up the Ohio River to say Coraopolis or Hopewell. Imagine the pressure taken off the Fort Pitt Bridge and Greentree Hill. But we have always had alot of politicians who talk the talk and walk in union parades and do nothing but collect some nice salary and perks the rest of the year.

I recently read 28 referred to as a cone-pimpled purgatory.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

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.

Yea, I dont get it. Its one thing if these roads were free to drive on but they are charging people to save only a couple minutes. 43 is the same way.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

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.

First of all that 79 to 43 connector is probably 100 years away. I'm not even joking. We will all have personal jetpacks by then. They are having an impossible time accumulating land in West Mifflin, Duquesne, Homestead, etc for the 43 to 22 connector. How the eff are they going to buy up land in friggin Canon Mac and Peters Township where land is extremely expensive?

The other thing is that beltway would take you so far south that it would still be quicker to go from Monroeville to the airport through downtown.

 

[Saboteur II]

I recently read 28 referred to as a cone-pimpled purgatory.

I used to call it ORANGE BARREL ROAD

 

[NTOP]

Got to plan ahead for growth within a city. Other places do that much better because they think about what's best for the people. Here we think about what's best for business and divide people along class lines so that politicians and their backers can run away with more money.

They needed to have built a rail line from downtown to Oakland built decades ago. That was/is painfully obvious and should be a case study in how to eff up. Instead we got a tunnel so that the Steelers and Succos can have a stop at their front doors. Screw the people who live in the Northside. Screw the hospitals, students in Oakland, and people who live and work east of downtown! The Rooneys got what they wanted... and in Pittsburgh that's what matters!

There is NO growth in the City of Pittsburgh. Been sliding since the '60s. Lots of folks used to commute into town (There was an article years ago that said no city of this size had more folks in dahntahn daily than the Burgh, and none were close). This with lousy transpo/hills/rivers/tunnels.
But the pols chased folks to the burbs, which are really pretty nice, and little office areas grew nicely.
The 7-county referendum voted 2-1 against building 2 stadiums with taxpayer millions. Right away, Smurphy gets on the phone from Art II's office at Klett Lieber to Harrisburg and they cut the deal.
USS & Gulf were the biggest companies then....but the Rooney's got whatever they wanted. Nothing's changed since.

 

[HopeandChangeforAntoons]

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

“What time does the T open for the game?”

Just doesn’t have the same feel. But as a fellow East ender that would be nice. We’ve biked down for games, concerts, festivals etc. I get wanting to tailgate, but it’s great not having to fool with parking for that stuff.

 

[HailtoPitt]

There is NO growth in the City of Pittsburgh. Been sliding since the '60s. Lots of folks used to commute into town (There was an article years ago that said no city of this size had more folks in dahntahn daily than the Burgh, and none were close). This with lousy transpo/hills/rivers/tunnels.
But the pols chased folks to the burbs, which are really pretty nice, and little office areas grew nicely.
The 7-county referendum voted 2-1 against building 2 stadiums with taxpayer millions. Right away, Smurphy gets on the phone from Art II's office at Klett Lieber to Harrisburg and they cut the deal.
USS & Gulf were the biggest companies then....but the Rooney's got whatever they wanted. Nothing's changed since.

We are at least in agreement that the Rooneys get what they want, even when the people are against it and/or don't need it.

I'd argue that many people WANT to live in a city with lots of others around, that is safe, has convenient transportation and is walkable. You really need a decent transportation system to help make this work... and Pittsburgh didn't invest in this where they should have, and it's too late now with the dumbass BRT.

 

[NTOP]

We are at least in agreement that the Rooneys get what they want, even when the people are against it and/or don't need it.

I'd argue that many people WANT to live in a city with lots of others around, that is safe, has convenient transportation and is walkable. You really need a decent transportation system to help make this work... and Pittsburgh didn't invest in this where they should have, and it's too late now with the dumbass BRT.

Frankly, I'd rather have the status quo than any big project from this band of idiots. We ate in Bloomfield last night, rolled through dahntahn and took the PKWY to 79 North. Very quiet, must have been no shows. BTW, G's on Liberty is a great place. Not too expensive, but pretty creative food & great service.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

The road infrastructure around Pittsburgh is pretty poor. That's just my observation of a few days driving and not having been here in a while.
Politicians seldom think any further into the future than the next election. Transportation infrastructure requires a long-term view, and that's just not sexy enough to get re-elected.

It is. And it is a deterrent to growth. However, let's be honest, the biggest deterrent to growth was also why Pittsburgh came about as an Industrial power but now is our biggest hinderance.

Pittsburgh came about because of the coal resources, but mostly sitting on the rivers, it was navigable to other internal ports.

Now? We talk about Columbus and alot of cities in Texas and the Sun Belt on how they expand...but as we saw with Amazon.......where do you put large scale growth? And what do you need to do to put it in? There aren't 5 square miles of flat earth that doesn't have a creeks or something running through in Western Pa. In Columbus, you can just get a bulldozer out, and in a month or two, clear out 100 acres to build a new development. Here, it would take like 5-7 times as long and 10x the cost.

So sometimes we (I) blame politicians, but our topography that makes Pittsburgh scenic and charming, is also our biggest deterrent.

 

[Upg bobcat]

It is. And it is a deterrent to growth. However, let's be honest, the biggest deterrent to growth was also why Pittsburgh came about as an Industrial power but now is our biggest hinderance.

Pittsburgh came about because of the coal resources, but mostly sitting on the rivers, it was navigable to other internal ports.

Now? We talk about Columbus and alot of cities in Texas and the Sun Belt on how they expand...but as we saw with Amazon.......where do you put large scale growth? And what do you need to do to put it in? There aren't 5 square miles of flat earth that doesn't have a creeks or something running through in Western Pa. In Columbus, you can just get a bulldozer out, and in a month or two, clear out 100 acres to build a new development. Here, it would take like 5-7 times as long and 10x the cost.

So sometimes we (I) blame politicians, but our topography that makes Pittsburgh scenic and charming, is also our biggest deterrent.

Do businesses need five square miles of flat land for anything other than manufacturing plants, and maybe distribution centers? I get that Intel is putting a chip factory in Columbus, but I think a lot of manufacturing jobs left the US a long time ago and isn't going to be coming back to the US in the future.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Frankly, I'd rather have the status quo than any big project from this band of idiots. We ate in Bloomfield last night, rolled through dahntahn and took the PKWY to 79 North. Very quiet, must have been no shows. BTW, G's on Liberty is a great place. Not too expensive, but pretty creative food & great service.

I don't disagree. Big projects will lead to more handouts and collusion to drive up the budget 3x. We really need to figure out how they can build something cheaper in Europe, and do that here.

 

[PittPharm2002]

I recently read 28 referred to as a cone-pimpled purgatory.

It’s not that bad

 

[PittPharm2002]

Frankly, I'd rather have the status quo than any big project from this band of idiots. We ate in Bloomfield last night, rolled through dahntahn and took the PKWY to 79 North. Very quiet, must have been no shows. BTW, G's on Liberty is a great place. Not too expensive, but pretty creative food & great service.

Did ya leave beaver already ?