City Budget decisions for 2025 are happening NOW. Contact your City Councilmember today to support Councilmember Warwick’s amendment for the expansion of dignified, sheltered transit stops in the City of PIttsburgh!
Can you follow up your letter with a phone call?
- District 1 Bobby Wilson (Troy and Observatory Hill, Perry Hilltop, parts of Downtown, Strip District): (412) 255-2135
- District 2 Theresa Kail-Smith (West End, Sheraden, Crafton Heights) : (412) 255-8963
- District 3 Bob Charland (Allentown, Mt Washington, Mt Oliver, Southside, South Oakland): (412) 255-2130
- District 4 Anthony Coghill (Beechview, Brookline, Carrick): (412) 255-2131
- District 5 Barb Warwick (Hazelwood, Greenfield, Lincoln Place, Swisshelm Park, parts of Sq Hill and Oakland): (412) 255-8965
- District 6 R. Daniel Lavelle (Uptown, Hill District, Marshall-Shadeland, parts of Downtown) : (412) 255-2134
- District 7, Deborah Gross (Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Polish Hill, Highland Park, Morningside): (412) 255-2140
- District 8, Erica Strassburger (Shadyside, North Oakland, West side of Sq Hill): (412) 255-2133
- District 9, Khari Mosley (East Liberty, Larimer, Lincoln, Lemington, Homewood, Pt. Breeze): (412) 255-2137
Whether you are Black or white, disabled or able-bodied, an older adult or a high school student, we all deserve a safe, dignified, and comfortable way to get where we need to go.
However, Allegheny County transit riders are usually waiting for their ride out in the cold and in the rain. That is because our region has the dubious honor of having some of the fewest bus shelters installed relative to stops in the nation – only 8%, according to a recent Washington Post article. In the City of Pittsburgh alone, there are more than 230 bus stops that currently do not have any transit amenities, but which should have shelters and benches because they have over 30 riders boarding transit at these stops everyday.
The City of Pittsburgh is responsible for installing and maintaining bus shelters within the city limits, not Pittsburgh Regional Transit. Despite that, the 2025 City of Pittsburgh proposed budget has no budget line for transit amenities, just as in all the budgets prior in recent memory.
There are over 100,000 transit trips taken everyday in the City of Pittsburgh; riders deserve better! Over the past year, riders with Pittsburghers for Public Transit have done bus stop walk audits to identify stops in which shelters could be immediately deployed, done research on total ridership and rider demographics at each stop, given public testimony on the importance of transit infrastructure, and joined the Complete Streets Committee to play an active role in informing the City about transit rider needs. We have done our part. It’s long past time for the City to invest in safe, accessible, comfortable and dignified transit infrastructure.
Today, Councilwoman Barb Warwick introduced an amendment to allocate $110,000 of an approx. $540,000 surplus of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards Bus Shelters/Transit Amenities. We applaud her leadership, and now want to ensure that her colleagues on Council vote to approve her amendment.
City of Pittsburgh Map of All PRT Bus Stops With Ridership >30 Riders/Day without Shelters, developed by Abhishek Vishwanathan
Closing the gap on unsheltered bus stops is a critical equity issue in every Pittsburgh City Council District.
Funding bus shelters is a quality-of-life improvement for marginalized Pittsburghers, and one that spans all Council districts. Every dot on this map of Pittsburgh reflects a bus stop where ridership justifies a bus shelter, but which currently does not have one. The red dots indicate that the communities adjacent to the stop have a high equity need, and include disproportionately low-income, minority, disabled, older adult or no-car households. That is why the City of Pittsburgh should consider prioritizing the installation of shelters at the red dot locations.
Nearly a third of Allegheny County transit riders are low-income, according to a 2014 Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) rider survey; it is very likely that the percentage of low-income riders has grown substantially since the pandemic. 38% of PRT riders are people of color, of which 28% are Black residents, which is double the total Black population in Allegheny County. Moreover, for many disabled residents, for youth, older adults, and immigrants public transit is the only means to travel to doctor’s appointments, to schools and grocery stores, jobs and childcare.
Let’s win riders a better place to wait: Contact your City Councilmember TODAY to ask them to support Councilmember Warwick’s amendment for transit amenities!