About Port Authority’s “Quarterly Service Adjustments”

Four times every year, the Port Authority adjusts its transit schedules and routes to account for construction, road closures, rider/worker requests, ridership shifts, and/or all of the other unexpected changes that might affect Pittsburgh roads. These quarterly adjustments were dialed back because of the pandemic, but they seem to be back on track now that ridership is increasing.

Since 2019, PPT and the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline have been publishing these blogs to spread the word about these changes and say what they mean for riders. Some quarters bring great changes (like Q4 2020 where we won weekend service on 95% of Local routes) some quarters are a wash, and some quarters (like this one) are overall reductions of service.

Service has been abysmal the last few months. There’s really no other way to say it. Missed buses, crowded busses, inaccurate locations on apps. These are some of the worst levels of service that transit riders have ever seen. If you are sick of putting up with this terrible service, take a minute to help advocate for change and share your story with PPT here.

About the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline

The @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline is a volunteer-run twitter account that gives riders updates on Port Authority’s daily happenings. The Hotline has no official connection to the Port Authority (again, it is a volunteer-run twitter account) but the updates they provide are helpful nonetheless. The Hotline is a big supporter of PPT, and an enormous advocate for public transit. We’re thankful for their support and happy to collab on these rider resources. Follow @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline on twitter for more grassroots transit updates.

About how to read this blog

We’re starting a new layout for these blogs. We’re going to sort this long list of changes from Port Authority into three categories based on what they mean for riders; “The Good”, “The Bad (The Missed Opportunities)”, “The Wash”.

For each change you’ll see the text and link that the Port Authority uses to describe each change, this is copy/pasted from their website…

• … then below this text, you’ll see this italicized text. This italicized portion are comments from the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline and PPT on what these changes mean for riders and our system. You can check Port Authority’s website to follow these quarterly service changes. 

Lets get started.

Q3 Service Changes: These changes went into effect Sunday, April 23, 2022.

The good

8-Perrysville – Two inbound and two outbound weekday trips have been added and weekday trip times were adjusted in anticipation of the return of student riders. 

• Albeit a small increase, it is nice to see schedules and service get closer to “normal” pre-pandemic levels. That said, this is one of the few increases that we’re seeing this quarter.

69-Trafford – Weekdays schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Service from Trafford to downtown Pittsburgh will be restored.

In addition to the stops the 69-Trafford currently serves between Trafford and Wilkinsburg, this route will resume serving stops along its previous route between Wilkinsburg and downtown via Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, Oakland, and Uptown.

Due to this change, however, the 69-Trafford will no longer serve the following stops near Wilkinsburg Station where service currently terminates: Wallace Ave at Pitt St (inbound stop # 16627), East Busway at Wilkinsburg Station D (inbound stop # 16118), East Busway at Wilkinsburg Station B (outbound stop # 16111) and East Busway at Hay St Ramp Outbound Shelter (outbound stop # 8153).

• We are beyond ecstatic to see that not only is service to downtown restored but that Port Authority finally worked out an agreement with Haymaker Villa shoppes to layover there on these 2 routes and while Trafford falls just outside county lines it’s amazing that for the 1st time in nearly 20 years (dating back to STV Mini bus routes) that riders both East and West of the shopping center will have BOTH DIRECT INBOUND AND DIRECT OUTBOUND 7-Day a week service options instead of complicated limited service options or without needing to hike where sidewalks are few.

P12-Holiday Park Flyer – Schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. An additional outbound trip was added in the morning.

• Ok, its a small change, but it’s nice to see 1 round-trip added. Now if only more service could be restored.

P67-Monroeville Flyer – Schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed to include the future permanent location of the Monroeville Mall Park and Ride. Please note that the new Park and Ride is not yet in service, and P67 buses will remain on detour serving the temporary Park and Ride location at the mall’s West Court entrance until further notice.

• Glad to see service is now officially relocated to a stop that will serve both the park-and-ride location the P68 and 67. Having stop uniformity at the mall helps limit rider confusion and benefits everyone – Port Authority, riders, and businesses. Disappointed to see no service expansion, so let’s hope for more in the future.

The bad (the missed opportunities) – buckle up because this is a long list

2-Mount Royal – Weekend service will no longer serve the Strip District and will instead mirror weekday service. Buses will enter downtown via East Ohio Street and the 9th Street Bridge. 

• This change is very disappointing. Rather than having all services go via the Strip, which has fewer service options than N Side, PAAC chose to return the route to its weekday routing via 28 and the Northside. This is a huge missed opportunity because of the increase in jobs and housing that’s happening in the Strip and the development that is happening in Millvale.  If the 2 were routed through the Strip it would give riders the ability to transfer to the 93, 64, and other routes that could bring them to points East without needing to go all the way in to downtown to transfer. This change is a huge missed opportunity to make the kind of changes that PAAC says it wants to make in its NexTransit plan. We want to see future changes that restore the 2 routing over the 40th street bridge on all days and increase the frequency.

12-McKnight – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Weekday service has been reduced to approximately 30-45-minute frequency. Saturday service has been reduced to approximately 25-35-minute frequency. Sunday service has been reduced to approximately 30-40-minute frequency.

• This one hurts. The 12 received more service after the the start of COVID when Port Authority made its first rounds of adjustments to respond to needs. Then, a year later at the public hearings about those changes, Port Authority told riders that routes like the 12 that got more service would not be at risk of losing it. But here we are, 3-months after they said that, we’re seeing reductions like these. Saying one thing, and doing another is not how you build trust or loyalty with riders.

13-Bellevue – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Late-night service has been reduced to 30-60 minute frequency.

• These cuts follow the trend that began after the start of COVID. Port Authority has brought a wrecking ball to evening service after 6 pm, in this case by creating 30 to 60 min frequencies. Really!? Riders deserve more than that.

16-Brighton – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Midday service has been reduced to 25-minute frequency. Early morning and late-night service has been reduced to 30-35-minute frequency.

• These new schedules have really done a number on service in the early morning and post-PM rush hour. The 16-Brighton is another casualty.

20-Kennedy – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• Some overall service reductions are disappointing to see.

28X-Airport Flyer – Schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Outbound service will return to the Boulevard of the Allies. A new variant, the 28X-Airport Flyer Direct, will provide one outbound trip (towards the airport) in the morning, and one inbound trip (towards downtown) in the afternoon, and will bypass Robinson Town Centre.

• We’re seeing a return to the old Blvd of Allies routing, which is fine. However, what we’re also seeing, is that 2 trips (one AM and one PM) are now going directly to their airport and not stopping anywhere in Robinson so Robinson workers are losing connection. This is being done under the branding of “Airport Direct” trips. Direct trips to the airport could be good, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of workers’ connections. Moreover, it was revealed at a stakeholders meeting that this change is being made almost completely at the request of the contractor who’s building the new airport terminal and needs their workers there for the start of their shift. There are lots of changes that riders have been calling for – why is it that only big businesses get their requests met?

29-Robinson – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Service will operate every 50 minutes throughout the day.

• The fixed frequency of 50 minutes on weekdays is a mixed bag. On the upside, it is an improvement for mid-day service and some night service. But on the downside, there are fewer overall trips AND service ends slightly earlier. These charges against the backdrop of overall lower weekend service AND reduced Robinson trips thanks to the new 28x changes aren’t the best. It needs improvement.

31-Bridgeville – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Service will operate every 35 minutes throughout the day.

• The shift to 35 min headway all day on weekdays is another mixed bag. On the 1 hand a consistent schedule is more predictable for riders, but on the other certain times of day will see significant reductions with this shift.  Also, these changes seem to narrow the window of service for riders, starting a little later in the AM and ending slightly earlier in the PM.

67-Monroeville – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have been reduced to 30-60 minute frequency throughout the day due to the return of 69-Trafford service to downtown Pittsburgh, which shares the same route from Wilkinsburg to downtown.   

• This reduction is another example of PAAC going back on its word as they the mid-day and night service that they added to the 67 after COVID’s start. That said, its nice to see the 11:35 PM weekday trip in town go back outbound for folks that might need it.

P1-East Busway-All Stops – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Morning rush hour frequency has been reduced to approximately every 10 minutes, and afternoon rush hour frequency has been reduced to approximately every 8 minutes.

• These are cuts, straight up, and that’s not good.

The wash…

6-Spring Hill – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. / 15-Charles – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• We’ve no comments here as nothing seems particularly noteworthy.

11-Fineview – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• Nothing noteworthy to say.

59-Mon Valley – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Service has been increased to 40-minute frequency.

• We’re gunna put this change in “The Wash” section because it really has its positives and negatives. Here’s another example of PAAC rolling back the extra service that was added after COVID. While it’s nice that weekday isn’t going entirely back to 1 hr headways like before, and that the night service does get a boost (bonus kudos to the new 1230 am trip from the Century 3 Mall to Versailles), it’s disappointing to lose 30 min frequency on weekdays and part of the weekend. These changes do add to the Port Authority Portfolio of nearly 24 hr routes, with only an 80-minute gap of zero service on weeknights…now if that could be a 7-day deal. It’s also nice that there’s 2 extra trips a day, but it would be nice if the inbound trips from Versailles to West Mifflin ran equally as late.

60-Walnut-Crawford Village – Schedules have been updated to reflect that service has been restored to the McKeesport Transportation Center effective March 20.

• Nothing noteworthy. Now the route loops into the new transit center.

61C-McKeesport-Homestead – Schedules have been updated to reflect that service has been restored to the McKeesport Transportation Center effective March 20.

• Nothing noteworthy. Now the route loops into the new transit center.

64-Lawrenceville-Waterfront – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• Nothing to really say.

74-Homewood-Squirrel Hill – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• The subtle adjustments aren’t too bad. While service ends earlier on Weekdays under the new schedule and Sunday is still crap, it looks like Saturday runs slightly later now.

75-Ellsworth – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed.

• The bulk of service actually looks Improved, except for nights which look slightly scaled back – especially Weeknight and Sunday/Holidays 

G2-West Busway – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. Service has been reduced to 20-minute frequency.

• The nearly all-day 20 min headways is both a curse and a blessing. It’ll help predictability and create more even night service, but at the cost of reductions in both the AM and PM “rush” – which effectively halves service at those times.

P2-East Busway Short – Schedules have been adjusted and trip times have changed. The P2 will resume serving stops in downtown Pittsburgh. Service has been reduced to 20-minute frequency.

• While it’s nice to see P2 return to downtown after a questionable “test pilot”, it’s disappointing to see both P1 & P2 getting service reductions. Additionally, it’s disappointing that the P2 continues to only have service during the morning rush.

P7-McKeesport Flyer – Schedules have been updated to reflect that service has been restored to the McKeesport Transportation Center effective March 20.

• Still sore about this route. It lost a bunch of service during the COVID changes that has never been restored. These changes don’t do much other than loop it through the new transportation center in McKeesport.

That’s it for this quarter. If you have stories of bad transit service in the last few months, take a minute to share it with PPT and help advocate for change.

Stay tuned for the next set of quarterly changes, expected in June of 2022

As these changes roll-out, be sure to give your feedback & suggestions by reaching out to Port Authority Customer Service by phone or over twitter:

Port Authority Customer service phone number: 412-442-2000
Hours: Weekdays 5a to 7p, Weekend + Holidays 8a to 430p

or via Twitter @PGHTransit or @PGHTransitCare

And if you want to get in touch with the volunteer-run @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline, you can give them a call at 412-759-3335 ONLY When PortAuthority Customer Service is Closed/unavailable or via Twitter anytime @PGH_BUS_INFO

The PGH Bus Info Hotline will be back on PPT’s blog in for the next set of changes. See ya then.

Transportation emissions are now the largest contributor to climate change in the United States. There is no managing or reversing the climate crisis without getting more people on transit. 

As we approach Earth Day, however, public transit is the worse its been since the start of the pandemic, and Port Authority is cutting back service April 24th with the likelihood of further cuts in June. Poor transit service is more than an inconvenience. It is a threat to our jobs, our air quality, our climate, and our future.

Join the rally on April 22nd, 1-2pm, to demand more transit, not less.

From rider testimonials:

• Because of late buses, his boss has told him not to bother coming to work, and he has missed days of pay.
• Out-of-service trains means her son can’t get home from school in time to join afterschool activities with his friends. 
• True time transit apps have had her standing in the rain for hours, waiting for buses that never come.

This downward spiral of transit service is devastating for individuals and families all throughout Allegheny County, and it needs to stop. We need more transit, not less.

For the lives of the people riding transit, for the future of our climate and planet, we need the Port Authority to reverse this trend of declining service quality.

Join PPT and riders from across the county at this Earth Day rally to call on the Port Authority to restore and improve transit service. If you have been affected by the recent spat of transit outages, share your story here to advocate for change. If you need a ride or the rally, or if you have any questions or accessibility needs, please reach out to PPT at info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org.org or 412-626-7353.

The quality of our transit service has been changing in Allegheny County, and it hasn’t necessarily been for the better…

Has your bus not come? Have you been waiting for ages? Have the recent service cuts impacted you?

Share your story and advocate for change:

Canceled buses. Late arrivals. Crowding. Transit shutoffs. Since the start of the pandemic, Port Authority transit has hit a new low. What’s worse, PRT has continued to make service reductions and changes to our routes and bus stops. Riders won’t take it any longer. We need transit expansion, not cuts, and it’s time we speak up for change.

Help advocate with Pittsburghers for Public Transit for improvements to public transit by sharing your story about how bad service is affecting your life.

Did you miss an interview? Were you late for school, work or childcare? Was it impossible to get home because buses had stopped running?

Now is the time. Use the form below to share your story and help advocate for better public transit. All comments will be kept anonymous until an organizer connects with you.

Share your story about how you are affected by bad transit service and help riders advocate for change.

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La calidad de nuestro servicio de tránsito ha estado cambiando en el condado de Allegheny, y no necesariamente ha sido para lo mejor…

¿No ha llegado su autobús? ¿Has estado esperando por mucho tiempo? ¿Le han afectado los recientes cortes de servicio?

Comparta su historia y abogue por mejoras:

Autobuses cancelados o llenos. Llegadas tardías. Desconexión de tránsito. Cambios de servicio. Desde el comienzo de la pandemia, el tránsito del condado de Allegheny ha alcanzado un nuevo mínimo. Lo que es peor, PRT ha continuado haciendo reducciones a nuestras rutas y paradas de autobús sin participación pública. Los pasajeros no lo aguantarán más. Necesitamos expansión del tránsito, no recortes, y es hora de que hablemos por el tránsito que merecemos.

Ahora es el momento. Ayude a reformar el transporte público compartiendo una historia de cómo el servicio malo está afectando su vida. Utilice el siguiente formulario para compartir su historia y las soluciones que desea ver. Todos los comentarios permanecerán anónimos hasta que un organizador se conecte contigo.

¿Perdiste una entrevista? ¿Llegaste tarde a la escuela, al trabajo o a la guardería? ¿Era imposible llegar a casa porque los autobuses habían dejado de funcionar? Comparta su historia sobre cómo le ha impactado el servicio malo de tránsito y ayude a los pasajeros a abogar por el cambio.

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Feel free to reach out to Pittsburghers for Public Transit with any questions stories: 412-626-733 or info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

Puede comunicarse con Pittsburghers en Defensa del Transporte Público con cualquier pregunta o historia: 412-626-7353 o info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

PennDOT’s Fern Hollow Bridge Public Comment Form is OPEN

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Opportunity in a crash

PPT Blog written by Emily Howe

The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge on January 28, 2022 has fueled discussions at the city, state, and federal level about investing more in critical infrastructure.  One outcome of these discussions is that PennDOT will provide funding to rebuild the city-owned Fern Hollow Bridge.

This is good news. PennDOT recently released a rendering of the Fern Hollow bridge design and has stated they plan to begin construction in April. This rendering and the quick timeline has fueled concerns from local officials like City Controller Michael Lamb that there has not been enough community input and that the needs of non-motorized bridge users haven’t been adequately assessed.

While not mentioned on PennDOT’s Fern Hollow page, we recently learned that the impetus for this quick timeline along with the depiction of tractor trailers on the new bridge is due to another pending PennDOT project that predates the bridge collapse: replacing the Commercial Street Bridge. Beginning in summer 2023, PennDOT plans to close the Commercial Street Bridge and detour I-376 traffic between Regents Square and Squirrel Hill via the Fern Hollow Bridge. This detour explains both PennDOT’s urgency to repair the Fern Hollow Bridge and why the rendering resembles a highway and prioritizes car and truck traffic.

While the current design for the Fern Hollow Bridge makes sense as a short-term solution given the upcoming replacement of the Commercial Street Bridge, these constraints do not eliminate the need for consulting with communities around both short- and long-term opportunities that these bridge replacements present.

In the short-term, Port Authority should work with residents to strategize how their public transit needs can be better served with the current detours on the 61A and 61B buses due to the Fern Hollow Bridge closure. Residents have already proposed a few ways that the 61A and 61B detours can better meet their needs:

• These long-term detours should be incorporated into the regular schedule with appropriate running times and established bus stops to better serve residents (e.g., between Forbes and Wilkins on S Dallas Avenue and between Forbes and Penn on S Braddock Ave)
• Port Authority/Pittsburgh/PennDOT should evaluate the possibility of transit signal priority for buses along Penn Ave or bus only lanes during rush hours.
• On-street parking along Penn Ave from Dallas to Braddock should be prohibited.

In addition, the future 3-week closure of the Commercial Street Bridge also presents an opportunity for Port Authority to capture new riders as drivers seek to avoid high congestion and increased travel times by car. However, this will require Port Authority to establish more efficient connections from Regents Square and Squirrel Hill to popular destinations like Oakland and Downtown during the Commercial Street Bridge closure/I-376 detours. Improved P3, P7 and P71 service along with a targeted advertising campaign could encourage residents of Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Regent Square, Swissvale and Rankin who drive to try the bus. Using the bus will help residents avoid causing and sitting in congestion, and help them to realize the benefit of the East Busway to their communities The campaign could also showcase the East Busway as the only route with excess capacity for more users. Penn Avenue and the Parkway East barely had enough capacity prior to the bridge collapse. This is a chance for the East Busway to shine and prove its worth to the communities it serves.

In looking towards long-term solutions, the City needs to work with residents to create a design plan for the Fern Hollow Bridge once PennDOT relinquishes it (post Commercial Street Bridge reconstruction). The goal of the Fern Hollow redesign should be to address shortcomings with the prior bridge, including:

• pedestrian walkways that were too narrow for wheelchair and stroller access
• bicyclists being funneled into traffic
• the high speeds of cars and related safety concerns
• outbound congestion that slows transit during rush hour

There have already been a few proposals to address these problems. For example, having one inbound lane and two outbound lanes could lessen congestion, while also creating more space for bike lanes and sidewalks.

While we support PennDOT in moving swiftly to replace the Fern Hollow Bridge, we do not have to trade off speed and efficiency at the expense of community input. In fact, the replacement of the Fern Hollow and Commercial Street Bridges creates opportunities for The Port Authority to capture new riders and for the future Fern Hollow Bridge to better meet community needs. Now is the time for residents to come together to determine how our public infrastructure will look and function for decades to come.

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PennDOT has released their comment form for the public to give input into the bridge design. Take 2 minutes to give your input today:

Because transit workers rock, we roll. Help PPT to celebrate Transit Worker Appreciation Day, 2022

Transit workers are the muscle in our county. Each year they carry hundreds of thousands of riders to the places they need to go. They have been on the front lines through this whole pandemic working to keep our county moving and it’s about time they get some appreciation. 

The pandemic has been hard on everyone, but especially transit workers. 7 Port Authority transit workers have passed away from COVID. But still, their brave colleagues continue to show up to keep the county moving.

March 18th marks Transit Worker Appreciation Day, a national celebration of transit workers and the heroic effort that these workers put in. Help us make it special by sharing your story and volunteering to help the effort.

Thank and celebrate transit workers by sharing a story about a time that transit workers have made a difference in your life.

Use our form below to share a personal story about the importance of transit workers and send your thanks. PPT will be collecting stories and thank-you notes from 250 riders and delivering them directly to transit workers at their workplace.

Volunteer with us to canvass riders and collect their stories and thanks to transit riders

Sign up below to volunteer with PPT to help our efforts on Transit Worker Appreciation Day the week of March 14th. We’ll be holding a number of canvasses where we’ll be talking to riders at bus stops and collecting their stories about how transit workers have made an impact on their lives. We’ll also be handing out thank-you cards for riders to hand to their bus drivers.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) is a grassroots union organizing for a more equitable, affordable and accessible transit system that meets all needs, with no communities left behind. 

We stand with transit riders and transit workers. To that end, we urge the Port Authority and ATU Local 85 to negotiate a quick and amenable resolution to the vaccine mandate issue, and one that doesn’t result in the loss of experienced transit workers that keep our system running. There are no winners if we continue down this path, because we cannot afford to trade service for safety, or safety for service: we need both.

We are facing devastating transit service cuts – both in the immediate future from missed trips with transit workers out on disciplinary leave and from those who are out sick, and longer term. The Port Authority is already planning for significant service cuts in June, to mirror the capacity of a depleted workforce. That creates a downward spiral of reduced transit service and fewer riders, which justifies further cuts. This will be harmful in the long run to both the transit riders that rely on the service, and to the size and years of experience within the transit workforce. It would also be an enormous loss to our region, which depends on public transit to ease congestion and support our workforce needs, and benefits from having a robust unionized workforce in public transit with living wages and family-supporting benefits. 

There are also ways to address the existing 100+ transit worker shortage so that our region could see transit service expansion rather than contraction. The agency could offer hazard pay for workers, have an employee recruitment and retention incentive for existing workers, and collaborate with Port Authority’s 70+ stakeholder organizations to get the word out about their open positions and quality compensation.

We say unequivocally that public transit needs to be safe for all users. We support vaccinations, and encourage everyone to get them. But vaccinations are one tool in a list of many others that need to be part of this discussion, including extending the masking requirements beyond the CDC’s current deadline of April 18th, making masks available for riders on every bus, providing free and regular COVID testing to workers, and reinstituting rear-door boarding and suspending fare payment, to allow a safe distance between riders and drivers. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on public transit and its riders and workers over the past several years. The pandemic has made planning difficult, because conditions change so rapidly– we recognize that it takes courage and flexibility for the Port Authority to pivot to address evolving needs to achieve good outcomes. We have seen and appreciate the agency’s ability to respond to shifting ridership and service patterns, and the installation of higher quality air ventilation systems on buses. We also honor all of the sacrifices transit workers have made in the face of this devastating pandemic; to date, hundreds of Port Authority workers have contracted COVID-19 and seven of them have died. Transit workers continue to have an important stake in conversations around pandemic safety. Now is the time for a solution that keeps riders and workers safe while avoiding terminations and further service cuts.

Bus lines are lifelines, and transit workers are on the frontlines of keeping our critical services going, moving our economy, and connecting riders with our destinations. Join us in supporting Transit Worker Appreciation Day this Friday, March 18th, by sharing stories about how transit workers have impacted your life and volunteering with us to canvass riders and collect their stories. Share your story here. Volunteer information can be found here.

Join us in saying thank you Mayor Gainey for putting an end to the Mon Oakland Connector

For over six long years, residents of Hazelwood, Four Mile Run, and the surrounding neighborhoods have organized to say that public investment needs to meet public needs.

All of their efforts finally paid off on February 17th. In front of a packed community meeting filled with 100+ residents of Hazelwood and Greenfield, Mayor Ed Gainey announced: “The Mon-Oakland Connector shuttle project will not move forward.”  

The crowd erupted in cheers. Since 2015, residents have hosted rallies, circulated petitions, and organized marches to uplift the community-generated mobility plan, “Our Money. Our Solutions.” They have created protest signs, artwork, and videos. They have attended countless meetings, delivered public comments, and researched public documents. They did so to oppose the Mon-Oakland Connector—and to push for reinvestment of its funds in real community needs: affordable housing, accessible transportation, better bus facilities, and safer sidewalks..

Join us now and sign our thank-you card to Mayor Ed Gainey for moving on from the Mon-Oakland Connector. 

Now it is time to invest in Our Money. Our Solutions.

Scooters? Sidewalk Robots? Autonomous Vehicles? New Report and Panel Discussion Examines Who Is Left Behind In City’s Rush to Adopt Micro Mobility & Tech-Centered Development

“Mobility for Who? Rebuilding Bridges to Transportation Justice” is a new report co-authored by Tech4Society and Pittsburghers for Public Transit. The report’s authors and community advocates doing work for disability justice and affordable housing presented the findings at a webinar in mid-February 2022. The event and the report both highlight the critical issues that come from tech-focused transportation policy, and uplift opportunities for the new Mayoral Administration to create access for all – namely through supporting public transit, affordable housing, and accessible pedestrian infrastructure as included in the Pittsburgh 100 Days Transit Platform.

The Mobility for Who? panelists presented on the new report’s findings that examine the previous Mayoral Administration’s decision to pour taxpayer funds and time into private mobility technology while failing to prioritize core infrastructure needs such as sidewalks, bus shelters, and even roads and bridges. 

Bonnie Fan, a PhD student at CMU and researcher with CMU’s Tech4Society said, “We found that the rush to embrace the technology sector has driven gentrification of legacy neighborhoods and displacement of residents to transit-poor areas, both exacerbated by an acute lack of affordable housing.”

Transit accessibility is an equity issue. SPIN scooters, autonomous vehicles, sidewalk delivery robots, and other technologies have all been touted by Pittsburgh leaders as increasing mobility access for residents. However, these technologies are often inaccessible to many who need transportation most: senior citizens, the disabled, youth, families, low-income people, and the unbanked. 

The report and panel insist that now is the time to ask whose mobility is being prioritized, who is being left behind and how can these investments also prioritize Pittsburgh residents, economic mobility, racial and gender equity, affordable housing, and improved air quality to fight the climate crisis rather than funding interests of large tech companies?

See the discussion of the report with the authors:

Upgrades to S. Negley Station begin Feb 14th. Port Authority also awarded 3 other grants to improve Wilkinsburg Station, build 4 miles of sidewalks, and improve 8 high-use bus stops throughout the system!

After a years-long planning process, Port Authority will begin construction on Phase 1 upgrades to S. Negley Station on the East Busway on February 14th. (The perfect Valentines Day gift for the East Busway lover).

Phase 1 will include improvements to the accessible ramp from S Negley Ave to the station. Port Authority estimates that construction will take approximately 3-months, during which time riders will need to detour from the S Negley Ave station to Ellsworth Ave, turn left and walk 1 block to Summerlea St, then walk down to the Summerlea St station entrance. The detour will be a pain, for sure, but improvements to the S Negley St entrance will certainly be worth it.

Future phases of the Negley Station Improvement Project will include new shelters at the inbound and outbound platforms, new lighting, a full-coverage waiting area for those being picked up or dropped off, and other upgrades to improve the flow of pedestrians and buses through the station area.

New grants to Port Authority will fund much-needed improvements to Wilkinsburg Station, 4-miles of sidewalks leading up to transit stops, and upgrades to 8 high-ridership bus stops!

Also exciting: just this week Port Authority announced that they were awarded three new grants and some County funding to begin upgrades to the Wilkinsburg Busway Station. Riders and residents have long been calling for improvements to Wilkinsburg Station, which offers easier access to those who drive their cars to the station than those residents and workers who need to walk to the stop. This grant will build a new building at the station and may even reorient the station to be more accesible to the Wilkinsburg business district. All of this work will hopefully lay the foundation for major affordable Transit Oriented Development that needs to take place at this station.

In addition to the grant received for Wilkinsburg station, Port Authority received a second grant to build out 4 miles of sidewalks to connect to transit. This is a definite win for riders who have been uplifting safe pedestrian access as a serious barrier to transit. In the past, Port Authority’s response to concerns about safe access has been to eliminate the stop. This cuts people off from transit and is obviously not an approach we want to see.

It is true that sidewalk maintenance is a complicated issue. Municipalities are frequently the ones that own sidewalks, not Port Authority, and oftentimes these municipalities pawn off the responsibility of maintenance to individual property owners who may not be able to foot the bill for repairs (the City of Pittsburgh does this). So we’re glad that Port Authority is proactively finding solutions to the issue. Now we need Municipalities to do the same.

The third and final grant received by PAAC was to upgrade 8 high-use stops throughout the system. Upgrades will center on adding rubber pads at stops to give more room for riders to wait and make it easier/faster for buses to pick up passengers.

We’re here for these upgrades. Now we need to keep pushing for more.

There is no justice without an organized demand.

Friday February 4th, Rosa Parks’ birthday, is National Transit Equity Day.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit and our friends are celebrating by holding an 11:30 am broadcast on Facebook Live to highlight how there is no justice without an organized demand.

Check out the FB Live Broadcast here

Taking Back Our Seat On The Bus: Celebrate Rosa Parks' Organizing Legacy #TransitEquityDay

It's the 110th anniversary of Rosa Parks' Birth! We're celebrating #TransitEquityDay by studying her legacy as a community organizer and discussing how her struggle still lives in the work we do today. Did you that Rosa Parks was a lifelong organizer? Yup! She was a Secretary with the NAACP and was trained at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee! Her action to stay sitting in her seat and the boycott that followed was planned as part of a broad, coordinated strategy that included hundreds of groups across the country.Did you know the Montgomery Boycott lasted 13 months? Yes indeed! The boycott's success took deep organizing. Tens of thousands of people created a network to allow for mutual support. Black ownership of vehicles, property, and gas stations and solidarity across race and class were critical.Bus symbolizes movement and freedom. The essence of the issues that were present in the 1950s and 1960s are still present today. It is only through organizing together that we'll make progress happen. Thanks to all our friends for joining, Casa San José, New Voices Pittsburgh, The EAT Initiative, and everyone else who signed on! Check out PPT's blog for more info on Transit Equity Day and how you can get involved: https://www.pittsburghforpublictransit.org/

Posted by Pittsburghers for Public Transit on Thursday, February 3, 2022

Through rider testimony around barriers to transit access and their desired solutions, and through a discussion of the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We will recognize that Rosa Parks was a trained community organizer, and that her refusal to give up her seat was one tactic within a larger strategy of organizing transit riders to participate in a 13-month mass boycott of the transit system until buses were desegregated. 

Thanks to New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Casa San Jose, and the E.A.T. Initiative for joining our broadcast to talk about the intersections of our work.

Learning More About the Organizing Legacy of Rosa Parks

Did you know this was part of an organized effort? 

Rosa Park was not simply a streamstress who sat down on the bus after a long day of work, or the first person to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white rider on a bus. Long before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, she was a skills operator, who was a secretary with the NAACP and was trained at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. 

Rosa Park’s resistance to giving up her seat was an act of defiance in order to preserve dignity. Any act of resistance takes courage at the first step. It is important that we remember Rosa Parks not solely in this moment as a catalyst for change, but to remember and honor that skillful action at the right moments has lasting meaning. Without a strong coalition of commitment, these actions would be lost. 

The elements that took a moment of resistance and boosted it into a movement was mutual aid and individuals pooling their resources (cars, bicycle sharing, mechanical expertise, ownership of gas stations, and careful-coordinating planning to raise funds and organize carpools) that kept an initial 1 day boycott of the buses to a 13 month strike. It took Black people from all walks of life to help one another. Without persistence and collective effort, the boycott would quickly dissolved. 

Fast forward to the modern era and transit riders continue to build on a core philosophy. Those who refused to take the bus were demanding dignity. The essence of this issue that was present in the 1950s and 1960s, is still present today. 

Bus symbolizes access to opportunities. Freedom of movement, the freedom to exist and live. Who has the system prioritized? Today, people in low-income communities, Black communities, and communities of color are unserved and pay a high price for this service. 

For years, we have fought for affordable fares for low-income riders to meet their needs. Yet, there are fare-free zones in our system right now. While the Port Authority has zero fare service for routes on the Northside to stadiums on Steelers Sundays, riders on other routes saw a fare increase. These fare free zones are infrequently used compared to routes that service neighborhood-to-neighborhood connections, and are utilized by high-income, white riders. If our transit agency can make the choices on where to make fares relief, if it can make a choice to build rapid transit connections near new constructions, they can make the choice to invest in safe and dignified transit for the riders who have been historically excluded and deserved dignified mobility. 

Some More Reading on Rosa and her organizing for justice

A Lifetime of Organizing: What Rosa Parks Can Teach Us

Library of Congress“Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks’ Lifelong Struggle for Justice”