This is a great chance to fund the transit amenities that you and your neighbors deserve – bus shelters, benches, planters, trees, lean bars, lighting, trash cans, you name it. Check out the program details here.
The good news: neighborhoods can apply for up to $20,000 no questions asked! Neighborhoods can even apply for up to $100,000 if they find a local 2:1 match (for every two dollars of URA funding, there must be at least one dollar of local funding to the project.)
The bad news: unfortunately, the deadline is next week on October 1st. (Sorry for being late on this blog). If your neighborhood has a local Community Development Corporation or other organized groups, reach out to them and see if they have something planned. There’s a good chance that transit improvements could fit into their placemaking ideas. Or maybe there’s space to build your own proposal.
With transparency, wide-spread community collaboration, consensus, and buy-in, funding programs like this are a great opportunity to improve a neighborhood for those that live there and build transit ridership.
Ashleigh Deemer, Western PA Director for PennEnviroment’s Research and Policy Center, and Dean Mougianis, PPT Coordinating Committee Member, at Tuesday Morning Press Conference
On Tuesday, September 17th, Pittsburghers for Public Transit joined our allies PennEnvironment, PennFuture and the Clean Air Council to unveil a new report from PennEnvironment and PennPIRG: “Volkswagon Settlement State Scorecards“.
The report grades states on how they are using monies from the massive $4.3 Billion settlement paid by Volkswagon in 2016 after they were caught lying and cheating on their vehicle emissions tests. Nearly $3 Billion of that money was paid into an Environmental Mitigation Trust which was split amongst the states affected by VW’s fraud to be spent on “transportation projects that reduce pollution in an effort to mitigate the harm done by Volkswagen through their emissions cheating.”
The state of Pennsylvania received $118.5 Million from the Environmental Mitigation Trust fund. However, Pennsylvania’s performance has been lackluster (to put it kindly). Overall, the Scorecard report gave our state an “F”-grade on the way that our elected officials are spending the money.
Pennsylvania’s Environmental Mitigation Trust monies are an incredible opportunity to transition our state away from the dirty, gasoline/diesel-burning transportation that is our region’s largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. But we need a progressive, transparent, participatory vision to get us there – and that vision must include the transition towards a fully-electric public transportation system.
This is an urgent public health issue as well as much as it is an environmental issue. As PPT Coordinating Committee member Dean Mougianis puts it, “We know that transit workers and regular transit riders are disproportionately affected by the health risks posed by regular exposure to diesel emissions. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “railroad, dock, trucking, and bus garage workers exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust over many years consistently demonstrate a 20 to 50 percent increase in the risk of lung cancer or mortality…”. Beyond that, a very disturbing fact is that so many of our most transit-dependent citizens, the people who need the bus the most, are the very same people who live in areas most prone to respiratory illnesses caused or made worse by poor air quality. The bus, the vehicle that can take them out of the bad air should not be contributing to the bad air.”
The new PennEnvironment and PennPIRG study highlights that need. This is why PPT joined our allies in continuing our call that lawmakers take this opportunity seriously and create real plans to funnel this VW money into electric buses and charging infrastructure for public transit.
Read PPT Coordinating Committee Member Dean Mougianis’ full press conference comments below. And see the reporting from these local outlets for more information.
PPT Coordinating Committee Member Dean Mougianis speaking to press at Tuesday morning press conference
Press Conference Comments by PPT Coordinating Committee Member Dean Mougianis
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a grassroots organization of transit riders, workers and residents that seeks to defend and extend public transportation. While we are happy at PPT that Pennsylvania will be receiving the benefit of funds from the VW mitigation settlement, we feel it is vital that those funds be used to bring us closer to a zero-emssions public transportation fleet. Put simply, the money should be used for more electric buses and other non-pollution-emitting infrastructure. What our transit advocacy work has taught us is that public transit affects a surprising number of areas of people’s lives beyond just transportation – everything from economic development to food security. Two of the most important of those areas are the health of the public and the state of the environment. We know that transit workers and regular transit riders are disproportionately affected by the health risks posed by regular exposure to diesel emissions. According to the union of concerned scientists “railroad, dock, trucking, and bus garage workers exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust over many years consistently demonstrate a 20 to 50 percent increase in the risk of lung cancer or mortality.” If that’s something we can do something about, then it’s something we should do something about.
Beyond that, a very disturbing fact is that so many of our most transit-dependent citizens, the people who need the bus the most, are the very same people who live in areas most prone to respiratory illnesses caused or made worse by poor air quality. The bus, the vehicle that can take them out of the bad air should not be contributing to the bad air.
One of the biggest things that motivate our work is the knowledge that increasing the use of public transportation is a big factor that can improve air quality and people’s health and reduce carbon emissions and tailpipe pollutants. Investing in electric buses can expand that great promise even further This is why it is so vital that Pennsylvania uses these funds not for more fossil fuel vehicles, but for zero-emissions solutions like electric buses and charging stations. It’s the right thing to do. Let us do right by the citizens of Allegheny county.
Help carry the torch from these awesome East Busway Organizing Fellows!
If you follow Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s work, you know we’ve spent the last three months executing a campaign with residents of the Mon Valley & Eastern Suburbs to build a grassroots vision for expanding great transit Beyond the East Busway.
If you don’t follow our work, welcome! You can check out more about our Beyond the East Busway Campaign here, or here, or here! We hope you’ll get involved!
Now – we have one more month left in our outreach, and our goal is to hit 750 responses on our tool. We’re a hair under 500 currently. Your help can get us across the finish line.
Check out these volunteer dates during September and sign up if you’re able to help make it happen.
For those that may not have heard, the Shakespeare Giant Eagle is being redeveloped by Echo Realty, along with the entire strip mall and lot at the corner of Shady and Penn.
The Shakespeare site is directly adjacent to the East Busway, Port Authority’s highest performing asset carrying around 24,000 riders each day, and it is in the heart of Pennsylvania’s most walkable neighborhoods. Additionally, the pattern of gentrification and displacement in Pittsburgh’s East End continues to move our most vulnerable residents to far-flung areas of the county, leaving residents isolated without access to jobs or transportation and bleeding our city of its diversity.
This is a chance to show what equitable transit-oriented development can look like. If you care about transit, housing and environmental justice, then join the project’s second public meeting on September 9th, 6-8pm at Calvery Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave.
For a redevelopment that furthers housing-, mobility-, and environmental-justice goals, join PPT and call for free bus passes for all residents at the site and affordable housing available to renters at 50% AMI and below.
As a starting place, we believe that there is no reason that the developer should not be required to make 15% of all units available to renters earning 30-50% of the Area Median Income – which is in line with the report that Grounded Solutions compiled for the Mayor & Planning Department back in 2017.
And how do we pay for it? Well, an easy place to start is to build less parking. Studies have shown that parking in the new development surrounding the East Liberty Station has a 30% vacancy rate during peak usage. That’s a ton of very expensive, very empty space.
The latest plans for Shakespeare Giant Eagle propose a whopping 492 space parking garage on the site. It is well-documented that a SINGLE structured parking space costs $20,000-30,000. So at the low end, that’s a ~$10 Million parking garage. Here are some quick numbers to get the conversation started:
Pittsburgh’s Zoning Code allows development in East Liberty to reduce their non-residential parking requirements by 50%. We can’t find a map that details the exact boundaries that the code outlines to for this East Liberty reduction, but for almost all would agree that the Shakespeare site functions as a central part of East Liberty, and institutional decision-makers have long-included it in their redevelopment plans for the neighborhood. The PGH Zoning Code also allows developers to swap 30% of their required car parking spaces for bike parking. Although regardless of the requirements included in the code, the Planning Commission and Department have the power to waive parking requirements entirely, as they have done in the past. The intention of these reductions is to allow developers to shift away from building such car-centric developments and free up money to build more equitable, walkable communities. Its time we push our neighborhood developers to use them.
Cities like Cincinnati, Seattle, San Diego, and countless others have all moved to build equity and decrease car dependance through creative new parking policies, such as:
Establishing “frequent transit zones” where developments within walking distance of great transit will have less car parking and more affordability
Providing tenants free bus passes and/or bike-share memberships.
“Unbundling” the cost of parking & housing – meaning the developer separates the cost of housing from the cost of their parking space and allows the tenant to decide whether to rent a parking space or not. If the tenant realizes that they’re paying an extra $200/mo for parking, they may be encouraged to use public transit more often.
Here in Pittsburgh at the Shakespeare Giant Eagle site, if Echo utilized both of the reductions that are available to them at no cost, they could open up around $5-6M in funding. Imagine what that could buy.
At full price, a yearly transit pass for every resident on-site? $248,000/yr.
Traffic headaches and pollution avoided from having 250+ new neighbors ride the bus? Priceless.
We aren’t developers. We aren’t planners. We aren’t bankers. We’re advocates and organizers. Our job is to get the conversation going. In this case, it doesn’t take much to look at the facts and the numbers and realize that things can be done differently at Shakespeare and other sites immediately adjacent to frequent transit lines to better support the neighborhood and its residents.
If you agree, come out to this September 9th Meeting, 6-8pm at the Calvery Episcopal Church and call for free bus passes & affordable housing. We know there’s plenty of $$$ to provide both.
In his recent article “What is “Microtransit” For?”, transit expert Jarrett Walker breaks down what “Microtransit” is and where it is successful. “Microtransit” a current fad in tech-based mobility solutions and cities across the nation are putting tons of public money into them instead of building out their public transit systems. Unfortunately (and perhaps unsurprisingly) the City of Pittsburgh is following in suit.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is currently proposing such a “microtransit” shuttle to link Hazelwood Green to the Universities in Oakland. The project will build a roadway for motorized transportation to run through Schenley Park at a remarkable cost of $23Million of taxpayer money. DOMI says that the microtransit shuttle will carry 1,244 passengers on day one – meaning a shuttle driving through Schenley Park every 5-10 minutes. What’s worst, DOMI has even admitted that the microtransit shuttle is a short-term solution and will be unable to meet the demand that they project.
Jarrett Walker’s blog underscores the points that PPT and residents of these neighborhoods have been saying all along:
Any Mon-Oakland Connector project that focuses on micro/on-demand/autonomous shuttles could never, in any scenario, be the most efficient or viable solution for improving mobility for the Hazelwood neighborhood and the developing Hazelwood Green site.
From Walker’s post:
“…contrary to almost all “microtransit” marketing, [high] ridership is the death of flexible service.”, says Walker.
…
“[On-demand microtransit] one tool for providing lifeline access to hard-to-serve areas, where availability, not ridership, is the point.”
Yet that’s not the reality of Hazelwood and Oakland. These are dense neighborhoods in the middle of a strong public transit network with high existing ridership. Questions aside about the feasibility of driverless tech, the sustainability of increasing pavement above a stormwater-prone neighborhood, or the transparency of a public process that has ignored the input of residents; Jarret Walker shows that DOMI’s math just doesn’t check out.
Any Hazelwood mobility solution that relies on shuttle service over buses will be a complete failure for residents and commuters – and one that would cost city tax-payers $Millions of public dollars.
The answer for improved mobility in Hazelwood is to invest those dollars in better fixed-route public transit. Expanding service hours on the 93 or modifying routes like the 58 or 75 would do much more for connecting residents of Hazelwood to the entire region, as well as connecting the region back to Hazelwood.
These are all transit solutions that are within reason, with technology that is available to us now. PPT is currently working with residents of Hazelwood, Greenfield, Panther Hollow, and the Run to build a grassroots proposal of solutions that can be implemented & successful TOMORROW instead of one that leans on experimental, non-existent technology.
Stay tuned to see what comes of this organizing. And if you live in any communities that would be affected by the Mon Oakland Connector, EMAIL US TO GET INVOLVED.
In last year’s “microtransit week” series, I challenged the widely promoted notion that “new” flexible transit models, where the route of a vehicle varies according to who requests it, are transforming the nature of transit, and that transit agencies should be focusing a lot of energy on figuring out how to use these exciting tools. In this piece, I address a more practical question: In what cases, and for what purposes, should flexible transit be considered as part of a transit network?
For clickbait purposes I used “microtransit” in the headline, but now that I have your attention I’ll use flexible transit, since it seems to be the most descriptive and least misleading term. Flexible transit means any transit service where the route vary according to who requests it. As such it’s the opposite of fixed transit or fixed routes. But the common terms demand responsive transit, on-demand transit and “microtransit” mean the same thing.
This article is specifically about flexible transit offered as part of a publicly-funded transit network. There may be all kinds of private-sector markets — paid for by institutions or by riders at market-rate fares — which are not my subject here. The question here is what kind of service taxpayers should pay for.
As I reviewed in the series, the mathematical and historical facts are that:
• Flexible transit is an old idea, and has long been in use throughout the world. No living person should be claiming to have invented it. The only new innovation is the software and communications tools for summoning and dispatching service. You can now summon service on relatively short notice, compared to old phone-based and manually dispatched systems that only guaranteed you service if you called the day before.
• The efficiency of summoning and dispatching has done very little for the efficiency of operations. Flexible transit services have a very high operating cost per rider, and always will, for geometric reasons that no communications technology will change. Flexible services meander in order to protect customers from having to walk. Meandering consumes more time than running straight, and it’s less likely to be useful to people riding through. Fixed routes are more efficient because customers walk to the route and gather at a few stops, so that the transit vehicle can go in a relatively straight line that more people are likely to find useful.
• There is no particular efficiency in the fact that flexible transit vehicles are smaller than most fixed route buses, because operating cost is mostly labor. You can of course create savings by paying drivers less than transit agencies do, but you will get what you pay for in terms of service quality.
• How inefficient are flexible services? While there are some rare exceptions in rare situations, few carry more than five customers per driver hour. Even in suburban settings, fixed route buses rarely get less than 10, and frequent attractive fixed route services usually do better than 20.
• Therefore, flexible transit makes sense only if ridership is not the primary goal of a service. “
Each quarter the Port Authority adjusts its transit schedules and routes to account for rider’s requests, ridership shifts, construction, road closures and/or all of the other unexpected hiccups that might affect Pittsburgh roads.
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 are helpful nonetheless. The Hotline is a big supporter of PPT, and an enormous advocate for public transit. We’re thankful for they’re support and happy to share this rundown of the Q3 service changes compiled by the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline.
Rundown of Q3 Service Changes, with takeaways from the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline
The @Bus_Info_Hotline’s overall takeaway from this quarter’s changes:
“These September changes don’t have a super #wowfactor, but they’re steady improvements across the board. We remain hopeful and optimistic about the continued service improvements.
It remains to be seen yet if these smaller changes are in place of generally bigger or “major” changes associated with the September operators pick [when the bus operators choose new routes to drive according to seniority] or if PAAC has still yet to determine 2019-2020 improvements
As of this publication, the Authority still hadn’t released a summary of service evaluations, which gives options for more significant service changes.
Additionally, a notation remains that the portion of the Annual Service Report was TBD With an addendum to come later this year”
These changes below will go into effect on Sunday, September 1st 2019 .
19L – Emsworth Limited – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. On weekdays, this route will now serve Penn Station to connect to the East Busway routes. This route will no longer serve Chatham Center on weekday afternoons. Customers who typically board at Chatham Center may want to board at the newly established stops on Grant Street.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
The 19L will better connect with East Busway and East End routes. The added stops on Grant will be good for some folk and an extra bus to move about town to/from the busway doesn’t hurt
21 – Coraopolis – Minor schedule adjustments have been made. The service will return to Neville Island.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
This route had been detoured through Groveton for months due to construction on the Neville Ave bridge. While its great for people on Neville who lost access during the detour, especially because of the number of jobs there, people who have been using the service while its been detoured through Groveton may be sad to see it go.
And a final bonus: service hours were made slightly longer for each day of service!
36 – Banksville – Travel times have been adjusted throughout the day. Many departure times have changed.
52L – Homeville Limited – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Two inbound trips arriving Downtown at 9:40 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. have been added. Two outbound trips departing Downtown at 7:37 a.m. and 3:23 p.m. have been added.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
More service never hurts!
Y1 – Large Flyer – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Bus stops at Century III Mall have been consolidated into one and the Park-and-Ride at the mall has been relocated to the area near the current Y46 sheltered stop south of JCPenney.
Y46 – Elizabeth Flyer – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Weekend service hours have been expanded.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
Unfortunately, the trade-off for later service is worsened headway between trips.
Y47 – Curry Flyer – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Weekend service hours have been expanded.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
Again the trade-off to later and earlier service is worsening headway’s, unfortunately
Y49 – Prospect Flyer – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Weekend service hours have been expanded.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
1 later trip on Saturday Nights
2 later trips on Sunday nights + holiday
Changes will benefit riders and workers. But a possible downside is that while Y49 riders gain more advantages here, the headway’s problem gets worse. It’s a theme across Y series routes. Unfortunately the tweaks on Y routes do appear to cause increased difficulty on weekends for folks transferring from the Blue Line T to the bus or vice versa.
67 – Monroeville – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. Earlier service has been added to weekends serving Monroeville Mall.
87 – Friendship – Many departure times have changed and schedules have been adjusted. An additional trip has been added arriving and leaving Downtown at 11:04 p.m.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
Nice but a shame they couldn’t do the same for Saturday’s.
P71 – Swissvale Flyer – On weekdays, a new morning and evening trip have been added.
@PGH_Bus_Info Hotline’s takeaway:
This will help rush hour commuters on the line!
PortAuthority Customer Service can be reached by phone @ 412-442-2000
Weekdays 5a to 7p
Weekend + Holidays 8a to 430p
or via Twitter @PGHTransit or @PGHTransitCare
The @PGH_BUS_INFO Hotline can be reached by phone @ 412-759-3335 ONLY When PortAuthority Customer Service is Closed/unavailable
The PGH Bus Info Hotline will be back on PPT’s blog in for the next set of Quarter Service Adjustments. See ya then! (And if you want, you can check out last quarter’s changes here. )
This was the first time that the Council has ever had the opportunity to publically discuss the effects of Autonomous Vehicles, despite the 5 companies have started AV testing programs on public streets, and more than $10Million of public money has been earmarked for the construction of a roadway through Schenley park for the operation of driverless shuttles.
The Councilmembers invited five experts to testify as to what effect driverless vehicles will have on labor, data privacy, environmental sustainability, pedestrian safety, and public transit access/equity. After each speaker’s testimony, the Council had the opportunity to ask questions and respond to what they heard.
You can check out this news coverage for reporting on the City Council Post-Agenda Hearing, and the Press Conference that PPT held beforehand.
Pittsburgh is long-overdue for this conversation. Whether or not PGH residents have given consent, Pittsburghers are already underwriting the development of self-driving cars with their tax dollars, air quality, and traffic safety. Council agreed that its time to look at these effects of driverless tech; who it will benefit and at who’s expense?
PPT wants to thank the experts for sharing their expertise with the Council:
Jarvis Williams, Labor Representative, Transport Workers Union, Local 208, Columbus, Ohio
Shefali Rai, Environmental Representative, Union of Concerned Scientists
Laura Wiens, Public Transit/Equity Representative, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Michael Skirpan, Data Privacy/Ethics Representative, Carnegie Mellon University Special Faculty
Eric Boerer, Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety Representative, Bike Pittsburgh
Pittsburghers for Public Transit believes in transparency, accountability, public participation, democracy, collaboration, and shared leadership.
And we want to practice what we preach.
So each year PPT runs an open nomination and election process for our general membership to choose 5 people to serve on our Coordinating Committee (aka our Board of Directors). The Coordinating Committee is an 11-member body that helps to guide PPT’s campaign strategy, committee work, and fundraising efforts. Two of those seats are reserved for members of Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 85 (the union that represents all of the Port Authority’s bus operators and mechanics) because PPT believes fundamentally that riders and operators are the ones that are best fit to improve the system. Each elected member serves for a 2-year term.
For those that are doing the math, the final unelected seat is filled by the Executive Director of The Thomas Merton Center or their appointee because they act as PPT’s fiduciary.
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is very excited to announce the winners of 2019’s Coordinating Committee election!
Congratulations to the next slate of Coordinating Committee members who will serve until Summer 2021 (and possibly longer if they run for reelection!):
James Hanna, Port Authority Bus Operator & Member of ATU Local 85
James Hanna, Port Authority Bus Operator with ATU Local 85
Kevin Joa, Port Authority Bus Operator & Member of ATU Local 85
Kevin Joa, Port Authority Bus Operator & Member of ATU Local 85
Dean Mougianis, Filmmaker & PPT Cofounder
Dean Mougianis, Filmmaker & PPT Cofounder
Briann Moye, Environmental Justice Organizer with OnePA
Briann Moye, Environmental Justice Organizer with OnePA
Mayor Nickole Nesby, Mayor of Duquesne
Mayor Nickole Nesby, Mayor of Duquesne
These people were selected in what was our largest election to date – 13 people in total were nominated! This is perhaps the most exciting thing to celebrate. Because this large candidate pool shows that there is a strong and diverse network of leaders who want to take part in our organization.
Everyone has a role to play in winning more equitable transit. So whether you won this years Coordinating Committee election, ran in it, voted in it, or observed it – you are a leader in this work.
PPT holds open Membership Meetings on the second Wednesday of each month at 1 Smithfield Street, with a social hour potluck that starts at 6pm and the meeting that starts at 7pm. Come out and join us in this work.
Each quarter the Port Authority adjusts its transit schedules and routes to account for rider’s requests, ridership shifts, construction, road closures and/or all of the other unexpected hiccups that might affect Pittsburgh roads.
The Pittsburgh Bus Information 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 are helpful nonetheless. The Hotline is a big supporter of PPT, and an enormous advocate for public transit. We’re thankful for they’re support and happy to share this rundown of the Q2 service changes compiled by the Pittsburgh Bus Info Hotline.
Rundown of Q2 Service Changes, with takeaways from the PGH Bus Info Hotline
The Hotline’s overall takeaway from this quarter’s changes: The vast majority of these changes are positive, and will improve the transit experience for most riders.
List of Q2 service changes are as follows:
2-Mt. Royal– Several weekday outbound trips and a later inbound trip will serve Ross Park Mall and a routing adjustment has been made at the request of the owner of The Block at Northway.
The 2 will run slightly later and the Ross Park Mall Stop has been relocated
For 2, 12 and P13 will run closer to the mall (old 11A, 12A, 15A, R, 1F stop by old Sears)
Plus Northway finally has direct service, which minimizes challenges to transit riders @ both malls
12-McKnight– Several weekday outbound trips and a later inbound trip will serve Ross Park Mall and a routing adjustment has been made at the request of the owner of The Block at Northway.
82-Lincoln– All outbound trips will be rerouted via the new Lower Hill streets of Wylie Avenue and Logan Street. Inbound trips will remain on Centre Avenue.
83-Bedford Hill – All outbound trips will be rerouted via the new Lower Hill streets of Wylie Avenue and Logan Street. Inbound trips will remain on Centre Avenue.
This P16 cut/reduction is probably the only bad change and burdensome to riders in this quarter’s changes.
The Hotline is dissapointed that PAAC chose to cut service rather than finding an acceptable detour. Cutting service is wrong and inequitable, and leaving riders without any transportation option.
We strongly hope that service is actually returned ASAP or a Temporary shuttle is set up for riders.
PortAuthority Customer Service can be reached by phone
@ 412-442-2000
Weekdays 5a to 7p
Weekend + Holidays 8a to 430p
or via Twitter @PGHTransit or @PGHTransitCare
The bus Info Hotline can be reached
By phone @ 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 September for Q3 changes and takeaways. See ya then!
On Thursday, July 18th, more than 70 residents from Hazelwood, the Run, Panther Hollow, and the surrounding communities made it known: the public wants to be included in the City’s decisions about driverless vehicle technology on their public streets with their public money.
The high turnout at PPT’s first forum on driverless vehicle technology shows that neighbors have serious questions that remain unanswered about the technology and the City’s decisions to underwrite it with public resources.
The event, called “Bringing the Public to the Autonomous Vehicle Table”, was held to open a conversation with residents about the impacts of Autonomous Vehicles, and give space to have residents outline the needs they have in their communities, and compile the questions that they have around the technology.
This is a vital conversation to have with residents of these neighborhoods because they are currently being included in a City of Pittsburgh proposal to experiment with a driverless shuttle between the Hazelwood Green development site and the Universities in Oakland. Residents have never raised an autonomous shuttle as a need for their community, nor have they been given a voice in the City’s decision to use them as a test-site.
In fact, in the three years since driverless vehicles have started testing on Pittsburgh streets, the City has never held a public forum or conversation about AV.
PPT used the event to release a new literature review that was compiled with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh titled, “Wait, Who’s Driving This Thing?: Bringing the Public to the Autonomous Vehicle Table”. The review examines over 100 articles and publications to give context around the downstream impacts of Autonomous Vehicle technology.
At the event, a series of speakers gave context and perspective about why public inclusion is important, and what is at stake when deciding to invest in new technology over proven transportation solutions. Attendees then broke out into five tables – pedestrian safety, mobility, jobs, environment, data privacy – to discuss their needs and values, as well as list the further questions they have on AV, public investment, and public process.
We will update this blog with the input that residents gave at this meeting. But information like this (about the wholistic effects of new transportation technology), as well as the public forums like these (to allow for discussion and accountability), are essential to creating an equitable process for residents to make decisions about public investment.
Join us on Tuesday for this City Council Post-Agenda Hearing on Autonomous Vehicle Impacts.
Experts will be joining us from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Transport Workers Union, BikePGH, and CMU to talk about their work and the future that they see for AV. More information on the Post-Agenda Hearing here.
