For three years, City leaders have made the decision to subsidize the development of Autonomous Vehicle Technology – through the use of our roadways as a test track, through the blushing pride with which our city advertises itself as a tech hub without any regulatory framework, through the $23 million new road to accommodate an AV shuttle, and through all the city staff time that went into PGH’s Smart Cities application. 

However, in all that time, there has not been a single public forum for residents to examine the effect of Driverless Vehicles and decide whether this technology is worth investing taxpayer resources in expanding. 

Not surprisingly, a recent $410,000 Knight Foundation grant offered to the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to facilitate the deployment of Autonomous Vehicles in Pittsburgh has City Council, residents, and organizations voicing concerns.

When City Council was first asked to approve the Knight Foundation’s grant at the May 15th Standing Committee Meeting they decided to delay the vote. Council heard the concerns raised about the lack of community involvement and transparency about what the money would be used for. Council directed DOMI to work with PPT and the community to address concerns and improve the proposal (see our blog on this meeting for more background).

However, despite our discussions with DOMI’s Director, the proposal did not change when it was brought up again for a vote at May 29th’s meeting (see a copy of the agenda here). 

In response, more than a dozen people and representatives from organizations such as the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, Sierra Club, BikePGH, Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, Pittsburgh United, Just Harvest and Access Mob Pittsburgh came out to speak in support of a public process around Autonomous Vehicles that is transparent, inclusive, and allows residents to examine the full spectrum of impacts that driverless vehicle technology will have.

City Councilors heeded the points raised during public testimony and added their own questions about the lack of public inclusion throughout the three years that Autonomous Vehicles have been testing on public streets. Led by Councilmembers Theresa Kail-Smith, Corey O’Connor, Deborah Gross, and Darlene Harris, Council called for a Post-Agenda Hearing and a Public Hearing to gather input about the full spectrum of AV’s impact on communities, and account for all associated costs. Additionally, Council called for those who gave testimony to work together on a series of amendments to ensure a transparent process.

In the coming weeks, PPT will work collaboratively to build a process that allows residents to identify shared values about Autonomous Vehicles and decide whether this is ultimately a technology that should be deployed in our communities. We are enthusiastic that the Council recognized the significance of this opportunity and is taking measures to include the community’s voice in this important conversation about the future of mobility.

See PPT’s Press Release put out before the May 29th Standing Committee Meeting

Copies of Public Testimony

Laura Wiens, Director, Pittsburghers for Public Transit – .PDF

Ziggy Edwards, Resident of Junction Hollow – .PDF

Eric Boerer, Advocacy Director, BikePGH – .PDF

Alisa Grishman, Disability Activist, Access Mob Pittsburgh – Facebook Video

News Coverage

Ashley Murray, Post-Gazette, City Council wants amendments, public hearing before approving self-driving vehicle grant

Bob Bauder, Trib, Self-driving education grant runs into opposition at Pittsburgh City Council

Kathleen J. Davis, WESA, Pittsburgh City Council Inches Forward On Exploring Autonomous Shuttle Between Oakland And Hazelwood

Join the core team of people who coordinate the direction of PPT

PPT’s Coordinating Committee is the equivalent of our board of directors. We are looking for people who understand the importance of our work and are looking to get more involved in directing the course of our campaigns, communications, and actions.

Structure and Expectations

There are 10 seats on PPT’s Coordinating Committee. 2 seats must be filled by members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 85 – the union that represents all of the Port Authority’s bus operators and maintenance workers. The other 8 seats are filled by members who have had previous experience with PPT’s work, and are looking to bring their involvement to the next level. 

For this current election, we are looking to fill 5 seats on the Coordinating Committee; 4 from our general membership, and 1 from ATU membership.

Quality candidates are active with PPT, or bring experience that the membership finds important for moving the organization forward. 

Members are expected to attend quarterly Coordinating Committee meetings – on the second Saturday of January, April, July, and October –  should also stay engaged with General Membership Meetings on the second Wednesday of each month. 

Coordinating Committee members will need to maintain active lines of communication with PPT staff and other PPT members to advise and assist with the organization’s strategy, tactics, structure, and financial sustainability.

Terms are two years in length. Members shall not serve more than three consecutive full or partial terms, whether elected or appointed.

Nominations and Elections

People can nominate others in the community, or themselves. Nominations are open until July 8th.

Elections will be held at PPT’s July monthly meeting on July 10th. At the meeting, all nominated candidates will have space to share their vision for PPT and how their skills will help build the organization. All PPT Members in attendance will  be eligible to vote. If PPT Members are not able to join the meeting, they can reach out to info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org to arrange for an absentee ballot. 

Nominate PPT Coordinating Committee Members today:

Who are we

PITTSBURGHERS FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT (PPT) is a grassroots organization of transit riders, transit workers, and residents, mobilizing for equitable, affordable, and sustainable public transit.

What we do

In 2018 PPT launched our Riders Vision for Public Transit. The ‘Riders Vision’ was created by dozens of transit riders and operators from across Allegheny County, to identify key opportunities for growing ridership and equity within our public transit system through fare policy changes, linking affordable housing and transit planning, funding free transit days through the Clean Air Fund, and extending the East Busway with on-street transit improvements to Monroeville and McKeesport.  

What is the organizing fellowship?

This fellowship will focus on the Riders’ Vision plank to extend the East Busway to the Mon Valley and Eastern Suburbs with on-street transit improvements, entitled “A Roadmap for Economic Opportunity.” The East Busway is the most efficient way to travel within Port Authority’s transit system, but the benefits of its fast, frequent and reliable transit service don’t extend to these outlying communities. With some relatively inexpensive on- street improvements, residents and workers in the Mon Valley and Eastern Suburbs could get fast and reliable access into the transit network.

Most importantly, we believe that with the right tools, transit riders themselves could design a transit corridor that best serves their needs. To do that, PPT has created a rider-led planning tool that residents and transit riders can use to plan the transit corridors through the Mon Valley or Eastern Suburbs, and identify key community locations that are underserved by transit. The organizing fellows will be helping facilitate hundreds of residents from those communities to use this tool, and to understand why this transit corridor could be transformative for residents, workers, and businesses in the region.   

Fellowship Timelines

First Cohort

June 14 // Deadline for 1st Cohort Applications
June 22, 10am-1pm // 1st Cohort Training + Lunch
June 23 – July 14 // 1st Cohort Outreach
Week of July 14 // 1st Cohort debrief + celebration

Second Cohort

July 19 // 2nd Cohort Application Deadline
July 27, 10am-1pm // 2nd Cohort Training + Lunch
July 28 – August 18 // 2nd Cohort Outreach
Week of August 18 // 2nd Cohort debrief + celebration

The organizing skills that the organizing fellows will learn

The fellows will learn how to collectively run a successful outreach campaign, and set and meet attainable goals around community engagement. They will learn how to map the Mon Valley or Eastern Suburb region, identify and follow up with contacts for outreach, and facilitate both one-on-one and group usage of the East Busway extension transit planning tool. They will be able to talk with confidence about the importance of transit for household economic opportunity and community development, the difference between rider-led and agency-led planning efforts, and what a “bus rapid transit”  transit corridor could look like.

The time commitment

The total anticipated time commitment is ~20 hours over 3 weeks. The work hours will be flexible, and could happen during evenings or weekends. All of the scheduling will be done in collaboration with the fellows to accommodate other commitments or work schedules.

There will be 1 Beyond the East Busway Organizing Fellowship introductory meeting, 3 outreach opportunities, 1 PPT-led community meeting, and a concluding organizing fellowship meeting at the end of the month. There will additionally be weekly phone check-ins and logistics calls with the PPT community organizer.

The compensation

All fellows would receive an honorarium of $500 for the three-week program. PPT will additionally provide fellows with a monthly bus pass and reimbursement for Lyft/Uber to do outreach as-needed, or a $100 stipend for using their personal vehicle.

Requirements to apply

• Applicants must already be active within the Mon Valley or Eastern Suburbs regions of Allegheny County, with some demonstrated leadership or volunteering efforts in the community.
• Applicants should be regular transit riders, or should have been regular transit riders in the past, with some familiarity with the regional transit routes.
  
• Applicants must commit to the three-week timeline and fulfill the outreach and meeting attendance detailed above.

PPT is strongly encouraging women, POC, LGBTQIA and other marginalized folks to apply for the fellowship. In addition, we welcome applicants who are working full-time hours or have other regular commitments. It’s not just enough for Community Organizations like ours to do outreach in these groups, we must also, when we can, pay for their labor, their stories and their experiences. PPT hopes that through this Fellowship folks in these marginalized groups can use skills gained through this work to continue organizing in their respective communities.

People can fill out the google form application here, email the application to josh@pittsburghforpublictransit.org, or mail the application to PPT at

5119 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15224.

If you or your organization is able to help spread the word about this fellowship, we’d greatly appreciate it! Check out this Promo Kit for sample posts and images for your facebook, twitter, blog, and newsletter – there’s also a poster that you could print and share!

Reach out if there are any questions: info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

Bus running late?
Any input on fares?
Got a favorite bus driver?

Leave your questions in the comments below this facebook video and we’ll get you answers from members of the Port Authority Board. If you ride public transit, then you’re an expert and your vision needs to be voiced.

What’s the Port Authority Board and what do they do?

They’re a group of 11 political appointees who make final decisions on the annual Port Authority budget and approve all large spending projects PAAC undertakes. They also choose the CEO, and this is important because the CEO hires a management team whose job it is to figure out how to provide reliable service, gather necessary funding, and end up with a balanced budget each year.

If the management team can’t balance the budget, they usually reduce service before taking pay cuts or reducing their own staff, and this can lead to huge inconveniences for riders, but you can let the board know how these things affect you. Many of the existing board members don’t ride transit and need to know what riders experience on and off the bus.

This is the first time that Pittsburghers for Public Transit has ever reached out to invite board members to ride the bus with us. We’re doing it because they need to see the importance of the Riders Vision for Public Transit, and hear and what riders go through day to day – difficulty reaching CONNECTCard machines, paying for transfers, poor sidewalks, complicated connections, and more.

Voice your questions in the comments of this Facebook video and we will take them with us on our ride.

And huge thanks to PPT Volunteer Dean Bog for putting together the video! Check him out on his YouTube Channel!

PPT believes that residents deserve a full, frank public conversation about all the possible effects of an Autonomous Vehicle future – the increase in car congestion, the job loss, the sprawl, the effect on our environment, the decrease in public transit service and ridership, the heightened displacement and gentrification, the Billions needed in public subsidy, etc.

However, when the City received a grant from the Knight Foundation for “deep education” on AV technology in Hazelwood, Glen Hazel and Greenfield, and denied that it was associated with the Mon Oakland Connector project where it is proposing to build a $23 Million road for an AV shuttle, PPT had cause for concern.

According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “The Knight Foundation said the grant is geared to finding what the community needs and how autonomous vehicle technology may help.”

But this is a huge problem.

If we begin a public “education” campaign about AV with a framework that only allows us to talk about helpful benefits, then we are starting from a biased position and we will have a biased conversation. The residents of Pittsburgh have spent three years as test subjects for AV technology that has proved to be dangerous and deadly. In those three years there has been ZERO public conversation about the effect of AV technology, or if we want it on our streets. It is wrong that the Knight Foundation only wants to discuss AV in rosy terms, with Tech Company talking points. We as residents need a space where we can talk about ALL the effects that automation will have, and whether this is indeed the future that we want to use our public dollars to build.

Fortunately, this week when City Council heard public testimony regarding the Knight Foundation grant from Four Mile Run resident, Ziggy Edwards, and Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s Director, Laura Wiens, Council voted to delay the start of the process. It is crucial that we structure a public discussion about Autonomous Vehicles from a framework that will allow full discussion about the effect that the technology will have on equity/mobility, jobs, traffic safety, environment, and privacy. The delayed vote allows us the opportunity to do just that.

You can make this a a reality by joining us at the next City Council Standing Committee Meeting and making your voice heard.

Pittsburgh City Council Standing Committee
Vote on Knight Foundation Grant for AV Education
Wednesday, May 29
10am-11am
414 Grant St.

News Coverage
WTAE report by Bob Mayo on Council vote to delay: Future of Driverless Cars in Pittsburgh
Post Gazette report by Ashley Murray on Knight Foundation grant: Grant to ‘demystify’ self-driving vehicles draws skepticism

Public Testimony for 5/15 City Council Standing Committee Vote on Knight Foundation AV Grant
Laura Wiens, Director, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Ziggy Edwards, Resident, Four Mile Run

For more information, or if you need a ride to the 2/29 Council meeting, reach out to PPT at info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

CALL to ACTION:
On Wednesday, May 15th at 10 am, 414 Grant St Pgh 15219, Pittsburgh City Council will be asked to approve a $410k grant for public outreach on self-driving cars in the Hazelwood and Greenfield neighborhoods. This is yet another indication that the City’s decision to have autonomous vehicles (AV) be the “transportation solution” for these communities was determined in advance of engaging with the communities, and in opposition to resident desires. Join us to testify when City Council discusses this grant, to ask city councillors why DOMI is so insistent that this unproven, costly and harmful technology be deployed instead of proven solutions that residents have identified – sidewalks, public transit, traffic calming.

BACKGROUND:
Residents of Hazelwood, Four Mile Run, South Oakland and Greenfield have real transportation and pedestrian safety needs that could be addressed with sidewalks, street lighting, bus shelters, weekend and evening transit service. Instead, $23 million in public money is being allocated just to create a roadway for Autonomous Vehicles that will drive through the heart of Schenley Park, which also threatens to undermine the water and sewer flooding mitigation efforts that are desperately needed in the Run.

Check out this coverage in WESA of the press conference, titled “A Shuttle System Through Schenley Park is Going Nowhere with Some Residents.”

The open letter sent to Mayor Bill Peduto signed by residents of the Run, PPT and Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition about the Mon-Oakland Connector.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit welcomes Representative Austin Davis as the newest appointee to the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

As a sophomore Representative of the Monongahela Valley, a region where transit’s usage is high and its value is essential, Austin Davis has been vocal about the vital role that transit plays in his constituents’ lives. PPT expects that this perspective will support increasing access and equity for all riders of Allegheny County, by advancing policies outlined in the Riders Vision for Public Transit, pushing for projects like an extension of the East Busway to McKeesport and Monroeville.

Additionally, we believe that Representative Davis will play a critical role in the PA legislature in advocating for long-term, sustainable transit funding in Pennsylvania and Allegheny County.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit will call on Rep. Davis and the rest of the Port Authority Board to advance high-equity projects, secure funding, and improve our system for our riders. Congratulations to Representative Davis – let’s get to work.

[Read Representative Davis’ press release here]