image description: a blue, yellow and white graphic with a bus logo in the top left corner. It shares the zoom meeting info for the PRT bus network redesign meeting on April 16 from 5:30-7:00 pm, and says that meeting video and materials will be posted on the project website.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) is in the midst of a once-in-a-generation process of rewriting the transit network through their “Bus Line Redesign” project. This is a BIG DEAL.
This is a big deal because it will decide what communities the bus network will serve, how frequently the buses will run, and at what times of day and week– for a very long time. If you have ideas about how transit service should be changed to serve different communities or at different times, or have ideas about what transit service is working well (!) then you should weigh in!
How to Get Involved:
- Come to PRT’s Bus Line Redesign meeting tonight, April 16th from 5:30-7:00 pm online on Zoom. Register for that meeting here: https://engage.rideprt.org/buslineredesign/bus-line-redesign-public-meeting-3
- Check out PRT’s website, where they share a lot of really interesting and valuable data about how our transit system works and who it serves (and doesn’t serve). They also share the data and feedback received in in-person outreach and through their online survey in the first round of engagement this Fall. You can find that information here (and take a good look at the documents and links towards the bottom of the page): https://engage.rideprt.org/buslineredesign/buslineredesign-home
- Uplift our call for PRT to develop a “visionary” transit network during this Bus Network Redesign– an expansion plan for transit service, rather than just putting forward “cost-neutral” transit service alternatives. In the last 20 years, 37% of our total transit service in the region has been cut, and that has resulted in fewer routes, less frequent service, and service that runs for a shorter time span everyday. If PRT just develops a “cost-neutral” transit service plan, they will end up taking away the limited service that remains in some communities to add to others– and we’re tired of negotiating for crumbs! Everyone in Allegheny County deserves access to baseline quality transit service as a human right. With a plan for service expansion, our elected leaders and the public can get behind the fight for making it real.
What We’re Seeing:
We want to give lots of credit to Pittsburgh Regional Transit for doing such a deep analysis of the current system, and sharing this excellent data identifying trends with post-pandemic ridership. We also want to give some big ups to PRT for holding a lot of in-person feedback sessions in communities around the County, and for soliciting feedback from transit operators, who are experts in the system.
Broadly, we agree that there should be more neighborhood connections and crosstown routes, and shifting service to better serve off-peak hours and weekends rather than concentrating service 9-5 pm downtown commuters. We strongly agree with PRT’s work identifying and prioritizing communities that are currently underserved but have a higher likelihood of taking transit if it’s provided.
A few areas of concern that we see:
- We want to know what specific metrics are going to define success for this bus line redesign. For instance, will the new transit network yield increased ridership overall and fewer car drivers, expanded access to jobs (ie. a 15% increase in the number of jobs within a 30 min transit commute of Northview Heights), more satisfied transit riders, reductions in transportation emissions in the County, or shorter commute times for marginalized communities to access critical services like hospitals and grocery stores? PRT’s website has project goals like “simplify the bus network” and “ensure that the bus network continues to promote safety,” which feel too abstract to be able to evaluate the success of the network redesign. Those particular project goals may also yield outcomes harmful to riders.
- Riders cannot wait until a new network is implemented to have reliable schedules. Unreliable schedules are due to bad scheduling, not issues with the route design. PRT needs to provide adequate run time for transit operators to be able to get to the stops when they are scheduled. If PRT cannot fix this issue with the current schedule, with all of the real-time data that they have on route timing, then it will not be fixed with the new bus network design, either. It is worth noting that transit operators again raised this issue in their feedback.
- The online survey results for the first round of public engagement are not representative of public transit rider demographics, and so the results of that survey should be reviewed with a grain of salt. PRT does a good job breaking down the demographic data in the appendix, but it is important to read the report with an understanding that the data overrepresents higher income white women.
There is a lot more for the public to unpack in the information that is shared on the PRT website and in the online public meeting, and that’s why we need you!
- Come to PRT’s Bus Line Redesign meeting tonight, April 16th from 5:30-7:00 pm online on Zoom. Register for that meeting here: https://engage.rideprt.org/buslineredesign/bus-line-redesign-public-meeting-3
- Don’t forget to check out PRT’s website, where they share a lot of really interesting and valuable data here: https://engage.rideprt.org/buslineredesign/buslineredesign-home
- And uplift our call for PRT to develop a “visionary” transit network during this Bus Network Redesign– an expansion plan for transit service, rather than just putting forward “cost-neutral” transit service alternatives. We want frequent service AND service that runs to all our communities. We want buses that run early in the morning to get us to church, and buses that run late to bring us home from our second shift at the hospital. Transit riders are not going to negotiate against each other, because all of our needs are important.
We want to hear from you! What do you see as needs in the upcoming Bus Line Redesign?
Let Pittsburgh Regional Transit know your thoughts at http://buslineredesign.com.