Public meetings on transit between Downtown and neighborhoods East

Next week, the City is hosting public meetings to discuss proposed transit improvements and community development between Downtown and Oakland. This is an important opportunity for transit riders, transit workers, and residents to share ideas, concerns, and questions.

Here is the invitation from the city, and this link provides more information:

The City of Pittsburgh invites you to provide input on an action plan for transit improvements and community development in the corridor between Downtown and neighborhoods east.

Please come share your ideas. For convenience, the public meeting is being offered twice at different times and locations. Take your pick of:

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 Uptown/Downtown, Noon – 2:00 pm

Duquesne University, Power Center Ballroom, 1015 Forbes Avenue

or

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Oakland, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

William Pitt Student Union, Kurtzman Room, 3959 Fifth Avenue

At these upcoming public meetings, the City of Pittsburgh will provide an overview of coordinated planning efforts in the corridor along Fifth and Forbes Avenues, including the Downtown, Uptown, Oakland, and other east end neighborhoods. This will involve a review of ongoing planning for transit improvements, including bus rapid transit (BRT), and upcoming planning for an EcoInnovation District in the Uptown neighborhood.

Per the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which govern transit planning, the environmental scoping process will include the opportunity for the public and agencies to provide comment on the purpose and need for transit improvements, as well as environmental issues that should be considered. Participants will also be able to provide preliminary input on possible station locations for proposed BRT alignments.

The goal of the Uptown EcoInnovation District is a revitalized Uptown community, which is both environmentally and financially sustainable while promoting equity, and public and private sector innovation.

The City of Pittsburgh has undertaken an effort to coordinate multiple complimentary planning projects in this corridor. The purpose is to capitalize on the community and economic development potential of the neighborhoods in this corridor while better connecting them, to each other and the region, through improved mobility. The City will knit together neighborhood-based planning projects, which will influence planning for improved transit service and infrastructure underway by Port Authority of Allegheny County.

For more information, contact Patrick Roberts, Department of City Planning, Principal Transportation Planner at 412.255.2224 or patrick.roberts@pittsburghpa.gov

The meeting locations are accessible to persons with mobility disabilities, a sign language interpreter will be available and the meeting document will be available to attendees in Spanish and Braille.

Both meetings are accessible via Port Authority service. For more transit schedule information, go to PortAuthority.org or call 412.442.2000.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit encourages riders and residents to come to the meetings next week so that their voices can be heard during this process.