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Old 06-18-2010, 11:24 PM
 
5,802 posts, read 9,850,291 times
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To get the area to become more Pro-Transit Lifestyle ultimately leading to a healthier independent PAT....

1). Get Metrocards rolling already....coming from NYC i hate fiddling for correct change and having to pay zone overages....I like to load up my card and just swipe n go....Cash Transfers and paper passes are soooo outdated....

2). ONE FARE - if you must charge 3$ for ride...do it...much better than the nickle and diming of Zone overage...People will pay for simplicity....if the base fare is 3$ then 2 free transfers should be given within a 2hr window to transfer to any local bus or "T" that's not the originating route....

3). Embrace the Reverse Commuters - Offer Express buses from Downtown Pittsburgh to the Highly commuted office parks/burbs of the region (Cranberry/Wexford, Robinson/Moon/Airport area, Southpointe, the RIDCs)..Work the major employers of these areas to get a common census around what the average start and end times are for the work day and schedule the reverse commute around that.

4). Direct Express commuter Routes - Establish Direct Express buses (Using exclusively commuter style coaches NOT CITY BUSES) to offer Limited Stops Direct express to and from Oakland and Downtown..Charge a premium of 6$ for faster and more comfortable rides. but still offer free transfers to Any service even another express bus.

5). Complete the West Busway into Downtown and Link the West with the East by have the EBA continue out to Carnegie...This will provide better transfers and more opportunities with better coverage.

6). Become one with the digital age - I love the "Text for next bus" at certain bus stops...the they need to grow this program to the region. As well as get Mobile apps for the iPhone, Android, Palm and Blackberrys so that people can get schedule information on the go. Once Metrocard style fare is in place allow for the Refilling/Recharging of card online as well as thru the Mobile Apps....



Notice i didnt include Rail because that a longer term outlook that will require much more resources that PAT alone.
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Old 06-19-2010, 06:49 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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Of course the big problem is they have no funding for capital improvements right now, and in fact the state is potentially going to be slashing their funding. Which is a big problem for many reasons, but among other things, I strongly suspect some investments (like fare cards) would be revenue-enhancing in the long run.

Anyway, 2-4 really depend on basic economic issues.

Zones may actually be revenue maximizing--it depends on how many more riders you would get in outer zones by cutting prices, and how many you would lose in Zone 1 by raising prices. They are trying to simplify things a bit and that should give them more data on their riders' sensitivity to prices. And once they have Metrocards they will get even better data, and using that they could potentially fine tune things even more, all without really making it harder to pay (even if they have multiple fares).

The basic problem with commuter buses is that without dedicated rights of way, they are going get stuck in congested traffic, and thus they end up overall less convenient for riders than driving. Accordingly, such services tend to be most attractive to people without cars, and that is exactly not the sort of person who can afford to pay a premium for nicer buses and such.

You can address this issue in a couple ways. Dedicated rights of way that bypass congestion, like the Busways, can make commuter buses competitive with driving for convenience. But of course we are already using the existing Busways for express routes, and so to expand this system we would really need more capital investment. I absolutely think we should be doing that, but that gets back to the capital funding issue.

The other thing you can do is make driving a lot more expensive, which raises the incentive for commuters to accept somewhat less convenient buses at a higher price point. That could take the form of higher parking costs, higher fuel costs, even a congested-driving fee, and so on. Some of that may happen naturally, but you could make deliberate policy choices along those lines too.

Ultimately, all of this comes down to politics, and in that sense the really big issues are out of PAT's hands. Better commuter transit would be good for all commuters, even drivers (because it would help reduce congestion), and it would also reduce our society's use of foreign oil, decrease carbon emissions, make better use of our local land, and so on. But making that case has been tough in recent decades, as transportation issues have become entangled in various cultural and political divides. Hopefully that era is coming to an end and we can get back to more rational transportation planning, but it may take a while (e.g., recent events at the state level in PA have not been encouraging).
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Old 06-19-2010, 08:16 AM
 
Location: Hooterville PA
712 posts, read 1,960,501 times
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Just the other day, I made a report of a bus driver, who did rolling stops at the stop signs on 3 consecutive intersections.

The transportation director wanted my address and telephone number.

Now what does my address and telephone number have to do with a driver that isn't doing their job - which the number one priority is - driving safely.

I just hit delete.

The best thing they could do is completely get rid of the bus system and give the people who rode the buses $25 a year. Let private contractors take over the system and then you can choose between riding a jitney or hiring a taxi cab to get where you are going. The bus system is loosing about $40,000 a day just in the city of Pittsburgh alone.

No where else in the business world would a company that cannot show a profit be allowed to stay in business and expect to be subsidized by people who doesn't even ride the bus. If I put a toll bridge at the end of my road and charged a dollar every time some one drove across the bridge. I could justify my actions - because you physically got something for your dollar.
But if I put a toll bridge across my road and I sent a bill to the state of Pennsylvania and told them that they owe me $12,429,616 - $1 for every person living in the state! That would be just wrong. That is basically what the PAT system does. Let the people who rides the bus, pay for the bus. Where I live, the only bus is the ATA
You could not rely on the ATA to come to your house everyday at 7 AM to pick you up and take you to work and get you there by 8 AM. It's just not going to happen. Yet the people in Pittsburgh believes that it should be right there on their corner every day of the week, waiting for them, should they decide to ride the bus today. That's not a good way to run a business.
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Old 06-19-2010, 08:59 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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They should also cut off all public funding for roads, and instead sell them to private operators. Let the people who use the road, pay for the road.

You'd have to pay a toll to get out of your driveway, of course.
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Old 06-19-2010, 09:06 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
29,627 posts, read 34,103,329 times
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I don't want to get into the whole union thing, but I think that's PAT's problem. There are drivers making $100K a year, they didn't have the kind of hiring and salary freezes that everyone else did over the past few years, and the pensions are draining the system. It sounds like PAT's union is unwilling to back down, even a little.
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Old 06-19-2010, 09:35 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fleetiebelle View Post
It sounds like PAT's union is unwilling to back down, even a little.
PAT actually slashed their benefit liabilities greatly in the last round of negotiations with the union. See page 29 of this document:

http://www.portauthority.org/paac/po...esentation.pdf

As discussed in more detail in that document, a large part of the remaining benefits issue is increasing healthcare costs, in part because of changing federal policies.

Moreover, in addition to the benefits issue, they are also facing increasing fuel costs, plus all sort of other issues. That said, they really had made great strides recently toward getting their financial house in order, and so would be doing relatively well (lots of transit authorities are in much worse shape thanks to the recession) if not for the state slashing its contribution.

This isn't to say there is no more room for labor savings. But I think the union makes a convenient scapegoat, and I also think it doesn't help encourage the union to cooperate when people don't give them any credit for the cuts they have agreed to in the past (not to single you out . . . it is a very common problem and people are often being given bad information).
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Old 06-19-2010, 10:10 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
29,627 posts, read 34,103,329 times
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Don't know how I missed that--thanks, Brian.
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:10 AM
 
398 posts, read 698,895 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fleetiebelle View Post
There are drivers making $100K a year, they didn't have the kind of hiring and salary freezes that everyone else did over the past few years, and the pensions are draining the system.
Freezes? Hah! They've actually received an 11% raise over 2 years. And God did they whine about it.

SWPA is in trouble, because the one politician who was even remotely willing to tell the unions to face some f'ing reality is most likely moving onto bigger things (Onorato).
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Old 06-19-2010, 11:19 AM
 
398 posts, read 698,895 times
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The #1 thing I would like to see them do, and it could be done fairly cheaply, is reduce the density of stops. The 41B on Pioneer in Brookline, the T through Beechview, all the buses on Forbes through Oakland. It's just block-to-block stopping. Utterly insane.

I think this would have three positive effects. The first is the obvious one: the marginal extra time in having Person B get on as the same stop as Person A is nothing compared to the time in having Person A get on, get moving again, and then stop a block later for Person B. Speed up the routes, require fewer drivers and buses, less wear-and-tear on brakes.

The second positive effect is the goodwill it will engender toward PAT. Most people who drive around here are going to be stuck behind a buses stopping at every single block at some point. It's frustrating, and it can create an (accurate) impression that the system is bloated and inefficient... "so why should my tax dollars pay for it?"

The third positive effect is that faster routes will attract more riders. Forget luring suburbanites twice a year to ride to the stadiums; the system needs many more commuters who want to use PAT. It can be seen as the option of last resort for people who can't afford a car. But most people dismiss it because it's so damn slow. The T is basically a straight shot from my house to my work, and I still only use it about half of the time because mass transit should not be stopping every block.
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Old 06-19-2010, 12:10 PM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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Spacing out stops is one of the things they adopted in the TDP. And fortunately that doesn't cost any upfront money, so I suspect it will get done.
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