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Old 02-03-2011, 02:58 PM
 
45 posts, read 84,310 times
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I have very recently moved to Pittsburgh and I will very soon begin my new job downtown Pittsburgh (one of the buildings close to the Macy's downtown). At least for a few months I will live with a friend in the Monroeville area, until I figure out where I want to live and other such things. I have 3 questions to ask you guys:

1. what would be the quickest way to get downtown? So far I have seen that 376 gets horrible traffic before the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, and what should be a 30 minutes drive can take over an hour in the morning. Any way to bypass this?

2. obviously I have to drive and park downtown. The Pitt Parking Authority charges from what I have seen online $16 for 4+ hours and 285/month. Are there any other options?

3. I have a motorcycle and I would like to ride it to work April - October. Are there any parking options for motorcycles, downtown that would save me some money on parking? Do parking garages differentiate between motorcycle and car? I could not find anything online.

Thank you so much and I look forward to reading your suggestions.
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:07 PM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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As an alternative to parking Downtown, you could also use a park-and-ride. You can click on this map to see what routes serve lots near you:

Park and Ride Lots

Edit: Oh, the best routes to look for are the ones that use the East Busway, marked with a "P" at the beginning. Those take about 30-35 minutes to get from Monroeville to Downtown.

Last edited by BrianTH; 02-03-2011 at 03:18 PM..
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Wilkinsburg
1,657 posts, read 2,677,858 times
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For parking, I recommend parking in the upper Mellon Arena lot. It's like $7/day. Also, if you get there early, on the street above the upper Mellon lot, Crawford Street, there are several street spaces that are missing the meters. These are usually gone by 7am though. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from this area to Smithfield Street.

For driving in, you're probably just going to have to bite the bullet and sit in 376 traffic. There's a back way down Penn Avenue through Homewood, but it's really out of the way.
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:12 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,268,091 times
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You can always park in Polish Hill and have a 30-minute walk Downtown through the Strip District.
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:12 PM
 
Location: Wilkinsburg
1,657 posts, read 2,677,858 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
As an alternative to parking Downtown, you could also use a park-and-ride. You can click on this map to see what routes serve lots near you:

Park and Ride Lots
Yes. I didn't think about this, but the Busway is great.
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:12 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh area
9,912 posts, read 24,538,456 times
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My garage down near Gateway Center seems to differentiate for motorcycles, if they park in a certain spot, but I'm not sure how it works.

Cheaper parking can be had up past the Consol Energy Center or in the Strip District in open lots for maybe $4-5/day.

The best way to beat both the parking cost and the traffic would be to take the bus. The bus can utilize a special bus-only road (the East Busway) from Wilkinsburg to downtown, which bypasses most of the tunnel backup. Someone else may know the bus route to look for; I don't know it off the top of my head but there should be something close by or at least a park and ride you could drive to.
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Old 02-04-2011, 09:47 AM
 
Location: O'Hara Twp.
4,359 posts, read 7,481,853 times
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On 5th Ave. under a bridge, between the Mellon garage and Chatham Center is a spot where motorcycles park for free. Get there early in the summer.
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Old 02-04-2011, 10:23 AM
 
45 posts, read 84,310 times
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Guys, thank you all so much for your responses so far. So far I have a couple of observations to make:

1. I have looked into the bus schedule (park and ride). The nearest location I could go to would require a 10 minute drive and a 1 hour bus ride. This is something I will surely try, but if they are not on time, I would have to give myself at least a 30 minute safety window, so I would be looking at almost a two hour commute each way, especially in the morning. It just feels like 3-4 hours a day would just be too much, even if only for 4-6 months. But I will try it.

2. The cost of parking a car downtown seems to be proportional to how close you want to be to where the action is. After doing some research I found a few Alcoa garages that offer cheaper monthly passes (120-150 rather than 285). The one garage on 11th street would only require a .6 mile walk. I guess it is all about money vs comfort.

3. The motorcycle situation seems ambiguous. I was hoping that riders could park for less if nor free. I was hoping that scooters and motorcycles would be promoted. My sportsbike gets 45-50mpg on a regular basis and takes half the space to park...wouldn't you want more people to commute this way?

So if you have any more ideas or suggestions, regarding parking a motorcycle downtown and getting from Monroeville to Downtown, please share them with me. Thank you so much!
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Old 02-04-2011, 10:34 AM
 
45 posts, read 84,310 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greg42 View Post
My garage down near Gateway Center seems to differentiate for motorcycles, if they park in a certain spot, but I'm not sure how it works.
what is the name of this garage or who owns it? This would be very close to where I work...
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Old 02-04-2011, 11:45 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,869,081 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tech13579 View Post
1. I have looked into the bus schedule (park and ride). The nearest location I could go to would require a 10 minute drive and a 1 hour bus ride.
I would think you could do better than that in Monroeville. Is the bus route you would be taking an East Busway route (P-something)? If not, and if such a route isn't available at the nearest location, it might be worth driving a bit more to a location where one was available.

Quote:
My sportsbike gets 45-50mpg on a regular basis and takes half the space to park...wouldn't you want more people to commute this way?
Excellent question. We really should encourage that, but many people have the mentality that everything should be oriented toward car commuters.
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