Downtown: Bus-free? (Pittsburgh, Liberty, McDonald: transfer to, neighborhoods, to buy)

[doo dah]

Proposal will make Downtown Pittsburgh core totally bus-free - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bold idea. I think downtown should be car-free, however.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Proposal will make Downtown Pittsburgh core totally bus-free - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bold idea. I think downtown should be car-free, however.

Downtown Pittsburgh serves as the hub for the Port Authority transit system, thousands merely pass through town each day transferring from one PAT route to another every day of the year.

If PAT could reconfigure its system to keep these folks out of town completely it would eliminate congestion. Maybe (example) rerouting west routes across the 10th Street Bridge and terminate at the old Civic Arena could provide downtown free trips for west folks going east or south.

[pman]

sounds like theyre looking at blvs of the allies and liberty no? any proposal that requires people to transfer to the t ahere they have a direct ride now is inherently awful. it would add a lot of time to the trip and the t is not rapid transit.

[UKyank]

Love this idea - buses downtown cause more gridlock then anything. Nor do they respect pedestrians much at all either.
Not to mention using sidewalks as your main transfer hubs & clogging them up has always struck me odd here.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Confuse more people that are already fed up with Port Authority in an area where hundreds of buses go daily. Bad idea.

[rockthecasbah121]

Seems like most of this is a response to complaints by the businesses and employees of downtown. Ever walk by Mcdonald's near Macy's around lunch time and have to deal with everyone who is standing there waiting for a bus? I'd hate to be a woman walking through there. People are downright lewd. The Wood st. station is also terrible to walk past. I have to walk the wholeway to the busway to catch my bus, but it's nice because it never even goes in to town. We all get on at one stop and it probably saves us 20-30 minutes over if the bus circled around town.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by rockthecasbah121

Seems like most of this is a response to complaints by the businesses and employees of downtown. Ever walk by Mcdonald's near Macy's around lunch time and have to deal with everyone who is standing there waiting for a bus?

Encouraging the resettlement of public and private social service agencies out of town could certainly help reduce this kind of disorder. No reason that Social Security, Public Welfare, the Salvation Army or other such outfits need to be in town. Making an effort to keep patients of psychiatric clinics and meth clinics in their own sector of the county could also cut down on troublesome characters at downtown bus stops.

[grep]

Originally Posted by rockthecasbah121

Ever walk by Mcdonald's near Macy's around lunch time and have to deal with everyone who is standing there waiting for a bus? I'd hate to be a woman walking through there. People are downright lewd.

I've been walking around downtown about three or four times a week on average for well over a year, and I often pass by the McDonald's on Smithfield, the P1 stop on Smithfield across from the library, and the Wood St stop on Liberty ave.

I don't know what "deal with everyone" means. You mean walk in a slight zig-zag to avoid people? I've never had to stop walking at one of these locations, nor have I experienced any lewd behavior from anyone.

Frankly I really don't see what the problem is-- the people on the sidewalk aren't holding up foot traffic, and cars are by far the biggest source of auto traffic downtown. Maybe a better idea would be to buy one of those wasteful surface parking lots and turn it into a bus terminal like Kennedy Plaza in Providence.

[Debbie1125]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Confuse more people that are already fed up with Port Authority in an area where hundreds of buses go daily. Bad idea.

Yes this is one of the worst ideas I've heard. It's just going to encourage more people to drive and that's going to cause more congestion.

[Geeo]

This comes under the heading of: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

Yes, there are lots of people at major bus stops, yes there are lots of buses on congested downtown streets. It's called being a vibrant city center. A good percentage of the people who work downtown use transit, and we're not just talking about the lowest-paid people. The mix of people may make some uncomfortable, but in 30-odd years, I've never had a problem. Again, people from all walks of life from the very rich to the very poor congregating in a 200-acre downtown is called a city.

I'm afraid that we may end up with what happened to the North Side and East Liberty in the 1960s, when, to ease congestion, they built those four-lane moats around the business centers to reroute traffic, which killed the centers of each business district.

We have a very vibrant downtown and we should be thankful for that. Part of that vibrancy comes from having lots of people on the street, lots of traffic, and lots of activity. And one bus can carry the same number of people as 40 cars.