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It's excruciatingly frustrating that native Pittsburghers still can't wrap their heads around the fact that some people didn't grow up here and now live here by choice. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "Where did you go to high school?" since moving here. I almost just want to say adopt a yinzer persona and say "I'm Jack Black from West Mifflin".

I've only lived here for eleven years.

Do you just get on a random bus that comes by, or do you look at a bus schedule?
Here is the link to the trip planner on the Port Authority website.
Here is the link to the realtime bus map, though it doesn't have all the routes yet; the Port Authority says the rest of the routes will be online by the end of the year.

Here is an Android app that uses the current realtime tracker.

I don't have an Iphone, so I don't know about an Apple app. Maybe someone else can suggest?

There are paper schedules available at the T-stations downtown, and the service center on Smithfield St, though that is only open weekdays. Some buses have them, but that has always been chancy.

You can download .pdfs directly here, though you have to know the route number. PM me if you are trying to get somewhere and I suggest a route or two.

I do not work for the Port Authority.

Doo dah, I *think* you are trying to be helpful (not snarky), and I appreciate it. My point is that a bus system should not be so complicated. I visited a few other cities over the past couple of months and I was able to use their bus systems without problems. You pay as you get on, find a seat, then exit at your stop, usually through the rear doors. Our system is off-putting. You pay at different times and the back doors often don't open; certainly not when it is a 'pay as you exit' stop. It is a pain, since you often have to struggle through crowds to get on the bus, then struggle again to exit at the front. The process seems to make drivers (even more) grumpy as they are constantly barking at patrons to pay later and/or using their hands to cover the machines.
I have to assume some of you have never used buses in other cities, therefore know it should be the most straightforward thing in the world.
Don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED that Moby finds it straightforward, but I assure you there are many students, visitors, people traveling to a different part of the city than usual, and newcomers who are confused every time I ride.

The bus schedule has the routes. Moby Hick has only been here 11 years and he knows. Most newcomers catch on quickly.

That's better than areas where newcomers are treated as outsiders for eternity because everyone has known everyone since birth.

We only want people who are capable of comprehending complicated concepts. It's our way of thinning the herd.

Okay, you all who think this is a great system, can you explain one reason why it is so? What is the point of not just having everyone pay upon entry? If you can come up with one good reason I will never mention it again.
ETA: I would love feedback from people who actually ride the bus on a regular basis.

I have lived in other cities before there was an internet to look up transit information, and was able to figure out various transit options to get where I needed to go.
Perhaps it was because my mother didn't drive and relied on taking the bus wherever we lived, and I learned from her. She was of an older generation that wasn't a two+ car family. Maybe if you grow up not thinking about having to take the bus (or other transit, like the subway), it is harder to figure out.

I think thinning the herd is a damn good reason! I let my children take the bus by themselves when they were 13/14 years old. They didn't have any problem figuring it out whatsoever. If a child can do it, any "students, visitors, people traveling to a different part of the city than usual, and newcomers" should be able to figure it out too. Do we really want adults living here who are incapable of doing what a child can do?

Why? According to you, people who don't ride the bus frequently would be the people who are most confused and impacted.

So a typical native can navigate a bus schedule but believes dragons and death are on the other side of a river crossing?