Pittsburgh Public Transit Thread (live, law, buses)

[By~Tor]

I see one thing (off the top of my head) about the buses here in Pittsburgh that really tends to irk me.... whenever they are on one of the two-lane main thoroughfares, and they are pulling up towards the bus stop, the bus drivers do NOT angle the bus over toward the curb so that drivers behind them can get by.... they just sit there in the middle of the street, and you're stuck there behind them for the entire trip down whatever road you're cursed to be on at that time.

It's not that the buses don't have room or a designated area to pull into, either... in every city I've lived in, it's against the law to park a car in the bus stop area, SPECIFICALLY so that buses HAVE rom to pull over to take on & let off passengers, and the cars behind them can then pass the behemoth bus and get on their way...

WHY is it apparently different here? Is it that the cops aren't enforcing the parking ordinances or are the bus drivers just THAT rude and careless?

[scottrpriester]

Originally Posted by By~Tor

bus drivers do NOT angle the bus over toward the curb so that drivers behind them can get by....

Well here's what irks me more.....people who just sit behind a bus instead of making some effort to keep traffic moving and go around it.

[soniqV]

What irks me even more are drivers 2-3 cars back from the bus who nearly cause accidents passing the bus plus the cars who think it's not safe to pass or didn't react quickly enough to their liking.

[BrianTH]

The Pittsburgh city code (§ 541.01(a)(12) to be precise) specifies that you can't park with 15 feet of a transit stop sign. The problem is that a standard bus is 40 feet long. And given the sheer number of transit stops in Pittsburgh, changing this would make a lot of people very mad.

By the way, Options 1 and 2 of PAT's Transit Development Plan, and particularly Option 2, would reduce the number of stops on some of the most popular and frequent radial routes. So that would help address this issue.

[Geeo]

I rarely see any streets with enough room for a bus to pull over at the stop. Most cars park as close to the corners as they can, and many park right under the bus stop sign. It's just one of the hazards of narrow streets and limited parking. I saw that San Francisco rigidly enforces bus stop parking and paints an orange grid on the street to designate "no parking." But I think that would rile up a lot of Pittsburgh parkers because it would take away curbside parking in very congested areas. Just follow the bus and remember: it's carrying 20 or 30 or 40 people to the usual one person in a car so it's much more efficient.

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Well here's what irks me more.....people who just sit behind a bus instead of making some effort to keep traffic moving and go around it.

[groar]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Well here's what irks me more.....people who just sit behind a bus instead of making some effort to keep traffic moving and go around it.

i dunno, i've seen way too many buses just pull out when they're done at a stop, regardless of whether there's a car trying to pass them at the time.

i generally go around buses if i can, but if it's 1 lane and they've already been stopped a while before i get to them i'm very wary of trying to pass them.

[raubre]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Well here's what irks me more.....people who just sit behind a bus instead of making some effort to keep traffic moving and go around it.

That runs the risk of someone getting hit by the car. Sometimes the bus driver will sit and wait until the patron crosses the street.

[pman]

why don't ETA buses become trolleybuses and run in the T tunnel? they seem to be able to accomplish this feat in seattle.