Parkway west reverse commute (PM) (Pittsburgh, Huntingdon: middle-class, home, employment)

[WestLibertyAve]

What's with all the traffic coming towards the city on the Parkway West in the afternoons? I've never seen it half as bad in the mornings (~8am) as it is nearly every afternoon (~5pm) when I drive through. There's obviously Robinson, and the various industrial parks in that corridor, but do that many people really work out there to produce that much traffic?

I assume a lot of these commuters live in the east and work in the west, but traffic seems to flow pretty freely in the AM approaching the Ft Pitt Bridge, so maybe I'm wrong.

Do you sit in that traffic every afternoon? Where are you coming from/going? Do you realize there are faster ways to get into the city than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic from 79 to the tunnels every afternoon?

[Pitt Chick]

I would think that people going into the city at 5 pm are not commuters, but are people going in for dinner/shows/sporting events.

[Blackbeauty212]

It's only going to get worse....as they continue to cut transit forcing people to into more cars....

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

It's only going to get worse....as they continue to cut transit forcing people to into more cars....

It's also only going to continue to get worse as more employers decide to set up shop in the suburbs, forcing their employees to all funnel onto our outdated infrastructure.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

It's also only going to continue to get worse as more employers decide to set up shop in the suburbs, forcing their employees to all funnel onto our outdated infrastructure.

It could be that many employees live in the suburbs. Maybe even most of them.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Caladium

It could be that many employees live in the suburbs. Maybe even most of them.

So when both employers and employees are all moving into the suburbs, where does that leave the city, exactly, other than as an empty donut hole?

[normie]

From what I hear, there are several new business opening in the city, as well. Brian makes announcements almost every day. Hopefully they will hire employees who also live in the city.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by normie

From what I hear, there are several new business opening in the city, as well. Brian makes announcements almost every day. Hopefully they will hire employees who also live in the city.

That's true. Google is one such company. I really don't care if the employees themselves live in the suburbs or city (it is a free country after all), but employers SHOULD locate mostly within the core city to make transit planning easier. The reason why NoVA's traffic is so bad is due to all of the suburb-to-suburb commuting while relatively few seem to need to go into DC anymore as it is losing prominence as an employment hotbed (I only had one friend who actually worked in DC). Metrorail was designed to link everyone into DC, but if you live in Ashburn and commute to Bethesda or live in Gaithersburg and work in Tysons Corner, for example, then what are your options besides driving or schlepping onto a bunch of different buses or a bus-to-train-to-bus sort of scenario?

The Silver Line was sorely needed in NoVA because of how many work/live in the Ashburn/Sterling/Herndon/Reston/McLean Corridor. Pittsburgh's issue is that most (if not all) of its freeways are only two or three lanes in each direction, creating bottlenecks when more and more employers are moving far out from the city. In Pittsburgh, unlike DC, it's possible to live in a very nice home in a safe walkable neighborhood for typical middle-class (and even lower-middle-class) families or individuals. While many in NoVA live way out in Bristow or Gainesville or Winchester or wherever else simply because they can't afford to live closer that's not the case in Pittsburgh, where I've found most suburbs are more expensive than the city (especially Fox Chapel, PA---$$$!).

I want to see more and more businesses relocate into the city from the 'burbs instead of the other way around. If most people live in the suburbs and work in the city, then traffic can remain manageable because PAT can more easily plan routes and/or new "T" lines as necessary.

[BrianTH]

One of the problems with trying to locate jobs closer to suburban residents is that suburban residents are located all over, and people change jobs. So on the Parkway West inbound in the evening, you are likely not only looking at returning commuters from the City, but also from other suburbs that are north or east of the City.

Ironically, those people are actually using highways for what they are good at doing, which is speeding travel between lower-density areas. The idea of using highways for travel destinations actually within dense urban areas was never a good one, but unfortunately we have grossly underinvested in the alternatives and overinvested in urban highways, which in turn has helped to distort residential patterns. Hopefully we will start making better investments and decisions, but it will take a while, and the process has likely been delayed by recent political events.

[lifepgh2op]

I actually know someone that LIVES in North Huntingdon Township (Westmoreland County) and works (9-5) in Moon Township. He commutes that DAILY, and has so for the past 15-20 years.