Parkway WORSE (Pittsburgh, Swissvale, Edgewood: neighborhoods, construction, school districts)

[Goodjules]

It was the West End landslide mess. I often use the West End route to avoid the tunnel. I used the Parkway instead. I think it has been cleaned up and is open again.

[guy2073]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

I attribute to less people using public transportation. My relative traveled parkway west daily for 40 years and claims it was nowhere close to as bad as it is now. Traffic jams really don't end until 7:30 pm weekdays. Weekends are almost as bad lately.

There has been a lot of development over the last 40 years in the airport corridor to cause this congestion, I do have to agree it is at it's worst right now.

[8YearsinPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by Goodjules

It was the West End landslide mess. I often use the West End route to avoid the tunnel. I used the Parkway instead. I think it has been cleaned up and is open again.

I hope you are right. I'm leaving in less than an hour, and I'm ready to not spend 11 minutes to go one mile on a sunny day with dry roads, just like last Friday

[djfiler]

Hopefully the parkway isn't widened. The solution to traffic is not encouraging more people to drive cars. It is now well understood that widening highways does not lessen congestion. It only increases the number of people in the congestion. The reason for that is that traffic will expand to fill the new road until it reaches the same level of unbearable congestion. From an economic standpoint, road expansion can be beneficial to the city. However it won't shorten your commute.

Instead, I would prefer to see employment and housing located closer together, with higher density housing and increased transit options. Instead of offering incentives to suburban office parks, offer incentives for transit oriented development. It is suburban office parks and highways that have created our current lifestyle. That lifestyle is defined by stressful and mind numbing commutes twice a day.

Thankfully, millennials predominately share this philosophy. They don't want to waste their days commuting to and from work. Nor do they want to work in sterile office parks. Generally, they would prefer to see their tax dollars spent on transit than on highways.

Ironically, my commute is an hour drive each way. Maybe that's why i lust for a job 20 minutes away by bike or bus.

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by djfiler

Hopefully the parkway isn't widened. The solution to traffic is not encouraging more people to drive cars. It is now well understood that widening highways does not lessen congestion. It only increases the number of people in the congestion. The reason for that is that traffic will expand to fill the new road until it reaches the same level of unbearable congestion. From an economic standpoint, road expansion can be beneficial to the city. However it won't shorten your commute.

Instead, I would prefer to see employment and housing located closer together, with higher density housing and increased transit options. Instead of offering incentives to suburban office parks, offer incentives for transit oriented development. It is suburban office parks and highways that have created our current lifestyle. That lifestyle is defined by stressful and mind numbing commutes twice a day.

Thankfully, millennials predominately share this philosophy. They don't want to waste their days commuting to and from work. Nor do they want to work in sterile office parks. Generally, they would prefer to see their tax dollars spent on transit than on highways.

Ironically, my commute is an hour drive each way. Maybe that's why i lust for a job 20 minutes away by bike or bus.

i generally agree with you here. but like you said, desire doesn't always match up to circumstance or finance.

[8YearsinPittsburgh]

Got home 25 minutes earlier than I had been all last week. ALTHOUGH, while traveling the "east" portion, the one and only digital sign near downtown read "Squirrel Hill Tunnel, 4 miles, 26 minutes". Thankfully I can get off at Forbes avenue. Very frustrating though, there's no other reason for that long of a back up other than people slowing to 20 mph all the way down to a complete stop to allow people to merge. I don't know why people do this.

[Enough_Already]

Originally Posted by djfiler

Hopefully the parkway isn't widened. The solution to traffic is not encouraging more people to drive cars. It is now well understood that widening highways does not lessen congestion. It only increases the number of people in the congestion. The reason for that is that traffic will expand to fill the new road until it reaches the same level of unbearable congestion. From an economic standpoint, road expansion can be beneficial to the city. However it won't shorten your commute.

Instead, I would prefer to see employment and housing located closer together, with higher density housing and increased transit options. Instead of offering incentives to suburban office parks, offer incentives for transit oriented development. It is suburban office parks and highways that have created our current lifestyle. That lifestyle is defined by stressful and mind numbing commutes twice a day.

Thankfully, millennials predominately share this philosophy. They don't want to waste their days commuting to and from work. Nor do they want to work in sterile office parks. Generally, they would prefer to see their tax dollars spent on transit than on highways.

Ironically, my commute is an hour drive each way. Maybe that's why i lust for a job 20 minutes away by bike or bus.

It is exactly this thinking which is ruining this country. It is government trying to control what people do. There is a cost to all those people spending all that additional time commuting. Government exists to serve the people not control them.

By the way, if your convoluted logic was true, why is the Parkway North so much more congested since the HOV lanes are closed?

[Enough_Already]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Either pony up with higher taxes (as I would also be willing to pay), or stop complaining about traffic congestion borne from years of poor long-range regional urban planning that favored plotting out zillions of low-density subdivisions that funneled onto a four-lane highway. It may not be a popular opinion, but it’s my own and what I’m sticking with. There are so many problems here that continue to exist due to “lack of funding.” The only way to get more funding is through additional taxation. With Pittsburghers having the “taxation is theft” mindset that tells me they don’t really care about fixing anything, so they can continue to sit in traffic without complaining.

Our gas tax is already a job. Why is gas $0.50 lower in Ohio? Why is our Turnpike one of the most expensive toll roads in the country?

[svband76]

Originally Posted by djfiler

Hopefully the parkway isn't widened. The solution to traffic is not encouraging more people to drive cars. It is now well understood that widening highways does not lessen congestion. It only increases the number of people in the congestion. The reason for that is that traffic will expand to fill the new road until it reaches the same level of unbearable congestion. From an economic standpoint, road expansion can be beneficial to the city. However it won't shorten your commute.

Instead, I would prefer to see employment and housing located closer together, with higher density housing and increased transit options. Instead of offering incentives to suburban office parks, offer incentives for transit oriented development. It is suburban office parks and highways that have created our current lifestyle. That lifestyle is defined by stressful and mind numbing commutes twice a day.

Thankfully, millennials predominately share this philosophy. They don't want to waste their days commuting to and from work. Nor do they want to work in sterile office parks. Generally, they would prefer to see their tax dollars spent on transit than on highways.

Ironically, my commute is an hour drive each way. Maybe that's why i lust for a job 20 minutes away by bike or bus.

Good comment and right on the mark. I once read that widening roads and building more highways to "relieve congestion" is like an obese man getting another notch on his belt because it's become too tight.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Enough_Already

Our gas tax is already a job. Why is gas $0.50 lower in Ohio? Why is our Turnpike one of the most expensive toll roads in the country?

Because PA's income tax is a flat 3% and Ohio does a better job with a progressive income tax so that higher income people pay more (it maxes out at 5%). I'm glad you think this is a better idea, but it is certainly more fair than using the Turnpike revenues to substitute for taxes as a way of paying for other roads.