Car-Free life in Pittsburgh

[MarqueseGilmore]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

You can "get by" in Pittsburgh without a car, but its not exactly pleasant. The problem is a lot of the bus routes are geared towards getting people to work/school and not leisure travel. So although you shouldn't have a problem getting to work, you may have problems going to the mall, movies or other such activity.

I disagree completely..........I dont drive either and I get to the malls,movies and restaurants on the bus. Depends on the time of night you trying to leave and where!!

[khyron]

Originally Posted by MarqueseGilmore

I disagree completely..........I dont drive either and I get to the malls,movies and restaurants on the bus. Depends on the time of night you trying to leave and where!!

I'm going to have to chime in with opposing anecdotal evidence as well, FWIW. I live in Oakland, and once of the reasons I chose to live here was that it's a transit hub. I can visit malls, movies (numerous choices) and more restaurants than I can even think of off the top of my head (multiple dozens) easily by bus. I can also get to and from the airport, to and from grocery stores (though I can even walk to some), to and from all kinds of useful stuff.

I think ultimately what living without a car in Pittsburgh is like depends on how purposefully you choose your location and how you like to live your life, what your goals are. My wife and I actually own a car, but we sold our second one when we moved here and we love that we only have to get our remaining one out of the garage every once in a while here to run heavy errands or road trip out of town.

[Geeo]

We also own one car and live in the East End. We can go days without taking it out of the garage. Everything is walkable or easily accessed by bus. If we need the car, we use it, but it's nice not having to gas it up every week.

[Kish]

No one has mentioned cycling. Many Pittsburgh journeys can be done conveniently by bike, and I commute by bike 9 or 10 months a year (mid-winter is too cold and too dark). A combination of walking, cycling and public transport, combined with a careful choice of residential location, should make Pittsburgh fairly manageable without a car.

The BikePgh website has an excellent interactive cycling m,ap showing off-road routes and reasonably safe on-road routes. Bike Pittsburgh, Bicycle Advocacy, Safety and Community in Pittsburgh » » New, Simplified Bike Rack Ordinance Passes Council

[Catho]

Can anyone speak to living without a car in Bloomfield? I would be located right off Liberty Ave, near where it meets Bloomfiend Bridge, so I could easily catch the 54C. However, I have noticed that the 54C service is sporadic on evenings and weekends. Would it make sense to walk to places in northern Shadyside or Oakland that are served by more bus routes and take a bus from there? I would be a graduate student and, though I'd commute to Oakland for school, many of my fellow students would be living in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. I'm not concerned about my commute to Oakland or getting to grocery stores, commercial, etc, as this area is extremely walkable. However, I'm concerned that it would be socially isolating to live in this area without a car if the 54C is the only option. Can anyone speak to what this experience might be like? Or to whether there are any other public transport options (shuttles, nearby transportation hubs in other neighborhoods, etc). I'm also very happy biking and walking up to 30 mins. However, driving is not an option for me.

[toosie]

Catho, I think you'd be fine living without a car in Bloomfield - especially since you're cool with walking and biking a bit. We live in Oakland/Shadyside area - across the bridge from Bloomfield - my husband does drive but I don't - we only have one car. Even when he was deployed and away for over a year, I had no problem whatsoever getting all around town and out to some of the burbs for shopping and social life and such. Remember too that you'll have friends and someone is bound to have a car. Also, PAT transit is quite helpful if you call for how to get from here to there and what the different options are. Check their website and use google maps for a better idea of bus/walking routes for places you'd want to go. http://www.portauthority.org/paac/default.aspx

[Blackbeauty212]

for Shadyside - You also have the 86A that runs down Liberty to Centre...That Bus is much slower then the 54C from what I could remember...

77D F G - Runs the Bloomfield but barely serves Shadyside you'd have to walk down negley once it turns off Friendship....

where you'll be living is like the 1st/last point where you can catch any 54C (some stay on liberty others go down Penn)....So service shouldn't be that bad, unless the cut it alot since I left Pitt.