I grew up in Pittsburgh, but currently live in the outer edge of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) metro. Anyway, before I was licensed to drive, I took mass transit. It actually first started in high school when the district decided my parents were 3 houses too close to require a school bus or some bureaucratic nonsense.
Public transit has declined in just about every city, now that cars are relatively cheap and mass transit just doesn't fit in with our "right now, my way" attitude. It's not like the old days with street cars ferrying the working poor into cities. I can't speak for everyone, but I do keep up with what's happening in Pittsburgh. My mom has never driven since she left Small Town, USA, so she's totally dependent on the transit system. My youngest brother has yet to even begin the motions to have a license. So they both depend on what they have.
Alas, Port Authority of Allegheny County, the transit agency that runs Pittsburgh buses and few subway cars, has been running a mantra of "raise fares, cut service" for probably the last 30 years. My parents moved into my would-become childhood home partially because it was along a major bus line -- at one time, there were up to four routes that ran along the street right in front of our house. Can't beat that, right?
Well at an exponential rate, the entire system has been decimated. Starting this year, they began to "modernize" the system for the 21st century or however the marketing guys are spinning it. This basically means they're going to drastically alter the whole darn thing and cut and thin it out as much as possible. Some of this does make sense; as they admit, they've been keeping alive an ancient model that worked for the street car days but no longer makes sense in present day.
But focusing on my remaining immediate family that is so dependent -- they're down to one route that runs with a little more than an hour between buses. A far cry from what used to be wonderful service to and from the downtown area. Today was the first business day of this fantastic travesty, and my youngest brother, who relies on the buses to get to his job downtown, reported it as such:
Let me tell you a story about the post-September 5th era of Port Authority buses.
So my friend [name removed] and I were trying to catch the 41D. I had left the house at 6:55 AM, expecting a bus to come rather quickly. I remembered soon enough that the 41G no longer exists. As expected, the bus didn't show until 7:20 AM, and it was so packed that a handicapped woman had to be passed up, with little prospect that the next 41D would have the room.
So my friend and I rode on this crowded bus, with some lady constantly saying, "Move back!" and also, "Put it on all your phones - 412-442-2000! [PAT customer service]" Some other lady even was filing a discrimination complaint or something. It wasn't regards to race, but the disabled.
Big traffic jam, of course. How nice.
Finally, at 8:00 AM, I was at the City County Building. So I have been saying sarcastically to people at work, "I want to thank Port Authority for a wonderful commute this morning." I even said it to my boss, and she was amazed at the mess.
His commute is a mere 3.5 miles or so. This is just my brother's story from one street in one neighborhood... makes me wonder how everyone else's commute went?
Public transit has declined in just about every city, now that cars are relatively cheap and mass transit just doesn't fit in with our "right now, my way" attitude. It's not like the old days with street cars ferrying the working poor into cities. I can't speak for everyone, but I do keep up with what's happening in Pittsburgh. My mom has never driven since she left Small Town, USA, so she's totally dependent on the transit system. My youngest brother has yet to even begin the motions to have a license. So they both depend on what they have.
Alas, Port Authority of Allegheny County, the transit agency that runs Pittsburgh buses and few subway cars, has been running a mantra of "raise fares, cut service" for probably the last 30 years. My parents moved into my would-become childhood home partially because it was along a major bus line -- at one time, there were up to four routes that ran along the street right in front of our house. Can't beat that, right?
Well at an exponential rate, the entire system has been decimated. Starting this year, they began to "modernize" the system for the 21st century or however the marketing guys are spinning it. This basically means they're going to drastically alter the whole darn thing and cut and thin it out as much as possible. Some of this does make sense; as they admit, they've been keeping alive an ancient model that worked for the street car days but no longer makes sense in present day.
But focusing on my remaining immediate family that is so dependent -- they're down to one route that runs with a little more than an hour between buses. A far cry from what used to be wonderful service to and from the downtown area. Today was the first business day of this fantastic travesty, and my youngest brother, who relies on the buses to get to his job downtown, reported it as such:
Let me tell you a story about the post-September 5th era of Port Authority buses.
So my friend [name removed] and I were trying to catch the 41D. I had left the house at 6:55 AM, expecting a bus to come rather quickly. I remembered soon enough that the 41G no longer exists. As expected, the bus didn't show until 7:20 AM, and it was so packed that a handicapped woman had to be passed up, with little prospect that the next 41D would have the room.
So my friend and I rode on this crowded bus, with some lady constantly saying, "Move back!" and also, "Put it on all your phones - 412-442-2000! [PAT customer service]" Some other lady even was filing a discrimination complaint or something. It wasn't regards to race, but the disabled.
Big traffic jam, of course. How nice.
Finally, at 8:00 AM, I was at the City County Building. So I have been saying sarcastically to people at work, "I want to thank Port Authority for a wonderful commute this morning." I even said it to my boss, and she was amazed at the mess.
His commute is a mere 3.5 miles or so. This is just my brother's story from one street in one neighborhood... makes me wonder how everyone else's commute went?
Historically the tunnel did have sidewalks on it, and that would improve your idea. Pittsburgh is very hilly and it really is not something a non-athletic can navigate on a bike for any considerable distance. Now, out here in MN, yeah, 3.5 miles is totally bikeable. If I were only 3.5 miles away and had enough surface to bike across, I'd totally make it a daily thing... at least until the temps go -40 F...