Pittsburgh Homes Daily

There is a debate right now on a few other Pittsburgh blogs about whether there are too many buses in downtown Pittsburgh.  It was started here by Jonathon Potts (defending the buses, as well as a follow up counterpoint).  Fester’s place has also had posts about improving PAT service ( with a follow up here). 

They probably have much more experience than me on the Pittsburgh bus system.  I only used it for three months and during that time it was great.  A bus picked me up at my door (well, actually, across the street), it ran every 8 or 15 minutes during peak times, and with a few exceptions (due to construction on the street), was extremely reliable.  Occasionally, I had to take the busway.

It looks like the consensus may be moving to some sort of transfer between different systems when you get downtown.

I just wanted to provide a little perspective on this discussion from my experience with a city that has good (but not as great as Pittsburgh) public transportation.  There is a bus that runs between two cities here.  It is absolutely reliable.  It only takes 20 minutes.  It’s amazing.  The problem is that you cannot rely on your ability to get anywhere other than the bus depot or the bus line.  Granted, there are a number of buses that run from the bus depot of each city.  But you never make your connection.  I have personally watched my connection bus pull away from the bus depot 3 times in one week.  And the next bus doesn’t run for an hour.  I never had this problem in Pittsburgh because there were no transfers for me.  Every bus that I would conceivably take dropped me off within 2 blocks of where I worked.  And it picked me up there as well.  The only times that I missed my bus were when I was running late.

The potential response [ that there will be plenty of buses running frequently enough that this won't be a problem ] may be correct in the short term for some routes.  But if my ability to make a late night or early morning bus that only runs once an hour depends on a transfer, I’m only going to miss it once or twice before I stop taking the bus.  And over the long term, the problem may only get worse.  There was a huge debate last summer in Pittsburgh about the funding of buses.  I’m not sure the resolution of that debate at the moment, but if funding is ever cut, it will exacerbate the problem.  It’s the same basic problem as we’ve all seen on the hub and spoke airline system.

It’s a tough problem without an easy solution.  For those not from Pittsburgh who would like to see what we’re talking about, check out the Port Authority of Allegheny County website.