Pittsburgh Part 2: The Transit - Subways, busways & inclines

[Austinlee]

I would also like to point out that just as my father had done decades ago by driving through this tunnel under Mt Washington for buses and light rail only,




so did I follow in his footsteps by accidentally driving my car one night down the MLK busway in the east end:



Me: Traffic is light tonight. My passenger was like: I don't think this is for cars.

[volguus zildrohar]

Yeah, that busway situation wouldn't work in a lot of places. HOV lanes? Try Low Vehicle Occupancy highways.

[Cirrus]

^
The HOV lanes in the middle of I-95 in Northern Virginia were originally built as an exclusive busway. Drivers hated seeing all that pavement and not being allowed to use it, so after a few years the state caved to pressure and turned the busway into an HOV facility.

Then they passed legislation allowing single-occupant cars to drive on it, as long as the cars were hybrids.

Now they're converting it into HOT lanes. Any single-occupant driver who wants to shell out a buck or two will be allowed on.

As for the buses, well, screw the buses.

[the pope]

nerd!

(nice job).

Ps is there a difference between an incline and a funicular?

[Cirrus]

Yes. All inclines are funiculars but a funicular can be straight up and down or inclined.

"Funicular" means a pair of cable cars situated on parallel rails that counterbalance each other as they move. One vehicle goes up while the other goes down at the same rate.

If you have a long elevator that only stops at either end (no intermediate stops), you might use a funicular rather than the normal system.

[Expat]

PA Pride - that story is hilarious.

[Robert Pence]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Naturally, the only reason you were almost arrested back in 2005 was because two other, you know, darker forumers were with you.

Those were the days. A PAT down!

I almost was arrested in 2006, and I was by myself and I'm about as pale as they get. Before coming to Pittsburgh I emailed PAT customer service asking if photography was permitted, and didn't get a reply. When I arrived, I stopped at the customer service office on Mellon Square and asked if there were any restrictions on photography in the stations, and no one there knew of any. In Steel Plaza Station I scouted the whole area looking for a sign. There were plenty about No Eating, No Drinking, No Loud Radios, etc., but nothing about photography. I got off two discreet shots while standing well out of the traffic path and not using a flash, and a cop about a head taller and a hundred fifty pounds heavier than me was in my face. He demanded my ID, told me to take it out of my wallet and hand it to him, and then held it while he radioed someone to run a check on me. I've often wondered if I'm on some list somewhere as a result of that incident.

I told him I had checked every resource I could find, and no one said I couldn't take photos. He said photography on PAT property was by permit only, and only when accompanied by a PAT media relations person, and that I could stand anyplace outside property boundaries and take all the photos I want and they couldn't stop me, but I was subject to arrest for photographing on PAT property. There are security cameras all over those stations, so I didn't try again in the subways although I shot quite a few at surface stations and wasn't bothered.

The Smithfield Street Bridge in May 1985, before the subway opened:

The last I knew, the rent-a-cops at the PPG building will go nuts on you even if you're standing across the street on public property when you take a photo.

[jamesinclair]

Downtown it looks like the buses just mix with traffic. That's too bad.

I believe you meant to say

"The strength of the BRT system is shown downtown, where the transit vehicles can use existing infrastructure to make the last mile connection, instead of requiring billion dollar+ connections, or more likely, not existing at all.

[Illithid Dude]

I have a problem: I have a fetish for turnstiles. I really love them. Does this system of light-rails have turnstiles?

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures! I also checked out that link on the differences between buses and streetcars. Busways seem kind of strange to me in general; besides your argument of just converting it to light rail, why not open it up to regular cars and offer it as a mini-expressway (maybe for a toll)?

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

I believe you meant to say

"The strength of the BRT system is shown downtown, where the transit vehicles can use existing infrastructure to make the last mile connection, instead of requiring billion dollar+ connections, or more likely, not existing at all.

Are you being sarcastic? Because that's definitely not what I meant to say.

The cost of converting a few lanes of pavement downtown to bus-only would be practically zero, the cost of closing one downtown street to cars to let buses go through unhindered would be fairly minimal, and the cost of a gold-plated surface busway with median stations would be a few tens of millions of dollars. The options are not "billion dollar subway" or "nothing".

What the complete lack of any rapid infrastructure for buses downtown actually shows is that a huge weakness of BRT is that it's so easy to get away with cutting corners that result in an ineffective and underused transit system.

[OneForOne]

Let me just say how much I love this photo - very cool.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

What the complete lack of any rapid infrastructure for buses downtown actually shows is that a huge weakness of BRT is that it's so easy to get away with cutting corners that result in an ineffective and underused transit system.

Yep. Pittsburgh's bus system within the city in a nutshell.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Robert Pence

I almost was arrested in 2006, and I was by myself and I'm about as pale as they get. Before coming to Pittsburgh I emailed PAT customer service asking if photography was permitted, and didn't get a reply. When I arrived, I stopped at the customer service office on Mellon Square and asked if there were any restrictions on photography in the stations, and no one there knew of any. In Steel Plaza Station I scouted the whole area looking for a sign. There were plenty about No Eating, No Drinking, No Loud Radios, etc., but nothing about photography. I got off two discreet shots while standing well out of the traffic path and not using a flash, and a cop about a head taller and a hundred fifty pounds heavier than me was in my face. He demanded my ID, told me to take it out of my wallet and hand it to him, and then held it while he radioed someone to run a check on me. I've often wondered if I'm on some list somewhere as a result of that incident.

I told him I had checked every resource I could find, and no one said I couldn't take photos. He said photography on PAT property was by permit only, and only when accompanied by a PAT media relations person, and that I could stand anyplace outside property boundaries and take all the photos I want and they couldn't stop me, but I was subject to arrest for photographing on PAT property. There are security cameras all over those stations, so I didn't try again in the subways although I shot quite a few at surface stations and wasn't bothered.

The Smithfield Street Bridge in May 1985, before the subway opened:

The last I knew, the rent-a-cops at the PPG building will go nuts on you even if you're standing across the street on public property when you take a photo.

i think it depends on your gear - if u have a small simple point and shoot you can probably get away with it - but a DSLR with lenses and bags etc will draw attention

[SpongeG]

I was reading an article about Pittsburgh and its busways - they were originally planned to be LRT but the tire manufacturers and bus people lobbied heavily to make them bus routes - it was in the tire industries best interest cause they could supply the tires to the busses, anyway the lobbyists in the states seem to have a lot more power than they do here in Canada which is a pity cause you end up with some lesser things in the end

the same article also said that the busses have low ridership and there was or will be some conversion to LRT - is that true?

great set of pics