What Happens Next?

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COMMUNITY PARTNERS • Allegheny Conference on Community Development • Allegheny County Department of Economic Development What Happens Next? • Allegheny County Transportation Action Partnership A series of community meetings will be held during the last week • Allegheny County Transit Council of September and first two weeks of October. These meetings • Bike Pittsburgh will include a detailed discussion of the refined alternatives with • Carnegie Mellon University particular attention to stations and street configurations. See the • Carlow University • City of Pittsburgh Dept. of City Planning front page for more information. • Duquesne University Using public and stakeholder input from these meetings, the • Local Government Academy • Hill District Community project team will rate and further refine the options using the Development Corporation evaluation measures. With greater detail on street configura- • NAIOP, Pittsburgh Chapter tions, bus stop/station locations and types, vehicle types and • Oakland Planning & service plans, the project team will compare the alternatives. The Development Corporation alternatives will then undergo a second-level screening process • Oakland Transportation Management Association that will take into consideration environmental, community and • Oakland Task Force traffic impacts as well as ridership projections, cost estimates and • PA Department of Transportation cost-effectiveness calculations. The cost information will also be • Pittsburgh Community used to develop financial plans. Reinvestment Group • Pittsburgh Downtown By spring 2013, the final milestone in the planning process will Neighborhood Association occur with the selection of a Community Preferred Alternative. • Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership Based on the results of a second screening, evaluation measures • Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network • Pittsburgh Parking Authority and public/stakeholder input, the project team will determine • Pittsburgh Partnership for the configuration that best addresses the needs of the Down- Neighborhood Development town-Oakland-East End Corridor. Documentation describing the • Pittsburgh Penguins Community Preferred Alternative and the rationale for its selec- • Pittsburgh Sports & Exhibition Authority tion can then be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration • Pittsburgh United • Port Authority of Allegheny County for approval to advance the project into the engineering and • Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission design phases. • Sustainable Pittsburgh • University of Pittsburgh For more information, go to GetTherePgh.org or call 412.258.6643. • UPMC • Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh • Urban Land Institute Downtown-Oakland-East End

Bus Rapid Transit

his newsletter begins with three scenarios for you to imagine Bus Rapid COMMUNITY TTransit (BRT) in your life. A more vivid MEETINGS demonstration of these scenarios will be shown at four public meetings through a visualization of BRT in the Downtown- Oakland Oakland-East End Corridor. This visual- Thursday, September 27 ization includes real footage dramatization 6:00 – 8:00 pm of these scenarios with animation ex- University of Pittsburgh Alumni Hall, First Floor Ballroom plaining how BRT can provide better bus 4227 Fifth Avenue, Oakland service, even in heavy traffic. Hosted by Oakland Planning & Development Corp. The meetings will also feature a BRT & Oakland Transportation Management Assoc. simulation, an interactive computer tool to illustrate station types and amenities East End as well as options for placing bus lanes, Monday, October 1 auto lanes, bike lanes and parking along 5:30 – 7:30 pm sample street segments. The simulation Carnegie Library – East Liberty will allow meeting participants to explore (across from the East Liberty Presbyterian Church) different scenarios for stations and streets, 130 South Whitfield St., East Liberty and record which options they prefer. Hosted by East Liberty Development, Inc. Uptown Hill District Thursday, October 4 Hill District Community Meeting 6:00 – 8:00 pm Thursday, October 11 UPMC Mercy Hospital 5:30 – 7:30 pm Sr. Ferdinand Clark Auditorium Elsie H. Hillman Auditorium at Kaufmann Center 1400 Locust Street, Uptown (next to the Hill House) Hosted by Uptown Partners 1825 Centre Avenue, Hill District

Can’t attend? Information on alternatives, the BRT visualization & simulation plus a comment form, is available at GetTherePgh.org. Imagine Bus Rapid Transit

Imagine you’re a nurse at one of Oakland’s hospitals. It’s 3:00 pm. You just finished your shift and made plans to see your friends after work. Oakland’s streets begin to fill with cars and you don’t want to be stuck in traffic when you could be with your friends instead. With the money you saved on parking and gas through commuting on the fast and reliable BRT, you can go shop- ping and treat your friends to an early dinner in Uptown. You head to the BRT station, where you check the real-time display. Your bus will be there soon, so you text your friends that you’ll see them in a few minutes. You get there with time to spare as your bus zips past congestion in a dedicated bus lane.

Imagine finishing up a long day at the office in Downtown Pittsburgh. You rush out to the BRT station. The station is easy to spot, well-lit and marked with “BRT” in big letters. It’s already 7:16 pm and your spouse has just sent you a text – “please don’t be late for dinner.” You pull up the BRT app on your smartphone. The next bus leaves at 7:17! You dash to the station – there’s no mistaking it for a regular bus stop – just in time to catch the bus. 7:17 on the dot. As you settle into your seat, you text back – “no problem, honey.”

Imagine that you and your spouse have recently retired. You’ve moved into an Uptown loft to enjoy all the city has to offer – including convenient access to Bus Rapid Transit. You want to enjoy a night on the town to celebrate your 40th wedding anniver- sary, but don’t want to worry about parking. Luckily, the BRT station is just steps from your apartment. At the station, you buy two tickets from the vending machine and then have a seat on the bench. Only a few minutes pass and the bus arrives at the station. You’re in Downtown before you know it; queue jump lanes enable your bus to bypass auto traffic. You get off just a couple of blocks from the O’Reilly Theater, where you’ll be seeing an August Wilson play. The Region’s Core Transforming Neighborhoods The Downtown–Oakland–East End Corridor includes Southwestern Pennsylvania’s top two activity centers and some of Pittsburgh’s most distinctive neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have many qualities which make them great places to work and live as well as to attend universities, visit mu- seums, libraries and other cultural and entertainment facilities and to receive medical services. The combination of tree-lined streets, small green spaces and architecturally distinctive and historic buildings provide these neigh- Currently, local roadways are frequently borhoods with a high aesthetic appeal, congested and the transit system is often further enhancing their attractiveness hard-pressed to meet demand. The in- to residents, workers, students and tense level of development in Downtown visitors. Pittsburgh and Oakland limits the amount of land available for parking which results Vibrant & Growing in high parking rates. Transit already serves nearly 68,000 trips per day in the Nevertheless, even with all of their Corridor, accounting for nearly a third of current assets, additional improve- the total Port Authority ridership and 25% ments are being planned for these - 30% of the total trips in the Corridor. neighborhoods. Major new development is envisioned for the Corridor. This includes new offices to be built for both BRT is a Solution institutional uses (university and med- BRT will provide faster, more reliable and ical) and private companies desiring more evenly-spaced transit service within convenient access to research facilities the Corridor, attracting more riders, re- in Oakland and the professional ser- ducing the number of automobile trips and vices in Downtown. Additionally, new attracting new economic growth. The BRT condominiums, apartments and town Corridor is being designed with a “com- homes as well as new hotels, restau- plete streets” approach, which will serve rants and retail development is also all modes of transportation – including expected to take place in the Corridor pedestrians and bicycles. BRT will tie the to serve the needs of the residential and Corridor together, supporting Oakland’s office population and the needs of the role as an economic center, spurring new surrounding neighborhoods. development in Uptown, and enhancing opportunities in adjacent neighborhoods New Challenges such as the Hill District, Bloomfield, Shadyside, Friendship, East Liberty and In order to improve the quality of life Squirrel Hill. With unique branding and within these neighborhoods as well as high-quality transit service, BRT will ensure that new development does not transform our city and our region! overwhelm the Corridor’s neighborhoods with more traffic, transit service to and within the Corridor must be improved. We Have Options! n early 2012, a set of alternatives were These alignments will be modified based on developed for the Hill District, Uptown, input from the community. Parking, bicycle IOakland and other East End neighbor- and transit all need to be balanced in the hoods. These include various routings in limited street width. neighborhoods, one- and two-way street operation and even use of the Martin Uptown Luther King Jr., East Busway. Various In the Uptown area, BRT options are pro- placement options for exclusive bus lanes, posed along Fifth Avenue. Exclusive bus bike lanes and auto traffic lanes along lanes would be established in both direc- Fifth and Forbes Avenue are also included tions on Fifth Avenue, with a single travel in the set of alternatives. lane remaining for westbound auto traffic. On Forbes Avenue, a single eastbound lane will be provided for eastbound automobile traffic and a two-way bicycle path separated from the travel lanes. One of the alternatives consists of an eastbound reverse-flow bus lane along the south curb of Fifth Avenue and a westbound bus lane along the north curb of Fifth Avenue. The other alignment consists of an eastbound contra-flow bus lane along the south curb of Fifth Avenue with an adjacent westbound bus lane and an auto traffic lane along the north curb. This would require widening Fifth Avenue at station locations to construct islands adjacent to the westbound bus lane. On Forbes Avenue, a single eastbound lane will be provided for eastbound automotive traffic and a two-way bicycle path separated from the travel lanes. Hill District The service plan would examine ways to improve connections between the Hill, Downtown and Oakland, as well as restore or improve connections between the Hill and Uptown. These connections could include enhancements to the existing 81 Oak Hill and 83 Webster bus routes, rerouting the 82 Lincoln route to connect to Uptown via Dinwiddie Street or creating a new loop service connecting the Hill to Uptown. Transit service serving the Hill District would connect directly to BRT in Downtown and Oakland. Oakland Four alignments are under consideration for Oakland. The first two are similar to the two options proposed in Uptown, with exclusive bus lanes established in both directions on Fifth Avenue. In these alternatives, service would operate in mixed traffic. The westbound general traffic would remain on service plan would evaluate extending bus Fifth Avenue, with eastbound auto traffic service to The Waterfront, as well as main- and a parking lane remaining on Forbes taining direct connections from Oakland to Avenue. Regent Square and other communities. Bicycle lanes would be provided on both Shadyside | Bloomfield | East Liberty Fifth and Forbes Avenues, although this East of Oakland, BRT buses would use may require widening of the roadway at the same routing as the current P3 East some locations. Busway-Oakland route. From Fifth • One of the alignments consists of an Avenue (or Forbes Avenue), buses would eastbound contra-flow bus lane along travel north on Neville Street, crossing the south curb of Fifth Avenue and a Centre Avenue and entering the East westbound bus lane along the north Busway. From there, buses would turn curb of Fifth Avenue. east toward Shadyside and serve all stations from Negley to Swissvale. As part • Another alignment consists of an of the BRT service, frequency of operation eastbound contra-flow bus lane along would be increased and service would be the south curb of Fifth Avenue with extended later into the night and provided an adjacent westbound bus lane and on weekends. To improve service for res- auto lane against the north curb. This idents living along Baum Boulevard and would require widening Fifth Avenue at Centre Avenue, two new stations along the station locations to construct islands East Busway will be considered. adjacent to the westbound bus lane. • The third alignment under consideration for Oakland retains the existing eastbound contra-flow bus lane on Fifth Avenue and establishes a westbound contra-flow bus lane on Forbes Avenue. In a variation, exclusive bus lanes in the same direction as general traffic will be evaluated as an alternative to contra-flow lanes. In this alignment, bus lanes are included on both streets, but parking will be removed from Forbes Avenue. • In the last option, both Forbes Avenue and Fifth Avenue would be converted back to two-way operation, with Fifth Avenue accommodating through traffic and Forbes Avenue accommodating buses, bicycles and local retail traffic.

Squirrel Hill BRT service would extend from Oakland to Squirrel Hill via Forbes Avenue, with stations at Morewood and Murray Avenues as well as at some existing stops. Due to Forbes Avenue’s narrow width, it would not be possible to separate bus lanes and the Background he Downtown–Oakland–East End August 2011 Corridor is the busiest transit corridor The BRT study begins under management Tin the Pittsburgh region. Although bus from Port Authority. The project team service is frequent and operates throughout meets with citizens, community groups, the day and much of the night, it is not transportation advocates and representa- as reliable, efficient, visible and effective tives of major institutions (such as Carnegie as needed to serve a corridor linking Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, the region’s two largest activity centers. UPMC, Sports & Exhibition Authority and Beginning in 2009, area stakeholders Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) to discuss began exploring the possibility of using Bus Bus Rapid Transit and its potential for im- Rapid Transit to improve transportation in proving travel between Downtown, Oakland this Corridor. and other East End neighborhoods. Bus Rapid Transit is an enhanced bus system that operates on bus lanes or other January 2012 transitways in order to combine the flexibil- The project team convened informational ity of buses with the efficiency of rail. BRT public meetings to review early insights and operates at faster speeds, provides greater gain citizen input. The GetTherePgh.org service reliability and increased customer website, hosted by Sustainable Pittsburgh, convenience. It uses a combination of launches as a portal for Bus Rapid Transit advanced technologies, infrastructure information, including economic and envi- and operational investments that provide ronmental benefits, a public meeting calen- significantly better service than traditional dar and list of project partners. bus service. February-March 2012 2009 The project team developed a set of initial Port Authority’s Transit Development Plan, alternatives to propose various alignments undertaken to determine how the agency and street/sidewalk configurations to could most effectively operate service within accommodate buses, bicycles, pedestri- existing financial resources, recommends a ans, auto traffic and parking. Options rapid bus concept between Downtown and have been considered for the Uptown, Hill Oakland and communities to the east. District, Oakland and neighborhoods east of Oakland. Fall 2010 Sustainable Pittsburgh hosts a forum at Duquesne University to present BRT to the public, elected officials and stakeholders and discuss its potential for the Downtown– Oakland–East End Corridor. Continuing the momentum from that forum, more than 30 different groups – from community organizations to major businesses – form the BRT Stakeholder Advisory Committee, facilitated by Sustainable Pittsburgh, to guide a study to evaluate the potential for BRT in the Downtown–Oakland–East End Corridor. April-May 2012 Summer 2012 The BRT Stakeholder Advisory Committee A separate analysis of Downtown bus hosts meetings in the Hill District, Uptown, routing has begun. This will identify how Oakland and East Liberty to present vari- BRT and all of the other Downtown bus ous alternatives to the public and discuss routes can operate most efficiently and how BRT would function in the neighbor- effectively in the Golden Triangle. The goal hoods, including issues for further consid- is to improve traffic flow for both bus riders eration. Those who attended the meetings and motorists, create more convenient had a lot to say. Here’s a sample of what we transfer connections between buses and heard: other forms of transit and to encourage the continued growth and vitality of Downtown • “Hill District needs Pittsburgh. better bus service.” Based on public input and technical eval- • “Make Forbes Avenue a bus street.” uation, the longer list of alternatives has • “Improve bike connections – hospitals been shortened to a reduced number of and universities are key destinations.” options. This will focus the public and technical evaluation of the alternatives • “Install bike racks or as well as allow for more detailed com- lockers at stations.” munity, economic, environmental, and • “Fifth and Forbes street space is transportation analyses of the alternatives. too precious to dedicate to bike Evaluation measures have been developed lanes. Parking is needed.” to rank the alternatives. • “Having real-time passenger information at stations would be great.” • “Stations need to be well lit.” • “Change how people enter and exit buses.” • “There are too many stops.” • “Have far-side [of intersection] stops.” • “Have buses one way on Forbes Avenue and the opposite direction on Fifth Avenue.” • “Current bus routes serve students, not residents.” • “Uptown being used as a pass-through. We are a neighborhood, not a corridor.”