Posts tagged transportation

widepipe: Fictional Pittsburgh Subway Map This fictional version of a Pittsburgh Subway system is tremendous.  The best thing about this imagined version is that unlike the dreaded North Shore connector, which connects commercial districts to each other, this connects residential areas to commercial and cultural districts, residential to residential, and even suburb to suburb.  It’s a complex system, and one that is probably too big considering our population, but it’s an exciting prospect, nonetheless. 

widepipe:

Fictional Pittsburgh Subway Map

This fictional version of a Pittsburgh Subway system is tremendous.  The best thing about this imagined version is that unlike the dreaded North Shore connector, which connects commercial districts to each other, this connects residential areas to commercial and cultural districts, residential to residential, and even suburb to suburb.  It’s a complex system, and one that is probably too big considering our population, but it’s an exciting prospect, nonetheless. 

Oakland Transit Line Explored

I’m always happy to hear the city talk about new transit proposals; unfortunately, we rarely see them come to fruition.  In this latest proposal, Dan Onorato appeals to private investors to help create a Downtown-Oakland transit system.

It seems like there are a number of ideas being thrown around, but I’m most interested in the “personal rapid transit” component of this project.  It appears that they are looking to model this after WVU’s current system.

Could we have these little guys running around Oakland?

Something like this could have a a great deal of potential especially in those hilly areas of the city, as well as Intra-neighborhood travel… Then again there’s always the two-wheeled option for your short commutes.

… Or even the lost art of walking!

Vintage Pittsburgh Railway scans

rustybridge:

I found a site with a great collection of scans from the old Pittsburgh Railways that ran throughout Pittsburgh.
Above is a train running along Caron st. near the Terminal Building.
Below is a train going up 18th st. with Duquesne brewery’s sign Make it DUKE in the background

Pittsburgh 2050: The Transit System

Recently, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Dr. Emmitt Brown’s fabled Delorean time machine.  After some coaxing, I convinced him to let me take it for a spin, and check out the future.  He was reluctant at first, and said he’d prefer for me to stick to visiting the past, but once I assured him that I would refrain from purchasing any sports almanacs or doing any kind of gambling, he handed me the keys and sent me on my way.  What a nice guy.

Now, I know I’m not supposed to be telling everyone about what the future is like - after all, it could disrupt the time space continuum - but I think all Pittsburghers should know what they’re in for.  Right?

So here it is: the first installment of “Pittsburgh 2050”

Recently, a lot of us have been wondering what Pittsburgh’s transportation future is going to look like.  The North Shore Connector is almost complete, but the city seems far from adopting a comprehensive light rail system.  Well, I’m here to tell you there’s hope!  In August of 2050, the finishing touches will be put on the final portion of tracks running from Lawrenceville to Giraffe Park (Highland Park was renamed in 2035 when a heard of superhuman giraffes escaped from the zoo and demanded a portion of the land be named after them). The city system is surprisingly complex and consists of over 300 miles of track.  Some argued that creating stops at every other block within the city limits was excessive, but due to the unusually high rates of morbid obesity across the country which have been most likely caused by the 25th generation iPhone, a device that now performs most daily tasks for an individual, the frequent stops are all too necessary.  Unfortunately, as a result, it now takes an hour and a half to get from Heinz Hall to the convention center.  The Port Authority is considering reducing the number of stops once the 26th generation iPhone is released, which Steve Jobs, who recently reemerged from his cryogenic freezer, promises will perform hours of exercise for the individual, all while looking fabulous.

The last PAT bus made it’s final run in 2040, and has been added to the transportation museum, where visitors now recall the good old days of those “quaint little buses.”  A visitor remarked after seeing the bus, “I miss those days.  I miss everything that’s gone.  I like missing things.  I can’t wait to miss the light rail system.  Ahh… It make’s me nostalgic just thinking about it.”

But while the rail system was only fully completed ten years prior, the city council is already making plans to update the transit system since right after it’s completion teleportation technology was developed and implemented in all other major cities across the country rendering the light rail system obsolete.

Our Connective Tissue The Eastern Corridor Transit Study performed in 2006 suggested six different alternative transit systems for the Pittsburgh area.  While the Allegheny Valley Commuter Rail found the most support among those surveyed in the study, the most exciting of the proposed rails are the Mon Valley Light Rail, and the Spine Line Light Rail. The latter would connect Downtown to Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Regent Square, and Wilkinsburg (in addition to many others) via light rail. Unfortunately, I know of no immediate plans to begin construction on any of this, with the exception of the ultra useless North Shore Connector, of course. I’ll admit, as I have before, that our bus system is not bad.  But light rail, especially within the city proper, has the potential to really change the city’s dynamic.  Aside from the potential the rail has to create and foster business along its path, it connects us in a very real way that buses simply do not.  By creating a rail, we literally lay connective tissue through our neighborhoods.  Connecting to areas outside of our city is, of course, essential, but if we’re to attempt to keep people in the city, we need to rebuild that inner connective tissue. Plus, who likes riding the bus? If you have lots of free time, check out the full report, or at least Chapter 3.

Our Connective Tissue

The Eastern Corridor Transit Study performed in 2006 suggested six different alternative transit systems for the Pittsburgh area.  While the Allegheny Valley Commuter Rail found the most support among those surveyed in the study, the most exciting of the proposed rails are the Mon Valley Light Rail, and the Spine Line Light Rail. The latter would connect Downtown to Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Regent Square, and Wilkinsburg (in addition to many others) via light rail.

Unfortunately, I know of no immediate plans to begin construction on any of this, with the exception of the ultra useless North Shore Connector, of course.

I’ll admit, as I have before, that our bus system is not bad.  But light rail, especially within the city proper, has the potential to really change the city’s dynamic.  Aside from the potential the rail has to create and foster business along its path, it connects us in a very real way that buses simply do not.  By creating a rail, we literally lay connective tissue through our neighborhoods.  Connecting to areas outside of our city is, of course, essential, but if we’re to attempt to keep people in the city, we need to rebuild that inner connective tissue.

Plus, who likes riding the bus?

If you have lots of free time, check out the full report, or at least Chapter 3.

Pa. Awards Funds for Walking, Bicycling Trails

I have to say, I was pretty excited when I read this headline.  Then I saw this:

“PennDOT will spend $14.8 million on 14 projects in the Greater Pittsburgh region, including nearly $4 million awarded to Point Park University for enhancements to the Wood Street corridor and intersections at the Boulevard of the Allies and Third Avenue. Allegheny County will receive $500,000 to develop a safe network of trails for pedestrians and bicyclists in North Park and $300,000 to study ways of making walking and bicycling “an integral part of getting around Allegheny County.”

The $300,000 devoted to this study seems like a joke after hearing that they’ll spend $500,000 on North Park alone.

Across the Tracks I guess my question about transportation was a bit leading.  I had a number of scenes from Wideman’s novel (Sent for You Yesterday) in mind at the time.  The train seems to play a lot of neat roles in the novel, namely confining the characters to the relatively small area in Homewood shown in the novel.  The tracks, in addition to the land’s geography, are a very real boundaries that separate the neighborhood from surrounding neighborhoods like Point Breeze and Shadyside. I’m especially interested in one episode in the novel in which Brother has a dream in which he is Albert Wilkes on his way back to Pittsburgh after fleeing the town years earlier.  The train is consistently used in the novel to bring characters back to the city rather than leave it.  But despite the way the characters are confined, the novel spends a lot of its time bringing characters together and creating a community that sustains the neighborhood.

Across the Tracks

I guess my question about transportation was a bit leading.  I had a number of scenes from Wideman’s novel (Sent for You Yesterday) in mind at the time.  The train seems to play a lot of neat roles in the novel, namely confining the characters to the relatively small area in Homewood shown in the novel.  The tracks, in addition to the land’s geography, are a very real boundaries that separate the neighborhood from surrounding neighborhoods like Point Breeze and Shadyside.

I’m especially interested in one episode in the novel in which Brother has a dream in which he is Albert Wilkes on his way back to Pittsburgh after fleeing the town years earlier.  The train is consistently used in the novel to bring characters back to the city rather than leave it.  But despite the way the characters are confined, the novel spends a lot of its time bringing characters together and creating a community that sustains the neighborhood.

Bridges and Barriers

As I was writing about bridges as the connective tissue that holds Pittsburgh together, I couldn’t stop thinking about John Edgar Wideman’s Sent For You Yesterday.  In the novel, along with the other Homewood Books, the railroad tracks confine the characters physically, but liberate them metaphorically.  This is a more complicated question than I can really address in this post, but as a way of challenging what I wrote yesterday, I’d like to ask, “In what ways can modes of transportation divide us from our destinations?”