PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Port Authority Just Might Freeze Pittsburgh In the Heat of the Summer
by Megan Thursday, May. 22, 2003 at 2:32 PM
mflocken@andrew.cmu.edu (email address validated)

Port Authority threatens to cut crucial services

Yesterday Pittsburgh residents gathered downtown from noon to 8 pm to voice their concerns at a public hearing about the funding crisis that faces the Port Authority of Allegheny County, and the subsequent proposed service cuts and route hikes that would affect Pittsburgh bus, ACCESS, rail, and incline riders by August 31, 2003. The meeting featured testimony of some 160 pre-registered speakers along with many patient people, fed up with yet another Port Authority reduction proposal, who were on a waitlist. The meetings venue, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, seemed to serve a number of ironic purposes: visually, as a giant unfinished specter of mismanaged funds and inefficient use of resources it presented a tangible example of the kind of location the new route reductions and fare increases would make inaccessible to many of the people in attendance. The rate increases would raise the base fare to two dollars. The proposed route cuts would result in an elimination of all Sunday, special event, and holiday service, an elimination of all weekday and Saturday service after 9 pm, and a drastic reduction of weekday mid-day service that would amount to a 30 percent decrease in route/ vehicle miles and a 19.5 percent decrease in service hours.

For more specific information on how the fare increases and service reduction proposal affects specific routes, please visit the Port Authority website: http://www.portauthority.org/grow/pgnotice.asp

Such service cuts and rate hikes will affect all of the Pittsburgh community. As a citys public transportation system keeps geographically separated districts connected, allows service providers to span miles in their client base, and provides easy access to countless cultural, social, and work-related events, a healthy Port Authority is vital to maintaining and developing a bustling and modern metropolis. Based on the testimony at the hearing, I will list some of the most frequently raised concerns from specific interest groups:

People with Disabilities

For many people with disabilities, the Port Authority transit systems are the only viable means of delivering adequate health care attention or valuable recreational time. Those who work would have return home quickly by 7 pm so that their caretakers can perform needed evening tasks and catch the last 9 pm buses to their own homes. With no Sunday service and severely restricted weekday and Saturday service, such people of limited mobility will experience devastating constraints to their recreational opportunities, as many sporting events, shopping trips, evening movies, or religious services will be not be serviced by bus or ACCESS routes. The heart-wrenching pleas at the hearing by representatives of Pittsburghs disabled community, many of whom cant drive or walk easily, explained that such changes to public transit would essentially make them prisoners in their home.

Working People

The new proposals affect people with jobs of all income levels. Those who cant afford to own a vehicle or the exorbitant cost of city, especially downtown, parking depend on frequent service to get to and from work. The route cuts see a de facto normalization of nine-to-five, five day work weeks that makes much of Pittsburghs work force (sales, retail, service) fall through legislative cracks. Those who choose round-the-clock work schedules (like 24-hour-a-day health care providers) or those not privileged enough to work nine-to-five, in predominantly low-paying jobs (like janitors and cashiers) depend on a public transit system that is operational past 9 pm on weekdays for their economic sustenance. Such employees would face losing their jobs if the cuts were put in place. One worker commented on the low empathetic capacity of board members and politicians who all own private vehicles. Without later evening service, people working in communities far from their homes will be discouraged from public transit altogether. Another worker testified that the money he was giving to Port Authority for a monthly bus pass to ride home from his second shift job would instead go to cab companies in the amount of over $1000 per month. Many businesses will lose employees, and subsequently productivity, without Sunday service. A representative of some 6500 employees from Mellon Bank discussed the proposals implications for the nearly 800 evening, late-night, and weekend work schedules. Such devastating impact on corporations and their workforces would see the dilapidation of the economic health of a virtually inaccessible downtown area. More conveniently located suburban areas would become the site of the kind of development most needed in our downtown business districts, and such flight is antithetical to the economic turn-around downtown Pittsburgh hopes to enjoy. Such revamping can not happen without a public transportation system that caters to the economic demands of its city.

Students and Young People

Though a starkly underrepresented group at the hearing (where was Pittsburghs motivated under-thirty-year-olds?), Pittsburghs young population accounts for a large percentage of Port Authority ridership. University of Pittsburgh representatives alone spoke on behalf of the 28000 commuter students, Carnegie Mellon representatives another 7000. With its many colleges and universities, art and vocational schools, high schools and special-needs facilities, Pittsburghs student community reaches the hundreds of thousands. The integration of ambitious young people, set on volunteer opportunities, work experience, or cultural investigation, into a greater-than-Oakland community relies on a functional weekend bus system. The Port Authority proposals limit students access to the citys resources, undermining the oft-advertised benefit of enjoying greater Pittsburgh as ones campus. Many students come from all over the country, even all over the world to attend Pittsburghs educational institutions, and they do not bring vehicles with them. Whether returning home from the school library--many which close at 2 am, from jobs essential to financial circumstances, from the airport on Sunday in time for Monday classes, or from the bar when Port Authority keeps drivers safer with alternative transportation, the proposed cuts in service would create a terrible disconnect between what Pittsburgh has to offer and the needs of its thriving young residents.

Some Additional Concerns

Apart from the economic, social, and cultural realm, what about the impact that increased road congestion and private vehicle use will have on the environment. A representative from the Sierra Club raised the grave concern that an inconvenient public transportation system will encourage those who do own cars to use them more frequently, transforming the city into a personal commuters-haven and decreasing air quality in our city.

There seems to be disproportionate consideration paid to routes that travel through Oakland to the downtown financial district, effectively awarding upper-class students and workers less service cuts than other lower-income areas. Polish Hill residents who depend on Port Authority for work, groceries, nursing care deserve equal, if not greater concern as they live in an area not as well-serviced as more wealthy, financial (as opposed to residential) ones. Fare increases are also disproportionate, as zone one and downtown zone fares increase the least. Many testimonies accused the board of bad management, as the proposals cut popular routes while more seldom traveled ones are left intact.

A flagrant testimony spoke to unfair grouping of all Port Authority services. The resident asked why, when ACCESS drivers are paid minimum wage and bus drivers $20-25 an hour, rate hikes for the two services were correlated. One man, who once worked for the Governors campaign to be elected, focused his criticism on Governor Rendell, who has threatened to utilize a line-item veto on additional funding for public transportation.

Suggestions

Though decisions must ultimately come from the legislature and the board, many community members have proposed more palatable solutions to Port Authoritys funding crisis:

• A portion of the Pennsylvania gas tax could go toward funding the public transit system, requiring an amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which currently prohibits gas revenues from funding public transit.
• "The Rolling Busout," a proposal that keeps the California energy crisis and its Rolling Blackouts in mind, would see rotating, week-long suspensions of particular routes, ensuring that all routes continue full service (except during the busout) and all employees keep their jobs, rather than the permanent elimination of many and drastic reduction of all routes all the time and a loss of many jobs.
• As one person argued, instead of spending so much on new fancy buses, why not use cheap but ostensibly equal school buses.

For more information or means of participation, please see:

• Port Authority of Allegheny County, proposed cuts: http://www.portauthority.org/grow/pgnotice.asp
• Save Our Transit, an advocacy group for more public funding for our public transportation that is independent of any political party affiliation: 412-361-3022 or sdonahue412@hotmail.com
• The Rolling Busout: http://users.telerama.com/~stusarah/Stu/Transit/Busout.html

Contact your local state legislators: http://www.duquesnelight.com/GovernmentalRel/Allegheny2003.pdf the decision will be made soon! Your input counts! Do not think that because you do not ride the buses very frequently that such cuts will not affect you: the measures proposed demonstrate a poor fiscal prioritization and wanton disregard for the citys vitality that spans Port Authority ridership in scope to incorporate the greater Pittsburgh community in general. Please, dont just sit there!

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