Pittsburgh business and community leaders announced in a press conference at the Steel Plaza station Tuesday that the city will host Rail-Volution, an annual conference focused on creating better mass transit systems, in October 2018.
Chris Sandvig, director of policy at the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, said the local members of the national conference, which will run from Oct. 21-24 in 2018, will focus on building on Pittsburgh’s already-robust transportation network, including dozens of bus stations and miles of railways and busways, a project that requires collaboration between the city and the private sector as well as state and federal governments.
“Our opportunity is to redevelop around those assets and capture the future opportunities, using those as the backbone,” he said.
The conference will help the city consider different kinds of transportation, such as walking and biking as well as rail, to prevent dependence on cars, said Karina Ricks, Pittsburgh’s director of mobility and infrastructure.
Rail-Volution CEO Dan Bartholomay said building a good transit system also involves building livable spaces around transportation.
“There's a lot of demand for more livable places — those that are walkable, connected, and those that serve broader public demographics that are shifting,” he said.
David Donahoe, CEO at the Port Authority of Allegheny County, said the Port Authority sees transportation development as economic development.
“For a lot of years, the Port Authority viewed its work as taking people to work and back and thank you very much, and it sat on some very important assets, particularly land, and so once it was clear that those assets needed work, things started to happen, and the Port Authority is dedicated to that,” Donahoe said.
Ken Zapinski, senior vice president of energy and infrastructure at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said Rail-Volution will also help the city focus on both baby boomers and millennials who prefer not to use cars, as well as connecting Allegheny County with surrounding counties.
“Moving people — people to jobs, people to educational opportunities — is important,” he said. “We heard this not just in Pittsburgh, not just in Allegheny County ... but across the 10-county region.”
Contact Emily McConville at emcconville@post-gazette.com or (412) 263-1937.
First Published: June 20, 2017, 4:31 p.m.
