A survey of Pittsburgh commuters released last week told the region something it already knew: The largest percentage of trips to work are made by people driving alone in a car. But the cold, hard numbers are still worth knowing.
Make My Trip Count, based on responses from 20,710 commuters late last summer, revealed that 46.7 percent of the trips were made by solo travelers in a car, 25.7 percent were made on a bus, 5.4 percent on light rail and 4.2 percent on a bike. The other trips were taken via other modes including carpools, university shuttles and good old-fashioned walking.
Funded in large part by The Pittsburgh Foundation, the survey was sponsored by Mayor Bill Peduto, the Green Building Alliance, Envision Downtown and nine other organizations. Although we can’t vouch for its scientific validity, the poll provided a vast amount of feedback.
Forty-six percent of commuters, for instance, said their ultimate destination was Downtown, 34 percent were headed to Oakland and 20 percent to other locations. Of the 62.1 million miles traveled to Downtown and Oakland, 61.5 percent were covered by solo car commuters and 21.1 percent by public transit patrons — suggesting that one-person, one-car travelers have an even greater impact on the transportation landscape.
The next step, of course, is for the partners behind Make My Trip Count to make the numbers count by using them with other data to plan a better transportation system. The addition of bike lanes has been a boon to Pittsburgh by ambitiously expanding a mode of travel that is both health- and environment-friendly. But innovations affecting the larger subsets of commuters are necessary.
The Port Authority, which just proposed an overhaul of its fare system, must find more ways to lure commuters to transit. The little-used HOV lanes on Interstate 279 that link the city to northern suburbs should be carrying more traffic. The proposed Bus Rapid Transit link between Downtown and Oakland deserves to become a reality.
Fortunately, Pittsburgh doesn’t suffer the kind of gridlock that ties up other cities. It will take smart planning, based on more knowledge of commuter habits, to keep it that way.
First Published: January 20, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
