Pittsburghers for Public Transit gave Port Authority high marks Thursday for its efforts to provide service while keeping passengers and riders safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it wants the agency to increase service on the busiest routes so drivers who reach their limit don’t pass riders who are making essential trips for work, medical care or groceries.
During an online news conference, PPT Executive Director Laura Wiens said the authority has shown “courageous and smart leadership” by sanitizing vehicles and stations daily, having riders enter only at the rear of vehicles and limiting the number of riders on each vehicle. Still, there are too many routes that either have more riders than they are supposed to or drivers who follow orders to pass riders once the vehicles reach their limit, she said.
Neither of those options is good for people who have to use transit during the crisis.
“We don’t want to limit riders on the buses only to have them crowded at the bus stops,” Ms. Wiens said.
Chris Van Eyken, an advocate with TransitCenter in New York City, suggested Port Authority consider a tactic used in San Francisco: Shut down all of the low-ridership routes and put more vehicles on the popular routes so each trip would be less full.
Rider Anna Hudson of Turtle Creek said she’s faced with a dilemma whenever she tries to go grocery shopping. Because her stop is in the middle of a route, the bus almost always is at capacity when it reaches her, so she either has to get on a crowded bus or wait an hour for the next one and hope it isn’t as full.
Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said the agency is looking at adding service on popular routes, especially its busiest P1 on the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway from Wilkinsburg to Downtown Pittsburgh. But riders would have to understand that likely would mean reducing service elsewhere.
Mr. Brandolph rejected the idea of eliminating all service in some areas.
“We don’t believe eliminating access to groceries and pharmacies to a whole group of people is a wise move during a pandemic,” he said. “Pittsburgh is not San Francisco.”
Mr. Brandolph said he hasn’t heard any complaints about ridership limits that started this week or from passengers who were passed up because their bus was too crowded.
Ms. Hudson said she supports a proposal by state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, to provide financial rewards to front-line workers who have stayed on the job during the pandemic, especially bus drivers.
“They are my heroes and we want them to be around so we can tell them,” she said.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: April 16, 2020, 8:36 p.m.
