Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s plan to adjust the location of the Wilkinsburg station on the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway also will change the original purpose of the station.
When the busway opened in the early 1980s, its design provided access primarily for buses using the facility and customers who drove to the park-and-ride lot. As it redesigns the site, the agency said during an online public meeting Tuesday, it will pay special attention to access for pedestrians and people with disabilities.
This project proposes moving the Wilkinsburg station from the center of the site near North Avenue to the eastern corner near Penn and Wallace avenues. Since the busway is elevated along railroad tracks, the agency will look at innovative ways to get pedestrians to the site, including considering an elevator, said Moira Egler, PRT’s project manager for transit-oriented communities who is overseeing the project.
Several riders during the hearing said the existing station is difficult to get to for people who use wheelchairs or other assistance devices. Elijah Hughes, a consultant with evolveEA, said the goal for the new design is to provide access that is “easier, more convenient and more comfortable,” especially for pedestrians.
“It was designed for people with cars,” he said.
Ms. Egler noted that the use of the busway has changed since the pandemic with the 700-space parking lot no longer regularly overflowing with customers.
“I think it’s likely [the parking lot] doesn’t remain the same size,” Ms. Egler said after the meeting. “It’s just not as utilized as it once was.”
That should leave some of the current site available for transit-oriented development, which could mean housing or small commercial businesses. Another consultant, Ivette Mongalo, stressed that the agency saw the gentrification that occurred around the East Liberty Station more than a decade ago and will do all it can to avoid a repeat in Wilkinsburg.
“That’s why we’re here now and asking what the problems are so we know how to plan for them,” she said.
With the move of the Wilkinsburg station, the agency also will consider adding a busway stop at Brushton Avenue at the western end of the site. That flat, ground-level site should provide easier access for residents in that neighborhood and be a strong location, Mr. Hughes said.
The agency has a $5.4 million grant to help pay for the $8 million Wilkinsburg project, which will move to formal design next spring. Ms. Egler said it likely would be built within five years.
Brushton is in the planning stage along with potential stations at Baum Boulevaard and Centre Avenue in Shadyside and near East Liberty Boulevard in Larimer as part of the agency’s Build on the East Busway effort. The agency doesn’t have funds to build those yet and hasn’t decided the order in which they would be built.
The agency was to have similar meeting in person at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hosanna House, 807 Wallace Ave., Wilkinsburg.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: September 13, 2022, 8:34 p.m.