Chowder's Notepad

Public transportation woes in Pittsburgh

I don’t have all the details regarding PAT’s problems. What I’ve heard on the news is: In an effort to get out of the bad financial situation ($80 Million in debt) they are in, PAT is proposing to: Cancel roughly 60% of their routes, severely limit the number of busses on the routes they are keeping, layoff 400 workers.

I don’t have any answers. All I have are flippant remarks regarding this situation:

• This is yet another reason for a person/business to move to Pittsburgh. NOT. Pittsburgh has been complaining for years about losing it’s population and businesses. How does making it more difficult to get around this city help the situation? PAT’s cutbacks will neither entice businesses/people to move to this town nor entice people/businesses to STAY in this town. World class cities have good and readily available public transportation. (LA, SF, DC, NYC, Paris, London, Toronto, need I go on?) The politicians in this area need to take this situation more seriously if they truly want to retain businesses and population.
• PAT’s been broken for 20 years. The County Chief Executive said as much in a news conference a few weeks ago when they first announced they were going to do something. 1. Why didn’t they do something to fix this sooner? 2. Why do they care now? 20 years it’s been broken and having financial problems. I’m pretty sure we’d never be able to go 20 years without some negative consequences. (Bankruptcy, foreclosures, etc..) So why weren’t/aren’t the people running PAT being held responsible? I’m sure they collected nice paychecks the whole time.
• It’s the poor, elderly, and disabled that will be hurt by this. I have the option of driving to work. (It would cost me more in parking, gas, and insurance but I can drive to work) Those people who don’t have any other options will be the ones who will be hurt. I heard a few people say on the news they’d rather pay more for the service than have it cut. They’ll find a way to get the money to ride the bus. The bus is their only means of transportation.
• Yeah, how about those stadiums we didn’t want but got forced down our throats! (They’re a real sore subject for me.) I tend to bring them up whenever this area is crying about money for something. (Public schools, roads, public transportation, etc..) I’m sure some of the money used for the stadiums could have been used to fix PAT. Does a new arena for the Penguins really matter in comparison to public transportation? Isn’t it more important that people have a convenient way to get around this town? Sports are nice to have but transportation is a need to have. I know there are many die hard sports fans out there that totally disagree with me but in my mind what is more important: entertainment or transportation? Entertainment is a luxury whereas transportation is a necessity.
• Maybe we can use some of the revenue from the casino’s to fix PAT? Afterall, casino’s seem to be the answer to all of our woes. (Another sore subject) Governor Rendell has got to find a link between the casino’s and a cure for cancer, HIV, male pattern baldness, acne, etc.. to justify his overwhelming support for them. Casino’s are the end all be all.

I’m lucky.

• The 2 bus routes I can take are going to be changed slightly but not eliminated.
• I have the option of driving to work.
• I can afford the proposed rate hike.
• These changes are going to make riding the bus less convenient but still doable.

Labels: Rant

posted by ChowderHead @ 1/23/2007 02:01:00 PM