[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh - think tank blasts possible new transit taxes

[Fred Schneider]

Most of the independent bus companies were established in the teens  
and twenties as jitney operators and they competed with Pittsburgh  
Railways.   The most often cited example, but far from the only one,  
was Trafford Coach Company, whose schedule was very simple.   Their  
drivers waited one block inbound from the end of the 62 Trafford car  
line and as soon as they saw the trolley begin to move, they pulled  
out ahead of it and ran to East Pittsburgh and on into Pittsburgh,  
syphoning off the trolley fares.

There were 28 independent bus companies, that is to say independent  
of Pittsburgh Railways, that existed in Allegheny County in 1964.   
Most of them competed in one way or another with Pittsburgh  
Railways.   Oriole Motor Coach served the Carnegie Are.   Enrico Bigi  
ran into Mount Lebanon.  Deere Brothers ran out through Wilkinsburg  
and East Liberty to Penn Hills, competing with Pittsburgh Railways 78  
line.   Community Transit also competed with the 78 line.    After  
they were all merged into PAT there was a wonderful opportunity to  
rationalize the system.  Pittsburgh Railways routes could be extended  
over Bigi Routes or Oriole or Deere Brothers or McCoy or Ohio River  
routes but that isn't what happened.   All the old routes continued  
to run parallel to the old PRC routes.   To make matters worse, PAT  
took some shuttle or transfer routes that fed the trolley lines and  
extended them downtown in competition with their own trolley lines,  
thereby adding vehicle miles and reducing the number of passengers  
hauled per vehicle mile (and per paid driver mile).

But remember, the object of government is to provide jobs and spend  
money.   It puts its hand in your pocket.   And you, by ignoring what  
it does, gives tacit approval.   Probably no developed nation on the  
planet has greater voter apathy than the United States.   Our  
government can do whatever they want.   We've told them so by not  
voting.

On Sep 10, 2007, at 5:47 PM, Joshua Dunfield wrote:

>
> Derrick Brashear wrote:
>> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007, Joshua Dunfield wrote:
>
>>> How about some specifics?  Wae all know Pittsburgh pretty well.   
>>> Tell
>>> us which routes are obsolete.  You don't have to tell their riders,
>>> of course...
>>
>> The problem is not necessarily one of "no riders there" but "the  
>> route
>> serves people, who really wanted a different route to serve them"
>>
>> There's no good way to get from Highland Park to the Cardello  
>> Building,
>> for instance. In fact, there's largely no good way to get to the  
>> Cardello
>> Building. Yet it's an office building. A lot of people work there.
>
> Oh, sure, there's a need for *new* routes, but the original criticism,
> as I understood it, was that the old routes are still there.
> (Except, for example, the Drake line.  And I think the bus that  
> paralleled
> it got cut in 2002.)
>
> Barring complete economic collapse and the End of Pittsburgh As We  
> Know It,
> the 71A will continue to be a high-demand route partly because it  
> still
> makes sense abstractly and partly because people expect it to be.
>
> But I don't see how making major cuts to the traditional route network
> is going to help someone get from Highland Park to the Cardello  
> Building.
> Or from UPMC St. Margaret's to Squirrel Hill, which I had to do a  
> few times.
> (Took a while.  Involved the 91A.  91A isn't in remotely the right  
> direction,
> you say?  Yeah, no kidding.)
>
> -j.
>