29 February 2024
Note: Some of the official documents from Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) were published before the 2022 name change. Therefore, some documents use the name “Port Authority of Allegheny County” (PAAC). Both names refer to the same organization.
In March 2023, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) announced the initial construction phase of their new project: the University Line. The University Line will be a bus rapid transit (BRT) project connecting the two main economic centers in the city: Downtown and Oakland. The project will span Fifth Avenue and Forbes Avenue through Downtown, Uptown, and Oakland [1]. The project is intended to provide improved services for residents and students, living in and working in the two busiest sectors of the city. Pittsburgh college students are some of the most frequent public transit users in the city as many universities provide subsidized fares and lie along the stretch of Fifth and Forbes between Downtown and Central Oakland. The BRT project seems to be a new phase into the purposes of public transportation in Pittsburgh. As a city, the economic center is shifting from Downtown to Oakland, and bridging a better connection between the two is the first step to a better public transit system. However, there is much room for future projects and developments. Additionally, these projects require the work of the people to not only be successful, but to also shape the future of public transit systems.
PRT’s NEXTransit is the broader plan for transit updates in the region. The University Line is only a small aspect of this larger transportation policy. There were multiple stages of planning before the University Line could begin its immediate construction. Even for these smaller components, there are a myriad of policies and government regulations that must be met.
As previously mentioned, this BRT project will help re-develop the Oakland neighborhood as a major transportation hub for the city. Healthcare and technology are at the forefront of Pittsburgh’s economy. Additionally, Oakland institutions like the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), give the neighborhood a crucial role for the students and workers of the city. Pittsburgh public transit and its future are not only economical but should (and may) reflect the important cultural role of public transportation in communities. Finally, as the policies of the University Line are ongoing in their implementation, members of any Pittsburgh community, college student or not, must remain informed on how these new policies and projects can and will impact themselves and the people with whom they are in community.
At the beginning of the NEXTransit planning document, there is a brief statement outlining the goals of PRT and their respective long-term goals for Allegheny County: “…The mission was clear to develop an action-oriented plan that makes connecting to jobs, friends and family, education, medical services, recreation, and all of life’s necessities more simple, efficient, and reliable—all by using transit” [2].
These words from PRT reflect the outlook both public transit authorities and their respective communities should have towards transportation. One of the primary criticisms of car-dependent infrastructure is its focus on the individual. If every single person owns a car, they are in the car by themselves, on their way to school or work, without ever having to engage with, interact with, or even see the other members of their community. There is a particular synergy within a community—the constant interaction, the constant movement between walking, taking the bus, or the light rail, and seeing people who actively live or work in the community. PRT recognizes this sort of community engagement and interaction that public transportation provides and necessitates. Maintaining this community dynamic is a two-fold responsibility. The infrastructure of public transit is the responsibility of authorities like PRT. They have to build the bus lanes, the bus stations, the light rail stations, etc. However, it is also the responsibility of the people of a community to learn how to best utilize their public transportation and to understand the impact of these new policies and projects on themselves and their respective communities.
This dynamism between public transportation and communities can be seen in the initial planning stages of the University Line, then under the name “Downtown-Uptown-Oakland-East Busway Bus Rapid Transit Project.” One of the first parts of the planning phase was the organization of categorical exclusion (CE) documentation, an assessment by which the U.S. Department of Energy determines the effects of development projects on the environment. In the document, PRT considers the short-term and long-term effects of the University Line’s construction in the city. Some long-term issues considered were air quality, energy, environmental justice, geology and soil, hazardous materials, and water quality (3). Short-term issues included the effects of construction and effects on transportation (4). The reference to environmental justice as a goal in the document is interesting to note. Environmental issues like air, soil, and water quality can be discussed in the abstract. However, environmental justice specifically connects the environmental issues with possibly affecting the people and communities. The CE documentation notes that “the neighborhoods of Crawford Roberts, Terrace Village, Upper Hill, North Oakland, and West Oakland, have higher concentrations of environmental justice populations and would be within areas experiencing a higher degree of construction related impacts than other areas of the project corridor” (5).
The former three neighborhoods are a part of the Hill District, a predominantly working-class black region that has regularly experienced the harmful impacts of Pittsburgh infrastructure projects. The CE document’s recognition of the possible negative effects on marginalized neighborhoods at the very least acknowledges the ways in which these larger construction projects can immediately affect a community. Yet it is currently unknown as to what the long-term effects could fully be on these neighborhoods, despite the CE document’s prediction that there shall be none (6). PRT outlined that their goal was to further develop the synergy of a community by using transit. However, the long-term economic effects on these environmental justice populations remain unknown. Issues such as taxation, fare prices, and gentrification can impact how infrastructure projects can either support and build or break down a community. When public transit authorities like PRT recognize these possible adverse effects, how can they (and other Pittsburgh institutions) remedy them if they occur? The long-term community effects of the University Line will not be seen until the project is finished and has been incorporated into the dynamics of Downtown, Uptown, Oakland, the Hill District, and the East End. Although this uncertainty is unsatisfying, there are temporary ways in which people and their communities can work to better incorporate and inform themselves on projects.
Incorporating public transportation into one’s life requires a bit of work. This incorporation refers to not only utilizing public transit services, but also educating oneself on how the services will change. Unless one is vigilant in their research of public transportation and the creation of new policies, some decisions may seem illogical or obscure. For example, many of the official PRT documents cited in this article are located across multiple different websites and newsletters, all of which are officially run by PRT. As University of Pittsburgh students continue to use PRT services, as high as 96% of the student body uses transit (7), there remains the need to continually learn how these projects evolve, especially since a new stage begins after one is completed. The foundations of a community rest upon how the people within them interact with each other and the services used to move between them.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Port_Authority_bus_Pittsburgh_3216.jpg.
Works Cited
1. Pittsburgh Regional Transit. 2023. “PRT Board Approves Construction Bid, Route Changes to Advance Bus Rapid Transit Plan.” The University Line News. June 15. Accessed January 2024, 25. https://prt-brt-newshub.prezly.com/prt-board-approves-construction-bid-route-changes-to-advance-bus-rapid-transit-plan.
2. Port Authority of Allegheny County. 2021. NEXTransit: 25-year Long-Range Transportation Plan. Public Transit Plan, Pittsburgh: Port Authority of Allegheny County. https://policypoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/d8675-nextransit-final-web9-16-21-sm.pdf
3. Port Authority of Allegheny County. 2018. Downtown-Uptown-Oakland-East End Bus Rapid Transit Project. Categorical Exclusion Documentation, Federal Transit Administration. https://www.rideprt.org/siteassets/inside-the-pa/bus-rapid-transit/categorical-exclusions.pdf.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 58.
6. Ibid., 59.
7. Wells, Shannon O. 2023. “Committee updated on public transportation changes, communications with PRT.” University Times. October 20. Accessed February 12, 2024. https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/news/committee-updated-public.
Policy & Political Review 
