The University Center may be getting a bus stop outside the front entrance at Wood Street and Forbes Avenue, serving bus routes that currently serve the bus stop outside Wood Street Commons as well as outside the Tower at PNC Plaza.
Based on information from other businesses and people in the Downtown community, some Point Park administrators say that a new bus stop will be placed close to the University Center on Wood Street. This is because new bus routes will be routed down Forbes Avenue, instead of stopping at PNC Plaza along with the routes that already stop there.
According to Lou Corsaro, director of public relations, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) notified the university about its intent to place a bus stop outside the University Center. In response, administrators drafted two alternative proposals–the first one calling for discontinuing the stops along Wood Street and Forbes Avenue as well as the stop at Fifth Avenue intersecting Wood Street.
The first bus stop serves routes that go to the South Side, such as the 39 Brookline and the 44 Knoxville. However, the second bus stop on Fifth Avenue primarily serves routes that go through Oakland and parts of the East End, such as the 61A North Braddock and the 71B Highland Park.
The bus stop on Fifth Avenue is not in active service until at least Feb. 28, according to PRT.
Point Park’s campus has about seven bus stops near the areas most travelled by students. There are two bus stops on Wood Street, two on Fourth Avenue, one on the Boulevard of the Allies and two on Smithfield Street. Each street has more stops than these, but they extend further out than what is generally considered part of campus according to maps of Point Park.
According to Marlin Collingwood, vice president of enrollment, Point Park was blindsided by the news of potential bus stop changes and did not hear from PRT until it was contacted by administrators. He said that putting a bus stop so close to the University Center has more negatives than positives–the smaller lengths of the sidewalk compared to PNC Plaza being a factor.
“The University Center alone has more than 800 individuals accessing the building daily,” Collingwood said. “The rest of the block has five high-traffic storefronts including a bank, two convenience stores, a workout facility and a hair salon. The sidewalks in the area are only 10 feet wide and are often congested further through the placement of signage and garbage cans. Placement of the PNC Stop outside the University Center will add an additional 1,200 riders on and off buses each day to this already congested area.”
Andrew Carr, PRT’s communications manager, said that the stop at Wood Street and Forbes Avenue outside PNC Plaza will not be removed or moved elsewhere during the transit authority’s February route changes. However, he said that some plans are underway nearby.
“The stop is, however, currently under review for potential changes later this year, which could include some bus routes that currently serve that stop moving to a nearby bus stop,” Carr said. “However, at this time, nothing has been decided.”
The second alternative proposal calls for moving the stop at the Tower at PNC Plaza to the “near side” of 5th Avenue while keeping the same number of stops on Wood Street.
In the alternative proposal, administrators state that the bus stops they would prefer to be discontinued are those that fail PRT’s minimum distance guidelines for bus stops.
According to PRT’s bus stop placement guidelines, the minimum length between stops in a high-density area such as Downtown should not be less than 600 feet. However, the bus stops along Wood Street are spread apart in a shorter distance than that, according to the alternative proposal.
Additionally, the width of sidewalks near a bus stop falls into operating considerations for PRT. Its bus stop guidelines also state that sidewalks used as waiting areas should be at least 10 feet wide and extend eight feet from the curb. The sidewalk outside the University Center is 10 feet wide according to the administrator’s alternative proposals, while the stop outside PNC Plaza has a waiting area that is over 30 feet wide.
Collingwood also said that Point Park Police indicated that manpower would have to be dedicated to patrolling outside the University Center if a bus stop were to be placed outside the area due to increased opportunities for safety problems.
Based on crime reports from Point Park Police, incidents outside the University Center are rare – it is more common for a crime to occur on the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s steps, which is not where a potential new bus stop could be placed.
As far as stopping the plans, administrators have said that PRT says everything is in motion to complete the process for adding a new stop by the summer. However, PRT continuously states that nothing has been decided yet.
