My foolish experiment taking public transit
In 2006 instead of commuting to downtown Pittsburgh by car, I tested the government trolley. My experience added to my collection of angry attacks on the stupidities of the city's public transit.
During my time at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review I had a lot of fun writing a Sunday op-ed column, which I used as often as possible to disparage the bloated, expensive and inefficient public mass transit monopoly in Pittsburgh/Allegheny County.
This column recounts my one-time experiment in using government transit to get to work.
Instead of commuting from my house in the deep suburbs south of downtown Pittsburgh, where I worked, I used public transit.
That meant driving to South Hills Village, parking my car and taking the “T” to town. The ‘light-rail’ line — the slowest in the United States — was really a glorified trolley system — glorified with a billion or two of mostly federal dollars — that mostly served (i.e., subsidized) suburbanites.
But don’t get me started, here’s what I wrote about my experiment in 2006.
Twice the time & aggravation
July 2, 2006
As part of my personal two-front war against sprawl and global warming, last week I performed a dangerous experiment in commuting on myself — without using any federal or state funding.
It wasn't easy.
Though only about 18 miles due south of Downtown Pittsburgh, my house in northern Washington County is beyond the reach of mass transit.
The South Hills Village T Station is 6.3 miles away and Allegheny County's Port Authority buses -- for irrational political/bureaucratic/legal reasons -- won't cross the Washington County line.
Since 1989, therefore, I've had little choice but to commute by car to downtown Pittsburgh, usually in a Honda Civic.
Interstate 79 north and the Parkway West is my preferred route. It's about 27 miles and takes 33 to 43 minutes, depending on traffic, PennDOT mega-projects and "secret" detours through Green Tree to avoid Parkway West hill backups.
On Monday, I gave the T a try for the first time in years. After leaving home at 8:30 a.m., I parked in the South Hills Village Station mega-garage at 8:48. Only 1,900 empty spaces were left in the boondoggle (which I mocked in 2005 for its inherent consumer unfriendliness in this column).
I paid $2.25 and joined 14 veteran transit zombies on the platform. I marveled at the Port Authority's Soviet-like attention to its consumers' needs. No vending machines. No newspaper boxes. A change machine that only gives coins. Clunky parking-pass machines that only accept bills and credit cards.
The 8:55 train provided a smooth, pleasant ride Downtown to Wood Street Station, arriving at 9:33.
Umbrella-less, and thinking how nice it'd be if there were a $400 million extension of the T under the Allegheny River (joke explanation: The tunnel was being planned, would be built soon, and would end up costing a couple hundred million mostly federal bucks more), I set out in a light rain across the 7th Street Bridge to the North Shore.
Sweaty and damp, I arrived at the Trib at 9:59. Door-to-door travel time: 89 minutes -- twice as long as by car but good exercise.
For the homeward commute, I left the North Shore at 6:07 p.m., hiked to Gateway Station, grabbed the 6:25 train to South Hills Village and got to the Port Authority’s 7-floor perpetually 80-percent empty parking garage at 7:03.
After paying a $2.25 fare and $2 for parking, I was home at 7:32 p.m. A homeward commute that averages 35 minutes by evil auto took 85 by light-rail.
For the final part of my experiment, on Wednesday I tried to get to Pittsburgh via Washington County's transit "system," which consists of six scheduled GG&C Bus Co. bus runs a day up Route 19.
That meant I had to be at the GG&C bus stop at Donaldson's Crossroads at 7:50 a.m. It also meant I had to find the invisible bus stop.
You know that tilted rusting sign stuck into the grass along Route 19 in front of the Giant Eagle? The one that says "Bus Stop" in fading letters? The one I stood by for 15 minutes as hundreds of SUVs whizzed by?
That's not where the 7:50 bus stops.
The 7:50 stops at the Crossroads by the CVS drug store on East McMurray Road -- where there is no "bus stop" sign, but where the driver knows to watch for waiting passengers.
I'm glad I missed that bus. It saved me from wasting another 90 minutes of transit time, plus two urban hikes.
Later Wednesday morning, after my wife rescued me in her car, I flew down I-79 at 75 miles per hour in my 2001 Honda Civic, listening to some NPR Greenies blathering about global warming.
After my mass transit experiences, I appreciated my trusty 40 miles per gallon Civic even more.
I didn't care what it "really" cost me to drive to work. It's worth every penny.
I was back in control of my transit destiny. I was free again, commuting to work alone in the greatest mode of transit ever made for the masses.