Pittsburgh Regional Transit to install red bus lanes in Oakland neighborhood
Pittsburgh Regional Transit's University Line project is expected to begin a new phase on Monday night.
If the weather permits, the most recognizable part of the $291 million University Line project will literally change the city's streets.
Crews will soon use an epoxy coating embedded with tiny glass beads to mark the bus-only lanes in the city's Oakland neighborhood red.
It's expected to happen specifically on the right-hand side inbound, along Fifth Avenue, and outbound on Forbes Avenue from 8 p.m. through 6 a.m. every night through Friday.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit said that thousands of riders travel through Oakland every day, and it's one of the region's busiest corridors. The red bus lanes are designed to improve travel times to and from Pittsburgh.
"There's a whole checklist of things we need to be doing in Pittsburgh," one PRT rider identified as Sixty-Six said. "The bus lane is nice, but not the first thing I would say, not top priority for all of us out here."
During the work, buses and regular traffic will use one travel lane, and it'll temporarily change some of the bus stops.
"I think it's efficient for me," rider Scott Vilsack said.
"It's taking so long now when I try to commute. I'm walking to work in the mornings, like it's really thrown everything off," Sixty-Six said.
The work will begin on Monday night along Forbes Avenue between Craft and Atwood. On Tuesday, crews will work on Forbes Avenue between Atwood and Schenley. On Wednesday, they'll move their work to Fifth Avenue, between Bellefield and Atwood. Finally, on Thursday, work wraps up along Fifth Avenue between Atwood and Craft.
Drivers are not allowed to use the red bus lanes at all. However, once the red lanes are in place and buses use them, drivers will receive 30 days of warnings before tickets are issued.
"(It's) not at all ideal. Like, I know the street in front of my store, there's like a 15-minute waiting period. Otherwise, you just get automatically ticketed via the cameras, and most customers like right now, it's a lot of people traveling dropping off their kids, they're not going to take the time to read the signs, they're going to get a ticket and they're going to go home. Their kids might get stuck with it and it's just really not the best. We should be doing a little more to be supporting the community, I think," said Six.
If you illegally drive in the red bus-only lanes, you could face a $25 fine, but additional fees could bring the total to nearly $200 per ticket.
It's one more thing for drivers to be aware of, but it's part of a bigger mission to make public transportation a less stressful ride around Pittsburgh.
