South Side Buses Rerouted due to Birmingham Bridge Closure

NOTE: The Birmingham Bridge fully reopened 9/6/08. This blog post is for archival purposes only.

A rider alert: South Side buses, including the 54C and 59U, have been rerouted due to the indefinite closure of the Birmingham Bridge. Apparently the bridge has dropped 8 inches due to a girder slippage. The bridge was closed this morning without incident, and has no definite date of reopening. This causes problems for some South Side buses (51E, 54C, 59U, 84A, 84B, and 84C.) You can read the Rider Alert from the Port Authority here. Here's the official detour routing also. This will cause problems for East Carson St. visitors on the 54C, since the bus will no longer serve 19th-22nd Street and Carson. Port Authority is not stating which stops have been added to the 54C, but I would guess that stops would be added between 10th and 18th Street. South Side Works service on the 59U should not be affected, but expect delays.

Here's the part where I'd say call the Port Authority (412-442-2000) for more information, but they're closed right now. Damn. They are open for calls 6am-7pm Monday-Friday and 8am-4:30pm Weekends and Holidays.

A Drinker-Friendly Port Authority

Yes, the drink tax is a bit controversial:

• A local bar owner wishes to manufacture County Executive Dan Onorato urinal cakes, evidentially "returning the favor."
• Meanwhile, Jim Mitchell, a local restaurant owner just wants to box him. Mr. Mitchell wins, the drink tax is gone. Mr. Onorato wins, Jim will back off with his lawsuit over a countywide smoking ban. Onorato doesn't seem to be too interested, but it definitely would be quite a scene.
  
• An attempt to lift the tax was recently voted down, but the restaurants continue to fight.
  

It all adds up to one prediction: these taxes will not last longer than Onorato's term, whether it ends in 2011 or he leaves early to run for Senate or Governor. The focal point of anybody getting his job will be repealing this tax. So Port Authority better use this money while it lasts to improve ridership.

How can it do that? Well, maybe by catering more to the drinkers that will now be funding it!

Some current reasons why drinkers should ride the bus now:

• Don't have to find a parking space on the South Side!
• Drink up! You aren't driving!
• Low floor buses, so no difficult steps to stumble up!
• You don't have to tip the driver!

Ok, but there's plenty of reasons drinkers would not ride a bus after a night on the town. I have a few suggestions to alleviate those problems by looking at the 54C, the route that connects the colleges and the bars on the South Side:

• Friday schedules. Right now, buses have separate Monday-Friday, Saturday, and Sunday/Holiday schedules. This does not make sense for buses that would be used by bar goers, since Friday buses to the South Side and the Strip would be more popular due to the weekend. Port Authority knows this, since the 54C route runs much later on Saturdays (Leaving South Side for Oakland, last bus is 12:49a M-F, 2:24a Saturday.) Instead of adding more trips to every weeknight, how about adding them just to Friday nights when they'll be busier? It might even allow for small curtails of service of other nights.
• Move last bus closer to last call. Staying at the bar until they kick you out on a Friday night? Sorry, the last bus left 70 minutes ago. And on Saturday? There's just one departure, at 2:24a. Yep, waiting on East Carson Street at 2:00am for 20 minutes.
  
• Run short trips for partygoers. Hey, I don't know when the 54C is crowded, but my guess is that between the Strip and the South Side it's way more popular than when it continues to the North Side or Bon Air. On weekends, reduce the length of the route from 1hr to 30min for some trips by making the popular spots of the Strip and South Side as turnaround points. This would allow for some more frequent service.
• Bus info at shelters. These people will be new riders, unfamiliar with the system. Everyone constantly makes calls for schedules and maps at shelters. A 2005 City Paper article showed some of the issues, including the fact that Port Authority does not own the shelters. Perhaps publicizing the number for Let's Go on Bus Stop signs would do the trick?
• Deals with local establishments. Ok, this is not going to happen easily now that the drink tax has made the Port Authority the enemy of bar owners. But hopefully some would be willing to keep some schedules and passes on hand to give to patrons wanting to save on cab fare.

A lot of these ideas may sound like the UltraViolet Loop bus that ended in 2004 due to lack of funding. According to this old schedule, when was the last run from South Side to Oakland? 3:09am. Damn. According to this City Paper report, the bus had a lot of overlap with the 54C and really wasn't too popular until after midnight. It also ran year-round, when a seasonal service might have helped save money during summer break for colleges.

I think that by adding some later trips with a bit more frequency on Friday and Saturday nights could help bar goers swallow the tax a bit more easily. Of course, there probably are other areas that increases in bus services on weekends could help, but I'm only one man Port Authority. Figure those out for yourself.

Steal this idea PAT: Ad-Sponsored Hand Schedules

Ok, hear me out. For a select number of routes that go through popular business districts in and around Pittsburgh, the Port Authority should accept ads to place in their printed bus and T schedules. Advertisements for local businesses along the route could help those taking the bus find a place to eat, drink, or have fun. Commuter riders probably rarely look at paper schedules, so this idea would work best on nighttime or weekend buses and trolleys going to business districts and malls.

Take a look at a 59U schedule. A quarter of one side is completely blank. Placing an ad there for a restaurant at the Waterfront or a theater in Squirrel Hill would reach an extremely targeted audience. So I pretty much imagine this idea being limited to a small number of buses (54C, 59U, 64A, 500). The ads should fit the current color scheme to save money and they should only appear within the schedule. They should mention that advertisement does not imply approval from the Port Authority. They should in no way affect the information contained on the schedule (map, timetable, fares, etc.) It would even be worthwhile to instead of ads just have a listing of local businesses who pay to be included on schedules.

So here's the issue: why doesn't anyone do this already? Because the Port Authority is a public enterprise? That doesn't stop them from covering their buses in and out with ads. Let's look at Port Authority's advertising policy:

Port Authority will not accept advertisements that are obscene, unlawful, misleading, libelous or fraudulent. Further, Port Authority will not accept advertisements that are non-commercial; that appeal to prurient interests, that are or may be offensive to riders; that glamorize or otherwise promote violence, sexual conduct, alcohol or tobacco use; that are political in nature or contain political messages; or that are reasonably determined not to be in good taste. This policy is intended to be an objective and enforceable standard for advertising that is consistently applied. It is also Port Authority's declared intent not to allow any of its Transit Vehicles or Property to become a public forum for dissemination, debate or discussion of public issues.

This policy has gotten PAT in hot water before regarding a PSA telling ex-criminal offenders that they have to right to vote. PAT denied them because they are non-commercial. Not that PAT doesn't have plenty of ads for other non-profit organizations that don't target ex-cons. I'm sure Port Authority would not like their schedules filled with ads for payday loans, medical studies, and bail bondsmen. So this is a very large hurdle. In addition, the ads should be related to the area on the route, since this is what makes them relevant, but their current policy does not restrict based on area. I'm not sure if this policy is PAT's or if it is state or federal based.

But I know this: I never read ads in magazines but a restaurant ad in a program for a show Downtown worked because I needed a place to eat after. An ad for a restaurant or shop along the route (and a reminder to pull the cord at Murray/Beacon) could work pretty well for businesses and the Port Authority. Even if it just covered the cost of schedules, Port Authority has long been looking for a way for businesses to "sponsor" routes that serve them. Here's their chance. So consider this a free one PAT.

November service changes and 59U notes

Nothing too big in the November service adjustments, with the exception of the mall reroutings mentioned a few posts down.

One note is the discontinuation of Century III Mall service on the 59U route. Yes, Century III Mall is an almost dead mall that probably attracted few to take the 1 hour venture from Oakland. (One man's 2001 venture on that route is chronicled here.)

But of note is the fact that the 59U was created to link Oakland with Century III Mall before the Waterfront development existed. The 59U was created during an apparent time of experimentation between the Port Authority and the University of Pittsburgh in the mid 90s. Searches on the internet and sightings on Bus Stop signs also show the existence of a 12U, which went from Oakland to Ross Park Mall. I could have sworn somewhere I read an old article that the 12U only ran every 2 weeks on Saturdays, which is one of the dumbest service plans I have ever heard of. According to Save Our Transit many U-Buses bit the dust in 2002 but the 59U persevered.

I have actually taken a few 59U buses all the way to Century III Mall. They were a bit more convenient than transferring but near the end of their life they only left the mall every 2 hours only on weekends. They also forced Century III Mall riders to slowly move through the Waterfront development on their way to the mall. I only noticed a few taking it from Oakland, most passengers were getting on at the Waterfront, and other routes offer Waterfront-Century III mall service. What I had heard of were people getting lost by taking a Century III bound bus at the Waterfront rather than an Oakland bound one. Now that would be scary for a non-native college student.

The good news is the deletion of the Century III Mall leg actually added some much-needed trips to the weekend schedule. There are now 5 more to the Waterfront and 3 more to Oakland on Saturdays, with the last bus leaving the Waterfront at a more realistic 12:04am compared to 11:12pm. So I applaud the Port Authority. The next step is to make Friday-only schedules for the "college student" buses (59U and 54C to the South Side and Strip District), since ridership has to be higher on Fridays compared to Tuesdays, even though all weekday schedules are the same. Are you listening Port Authority?