Parkway East ranked 30th worst commute in the US (Pittsburgh: employment, tax)

[bethany12]

Why does the government keep ignoring the horrible transportation infrastructure in the Pittsburgh area????

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Study: Pittsburgh's Parkway East ranked among worst highways in nation - Pittsburgh Business Times:

No commuter enjoys sitting on Pittsburgh's Parkway East, aka Interstate 376, but traffic is not as bad here as in some other major metro areas, a new report finds.


According to research published Wednesday from traffic consulting firm INRIX Inc. and The Daily Beast, Pittsburgh's Penn Lincoln Parkway (I-376) is the 30th most gridlocked among 75 of the worst commuter roads in the country.


The report cited its 107 hours of bottleneck congestion every week.


The worst part of I-376 is westbound at Exit 7, Braddock Ave., a 1.07-mile stretch that logs around 24 hours of bottleneck congestion every week. It's the last exit before drivers hit the Squirrel Hill Tunnels, a legendary Pittsburgh-area bottleneck.


The rankings were based on peak road travel time compared with free-flow hours, and the report identified roadways with the longest hours of bottleneck congestion.


The worst traffic in America can be found on The Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles, followed by the Lunalilo Freeway of Honolulu, The Capital Beltway in Washington, D.C., Interstate 35 in Austin, and the James Lick Freeway (US 101) in San Francisco.

[Drover]

Exactly what would you like them to do?

[BrianTH]

It is a strange methodology they used. First they ranked the 75 worst metropolitan areas for peak congestion overall, and then identified the worst highway in each area, and then identified the worst congestion problem on each highway. So it isn't really a ranking of specific congestion problems.

Anyway, lots of the highways on that list were built on the theory they would relieve congestion, and they ended up just being congested themselves. The upshot is you can't really build your way out of highway congestion, although you can help moderate it by providing commuters with decent alternative options (e.g., rapid public transit, or even just more housing close to employment centers).

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Drover

Exactly what would you like them to do?

Blow open the tunnel and anything on top of the hill be damned.

I dunno what else you could do. Anything you build to go around or attempt to expand that roadway would encounter much existing stuff in its path.

People need to not be stupid. If you need to commute to downtown/Oakland/airport/etc don't move to somewhere east of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. Simple!

[bethany12]

I would rather have my tax dollars spent on improving the highways or building new ones than public transit. I don't know anyone who uses the bus system. It is a waste of money.

[Drover]

Building them where? Improving them how?

[greg42]

Originally Posted by bethany12

I don't know anyone who uses the bus system. It is a waste of money.

I don't know anyone who drives in on the Parkway East. It's a waste of space.

[BrianTH]

Given that bethany12 only hangs out with unemployed people, maybe they can't afford bus fare.

Anyway, back in the real world, almost half of the Downtown workforce commutes using public transit.

[Tirade]

Having experienced DC and LA traffic, I never really understood the traffic complaints in this area. Traffic jams are annoying, but I have yet to meet anyone here who has an hour-long commute one way.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by bethany12

I don't know anyone who uses the bus system. It is a waste of money.

Then, as you said yourself, you don't know anyone. Take notice of all the people at the Forbes/Braddock bus stop seven days a week, along with all of those on Forbes and Murray. There are lots of people who use public transit.