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Traffic complaint


TheGerbil

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Found this letter in todays Post Gazette and could only shake my head...

Traffic jam

My husband and son decided to go to the 7 p.m. Pirates game Saturday night. As we left the Monroeville area at 5 p.m. via the Parkway East, we saw the traffic backed up inbound before Churchill.

Knowing that we would be sitting on the parkway forever, we exited and took ourselves through Penn Hills and eventually across the Highland Park Bridge to Route 28.

We were finally making decent time until an almost standstill before the 40th Street Bridge. We sat shaking our heads in disbelief that we cannot get anywhere in the city of Pittsburgh in a timely fashion, especially if it involves the Parkway East and the very scary Squirrel Hill Tunnels. One hour and 15 minutes later we made it to our destination!

An hour after the game ended we headed back home. As we were on the Boulevard of the Allies, we saw signs that read, "376 On Ramp Closed." What?

We were stuck with nowhere to go. After 20 minutes of a complete standstill, the traffic got moving and we had to detour through Oakland, Squirrel Hill and Edgewood to get back on the parkway at Edgewood. An hour later we arrived home.

Why in the world would we ever want to do that again? A nice evening at PNC Park turned into hours of traffic and frustration. As usual.

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To comment on why the above letter bugged me:

Pittsburgh traffic is nothing compared to the traffic in a lot of cities. That someone would write a letter like that just goes to show what a self-image problem this city has.

It further bothers me that the letter writer lives in Plum, and was driving in from the suburbs to see a game. Try living in the city and your drive will be cut in half; and you will actually be paying taxes to the municipality whose roads you use on the way in to the game, whose police keep you safe at that game, and whose paramedics would help you if you get hurt at the game.

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I have to say that I laugh when I hear Pittsburghers complain about Pittsburgh traffic. People talk about it like its a major problem.

That person should realize that a huge part of what causes traffic is people like herself who insist upon driving everywhere. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that (and public transportation in Pgh does not compare favorably) but for her to complain about traffic is like the Hummer guy complaining about how dependent we are on foreign oil. After all, isn't her car adding to the traffic?

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I was stuck on Boulevard of the Allies after that Pirate game as well!

I know traffic in Pgh is not bad compared to other cities (although you must admit the the mountains, rivers and bridges that we all adore are not commuter friendly).

Some mornings it takes me an hour to get to work.

However, I am moving to the East End in 3 weeks - PROBELM SOLVED!!!

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To comment on why the above letter bugged me:

Pittsburgh traffic is nothing compared to the traffic in a lot of cities. That someone would write a letter like that just goes to show what a self-image problem this city has.

It further bothers me that the letter writer lives in Plum, and was driving in from the suburbs to see a game. Try living in the city and your drive will be cut in half; and you will actually be paying taxes to the municipality whose roads you use on the way in to the game, whose police keep you safe at that game, and whose paramedics would help you if you get hurt at the game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The old "have your cake and eat it too" syndrome. -_-

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First I think Pittsburgh traffic when compared to other US metros is statistically a whole lot better. BUT, I think its my consolidation mind set here, and the fact that in the last decade or so US interstate systems have be woefully lacking in handling traffic flow (Congress cutting off funding for construction and infrastructer repair notice how now adays they build toll roads and how states are delaying bridge inspections and road improvements).

I do think we made a deal with the devil about 50 years ago on this "auto culture" instead of doing a more european model of mass transit.

Pennsylvania roads--and especially those in W. Pa. are notoriously bad with bridge and highway projects always being put off for another day (Consititution Blvd. along the Ohio, route 60, the delays and delays of upgrading the parkway west to "interstate standards" and the parkway east for that matter, bridge repair delays etc.)

I do think lots could be done around here on the roads, but true comparatively we don't have a huge amount to complain about, just wish that Bud Shuster represented Pittsburgh ;) he pushed through the last free interstate system just about 5-10 years ago, and revitalized a ton of roads in Central Pa.

A good link on these discussions:

http://www.pahighways.com

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Pittsburgh is full of people that don't know how to drive. They hit the breaks when they see the tunnels. "Very Scary Squirrel Hill Tunnels". What the he** is this person talking about? What is scary about it?

I hope the traffic gets worse for all these idiots that live 30 and 40 minutes from the city. I hope these people that live in all these suburban communities experience more traffic delays.

I've never seen anything as idiotic in my life as 7 AM rush hour and 4 pm rush hour in Pittsburgh. All those people trying to get into and then leaving the city in their gas hog pick up trucks and SUVs on the parkways just so they can go back to their gated communities. Wonderful.

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^^ we need to stop incentivizing these "creative classers" to moving far and away, if Mt. Lebo or Sewickley or Monroeville weren't TAX DODGES then most of these yuppies would stay closer to downtown and traffic wouldn't be as much as a problem.

Consolidate now ;)

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Pittsburgh is full of people that don't know how to drive. They hit the breaks when they see the tunnels.  "Very Scary Squirrel Hill Tunnels".  What the he** is this person talking about? What is scary about it?

I thought they were being sarcastic about the fact that people slow down in the tunnel. Like, the letter writer doesn't think it is scary, but they figure everyone else must, if they all slow down.

At any rate, I kind of agree with you. It would be great if traffic got so bad for suburbanites that many of them moved back into the city!

But they won't. They'll sit out there in Shaler or Mt. Lebo and honk their horn and write to the PG or Trib about how sucky traffic is here, and how they are just not going into the city for entertainment anymore. :wacko:

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