Fitzgerald, Butler County commissioners to receive award

Posted on December 10, 2019 in Transportation

Before the newly elected Butler County commissioners took office in 2016, they met to agree upon priorities and goals — not only for their local municipalities, but also to elevate the strengths that the rural county brought to the region.

That initial meeting “set the tone” for years of collaboration, said Republican Commissioner Leslie Osche — who works alongside her fellow Commissioners Kevin Boozel, a Democrat, and Kim Geyer, a Republican — and also across county and party lines with Allegheny County’s Democratic executive, Rich Fitzgerald.

“Any one of us could pick up the phone and call Rich,” Mr. Boozel said.

That bipartisan behavior has earned the four elected officials the inaugural Moe Coleman Award, named after the late social worker, public servant and founder of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics, who was known for bringing minds together.

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Transportation projects for Western PA prioritized

Posted on November 21, 2019 in Transportation

Planners have identified 123 road, bridge and transportation improvements needed in southwestern Pennsylvania, and said a list of priority projects — including a handful in Westmoreland County — will be adopted by next summer.

The Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, or SPC, and PennDOT on Wednesday afternoon outlined proposals that could be part of the next four-year transportation improvement plan for the 10-county region.

Among the projects considered are construction of a new ramps to the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Penn and Mt. Pleasant townships, continuation of the long-discussed Laurel Valley connector and major road improvements along Route 30.

Read the full story at Trib Live

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Plans laid out for Hyperloop route with stops in Pittsburgh

Posted on November 14, 2019 in Transportation

Plans were laid out Wednesday for a Hyperloop route between Pittsburgh and Chicago through Cleveland.

The route presented Wednesday is being proposed by Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which has a test track in France and is working on a passenger system between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Most of the proposed route between Cleveland and Pittsburgh would be built 6 to 12 feet underground and mostly on public rights of way near highways.

It would rely on solar energy power and it could move up to 6 million passengers a year. There would be two stations in Pittsburgh — one downtown and the other at the airport. 

The plan is to get a passenger route up and running in India during the next decade, and a route in the United States will likely follow after that.

View the full story at  WPXI.com

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Shady Avenue Can Be Dangerous, And Deadly – Officials Are Working To Change That

Posted on October 4, 2019 in Transportation

Shady Avenue in Pittsburgh will undergo nearly a year of scrutiny and planning to improve safety on the busy corridor. City officials partnered with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a regional planning body, to analyze crash data, traffic and amenities along the road.

“It’s a very long corridor, there’s a lot of things that are going on,” said Katy Sawyer, a senior project manager with the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

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SmartMoves

Posted on October 4, 2019 in Transportation

SmartMoves for a Changing Region is the Long Range Plan (LRP) for the 10 county Southwestern Pennsylvania region. SmartMoves establishes the Vision, Goals, and Strategies for the region and also lays out actions and potential implementation partners to advance the goals and strategies, to ultimately achieve the vision. The Regional Vision is a world-class, safe and well maintained, integrated transportation system that provides mobility for all, enables resilient communities, and supports a globally competitive economy. To achieve this vision, the LRP includes a list of projects currently within fiscal capacity and projects beyond the fiscal capacity. Scroll through this application to view the LRP transportation projects.

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2019 Regional Operations Plan

Posted on October 4, 2019 in Transportation

“Planning for operations” encompasses a variety of activities that planners and transportation system operators collaborate on in order to maximize the efficiency of the transportation system and to ensure that transportation services are delivered in as safe, reliable, and secure a manner as possible. In addition to having many congestion mitigation and system efficiency benefits, planning for operations is required under Federal law.

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Pittsburgh, PA demonstration project: Lincoln and Frankstown Avenues

Posted on July 29, 2019 in Transportation

Through the Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy, Smart Growth America worked with three cities around the country to implement temporary safety demonstration projects. The City of Pittsburgh historically relied on 311 requests to help decide which streets need safety improvements, but when a team from the city looked more closely at the data, they realized they were not reaching the whole community through this process. In particular, they were not addressing key locations with high crash rates in low-income communities of color because this traditional channel of collecting complaints. In partnership with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the Allegheny County Health Department, the Port Authority of Allegheny County, and PennDOT, they launched a demonstration project at one such site to implement safety projects and to establish new partnerships with the community. Working closely with a local school, they added crosswalks with protected refuges to help children reach school more safely, and they also redesigned the intersection of Lincoln and Frankstown Avenues to make it less stressful for all people—including drivers—in the process.

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Trail council developing bicycle suitability study with public input

Posted on June 29, 2019 in Planning & Development, Transportation

While living in Monaca, Dr. Vincent Troia frequently rode his bike to the Montour Trail in Coraopolis. He followed the Ohio River down Bicycle PA Route A, along Route 51, despite the high-speed traffic. Troia also said he would bike on the Little Beaver Creek Greenway trail, just across the state border in Ohio.

“I was thinking, ‘boy, it would be nice to just connect the two trails, and then we’d have a beautiful network, a bike network,’” said Troia, who now serves as president of the Ohio River Trail Council (ORTC). The nonprofit organization works to protect trails and to provide active transportation networks in the Ohio River Valley and surrounding areas.

Since its founding in 2009, the nonprofit ORTC has completed multiple bicycle feasibility studies to improve safety for cyclists. The studies encompassed an area along the Ohio River from Coraopolis to the Pennsylvania-Ohio border and examined possibilities for safer, off-road trails, according to Troia. Now, ORTC is developing a more comprehensive bicycle suitability study.

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Survey shows Pittsburgh commuters expanding transportation choices

Posted on May 31, 2019 in Transportation

Five years after the Green Building Alliance surveyed Pittsburgh area commuters about how they get to work, the answers have changed substantially, with more people using several ways each week, working or starting from home and using bikes or ride-share options.

“One of the largest takes is people commuting differently from day to day,” said Isaac Smith, data and performance director for the alliance. “They may drive two days a week, work from home one day and then take a bike. There’s a level of flexibility that’s growing in the workforce.”

The alliance — a group of more than 500 Downtown Pittsburgh building operators aiming for a 50% reduction in energy use, water consumption and transportation emissions by 2030 — released the results of last fall’s survey of more than 20,081 commuters during a Strip District event Thursday. It also announced it already reached its 2020 goal of a 20% reduction in those areas.

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