Pittsburgh’s 25-year transportation plan, MovePGH, has been taking public comment over the last year to craft an ultimate vision. Through that process the group has come up with a list of priorities and 5 goals, which it enveiled today. Among the priorities -- providing balanced choices in transportation.
“The preliminary list of projects is a lot more focused on small-scale neighborhood projects, like sidewalks, bike facilities, transit projects, a lot less focused on roadway widening projects than some previous plans have been. That’s one of the things we want to get reaction about, whether that’s the right focus,” said Paul Moore, project manager with the consultant team on the project.
To gather more input, MovePGH is holding a series of workshops that will outline the work that has been doneso far. It will then allow the public to look at the plan on a neighborhood level to provide feedback.
The first workshop was held Wednesday morning in the Hill District. Bridge Architect Patrick Miner was among the attendees. He said he wants to be part of the process that will craft the city’s future infrastructure.
“Ideally more mass transit, I’m a big fan of rail, and bikeway infrastructure. I’m pretty heavy on the pedestrian, bikeway, transit, which I see as just providing more options for everybody.”
The plan also looks at congestion in the city and examines ways to ease that. Work on the plan is expected to wrap up in the next four to five months, consultants will then present the plan to the city. Paul Moore said public input is essential.
“Unless we understand what people are looking for and what their needs are, we can’t really do a good job of evaluating and prioritizing projects, so it’s really the most critical component of the project.”
There are three more workshops planned:
Wednesday November 7th:
6 PM to 8PM – Carnegie Library, East Liberty Branch
Thursday November 8th:
1 PM to 3PM – University of Pittsburgh Alumni Hall
6 PM to 8 PM – Brashear Center
