Waiting for buses at stops can often mean standing in or near a bus shelter – typically it’s not a fancy or a very comfortable experience.
Enter the new Super Stop in the Ikea parking lot in Robinson.
The Airport Corridor Transportation Association (ACTA) held a grand opening for the stop Tuesday. It does have the bus shelters and benches, but outside of the shelters, there’s an area with tables and chairs, making it seem more like somebody’s patio than a bus stop. Though, as officials pointed out, the Super Stop is not meant just for bus commuters.
“It will be able to be utilized through various modes of transportation,” said state Sen. Matt Smith. “You have hiking, you have biking, you have individuals who are taking the Port Authority service here to this particular stop and then going on, using ACTA, for the last leg of their employment commute.”
There is a bike station there with an air pump and other tools to make bike repairs, if needed. The stop is a transfer point for Port Authority riders, they get to the Super Stop, and then ACTA takes the riders to workplaces within a 1.5 mile radius for free.
“30,000 work right from where we are,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, “and it’s continuing to grow and it’s going to continue to grow, but the only way it could grow was really by the passage last year of Act 89.”
That’s the transportation funding bill that allowed for such projects to go forward. But the Super Stop wasn’t funded solely by the state; Ikea and PNC were also investors. Smith applauded the public/private partnership that resulted in the new facility.
“Everyone recognizes in this day and age, the need to grow jobs in our region,” he said. “And this particular region, the airport corridor, is leading in that effort and that’s why investments like this are so vital to this particular community and making sure that individuals who work in this community can get to work.”
The stop is now open, and improvements to the entire area are meant to make it more pedestrian-friendly, including a new crossing that links the Super Stop to Robinson Town Centre.
