Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Editorial: Pittsburgh should continue to encourage mobility options
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | October 22, 2022 | The Editorial Board

Posted on 10/22/2022 6:16:19 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Bright orange scooters now share — and sometimes command — Pittsburgh’s sidewalks. They’re an integral part of the Move PGH pilot project, the city’s plan to bundle transit options to help residents get around without owning a car, whether by bus, bike, scooter, zip car or more.

Statistics reported by Move PGH, a year into its two-year pilot, are encouraging: People have taken more than 576,000 scooter trips for a total of hundreds of thousands of miles. They have biked tens of thousands of miles, and ridden Scoobi mopeds for more than 14,000 miles. Experience has dispelled Initial fears about safety, despite anecdotal evidence of reckless scooter driving.

The city should continue to support, as well as provide incentives for expanding, user-friendly micromobility. Demand for these options will increase with supply. People will use transportation alternatives if they have them, as cities nationwide have also demonstrated.

So-called micromobility options accrue many personal and social benefits. Getting around without a car saves money. Biking provides good exercise. Riding scooters decreases traffic. Electric options have reduced the city’s carbon footprint by the equivalent of 257,000 vehicle miles.

Not all mobility options in Pittsburgh have been profitable, or sustainable without adequate subsidies. In June, Scoobi, the company owning the blue mopeds that started in 2018, notified the city it would go bankrupt, partly due to drastically decreased use during cold weather. Conversely, POGOH, the bike sharing company, announced fleet renovations this year, due to the program’s success.

(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; History; Local News; Miscellaneous; Outdoors; Society; Travel
KEYWORDS: bicycles; buses; cars; co2; emissions; exercise; failure; infrastructure; pennsylvania; pittsburgh; scooters; success; traffic; transit; transportation; walking

1 posted on 10/22/2022 6:16:19 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Hmmmmm
2 posted on 10/22/2022 6:25:46 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true . . . I have no proof, but they're true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Not all mobility options in Pittsburgh have been profitable, or sustainable without adequate subsidies.


hidden in the middle of the article and not explored.


3 posted on 10/22/2022 6:33:02 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Wait until there’s 3 foot of snow on the ground or it’s pouring rain. Maybe everyone will just stay home. Oh, what’s that you say? That’s the purpose of all this climate change sham? Ok. got it.


4 posted on 10/22/2022 6:35:44 AM PDT by JoJo354 (I am in mourning for the United States of America.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Conversely, POGOH, the bike sharing company, announced fleet renovations this year, due to the program’s success.


fleet renovations, we know what that means but it tickles the ears.........................

send more money.


5 posted on 10/22/2022 6:49:17 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

That will work really good in snow


6 posted on 10/22/2022 6:51:43 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA ( Scratch a leftist and you'll find a fascist )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Those things are dangerous and should be removed. Seen many a youth come really close to becoming organ donors using those things. And then they get dumped on side streets or the rare open parking spots. When I find one in front of the house it gets chucked over a hill.


7 posted on 10/22/2022 7:04:51 AM PDT by Yorlik803
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Democrat scum plan to criminalize cars.


8 posted on 10/22/2022 7:30:46 AM PDT by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Get ready for bike and scooter litter. Blocking sidewalks. Thrown in creeks and sewers. Left in the MIDDLE of crossealks.

Dallas and other cities here in N. Texas tried and gave up.


9 posted on 10/22/2022 7:47:04 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Difference between a cow and the US Capitol 1/6 "riot:" you can only milk a cow 3 times a day)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Yorlik803

I see you’ve been around e-scooters enough to see the real deal.

I’ve talked with people who work at Atlanta’s main trauma hospital about them (Grady). You are spot on.


10 posted on 10/22/2022 8:13:27 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple
Not all mobility options in Pittsburgh have been profitable, or sustainable without adequate subsidies.

Exactly! I just got back from a trip to Poland and Denmark where the scooter program was in full use. Besides the subsidies,
the scooters are laying all over the place, dropped when the units ran out of juice. The company has to go around at the end of the day
and retrieve the scooters to recharge them for the next day of abuse.

N.B. You don't see too many seniors scooting around.

11 posted on 10/22/2022 10:05:56 AM PDT by Thommas (The snout of the camel is already under the tent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Manhattan has done everything imaginable to bend traffic accommodations to bicycles.

For pedestrians it has become a nigtmare.

On the avenues the bicyclists now have their own lane running along the curb on one side of the avenue - be super careful stepping off the curb to cross the street (see why below). A car parking lane for some limited parking then extends into the avenue right after the bicycle lane (be careful when crossing and stepping out past that parking lane).

Then you have the further narrowing of the avenues with bus only lanes on one side of the avenue.

Altogether the avenues have of least two fewer lanes for cars, and many have only two lanes for cars. Beyond what was previously mentioned about the bicycle lanes & the added parking lane out beyond that, add to that that most left or right turns from the avenues are now restricted to designated turn lanes, which do not begin near the cross street intesection until a one or two car length after the parking lane - which results in left and right turn traffic spilling, in wait, into the now reduced regular lanes of traffic.

Keeping all that in mind, and going back to the bicyclists:

1. A vast many of the bicyclists in Manhattan are not “civilams” as much as they are delivery persons. And though those delivery pesons are likely not extremely well paid, a vast majority of their employers have them using elecrtric powered bicycles. The average top speed of most electric bicycles is - they say - alost 30mph, but I swear I have seen them going faster than that.

2. YOU the pedestrian are either often ignored by the bicyclists or you are just suppose to look out for them more than the other way around. They are a new “entitled” class.

3. A vast many are ignoring the rules they are supposed to obey - like riding on the sidewalk, avoiding the special traffic lights set for them, ignoring which direction they are supposed to be going, and riding in the car traffic lanes when a designated bicycle lane is provided for them.

https://nypost.com/2019/08/31/nyc-bicyclists-are-killing-pedestrians-and-the-city-wont-stop-it/

Things were bad enough in 2019 but I am thinking they must be worse here in 2022 since things opened up after the end of the Covid restrrictions.


12 posted on 10/22/2022 12:23:51 PM PDT by Wuli (ur)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson