Pittsburgh Regional Transit began installing curb extensions at five busy Downtown Pittsburgh bus stops Monday to get waiting riders off sidewalks and eliminate the need for bus drivers to pull in and out of traffic for boarding or departing passengers.
The modular extensions, which are made of recycled material, bring riders out from the curb in areas where there are parking lanes, clearing space on sidewalks for other pedestrians, said spokesman Adam Brandolph. This gives riders a safer, more visible place to wait and allows bus drivers to just stop without pulling in and out of traffic to get riders on and off the bus.
“Essentially, it separates the area where riders are waiting from where other people are walking,” Brandolph said. “[Operators] don’t have to pull to the curb or pull back into traffic.”
Michael Facchiano Contracting is expected to install four of the five extensions over the next three weeks on Forbes Avenue beside the Allegheny County Courthouse, Wood Street at Sixth Avenue, Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street, and Fort Duquesne Boulevard at Sixth Street. A fifth will be installed on Wood Street at Forbes when the city finishes another project in that area.
Work will take place from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays.
The feature is common in about 400 cities around the world, the agency said, but this is the first time the agency has installed them here. They can be easily taken apart to reduce the size or moved to other locations.
Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has installed a similar unit on Liberty Avenue near Smithfield Street.
PRT approved an $800,000 contract for the project in November.
Brandolph said the agency will monitor how well the extensions are working before it decides whether they would be appropriate in other locations. The fact that the extensions can be disassembled and relocated makes them an attractive option, he said.
“It’s much cheaper, must faster than installing a permanent feature,” he said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.