Fly the Friendly Bus
Julie Mickens |
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
“Do you really need my last name? They all know me as Hakan.” The noted Hakan came all the way from Sweden to ride Port Authority’s 28X Airport Flyer bus route.
Cam Adibi, who made it from Boston, says he takes the 28X every chance he gets. Ernest Hamilton of Baton Rouge feels the same way. Fellow passenger Justin Dilts made his 28X pilgrimage from Crafton while Tamica Anderson journeyed from exotic Beechview.
OK, so they aren’t exactly out joyriding on the 28X—as I was. Hakan, Cam, and Ernest probably thought their plane rides ranked higher in importance. And while Hakan ultimately did arrive all the way from Sweden, he did so via Highland Park, where he’s lived for several years as a computer science research at Carnegie Mellon. Justin and Tamica, truth be told, were simply commuting to their jobs at airport. But they’re all satisfied customers, if not downright enthusiastic. Cam, who hopped on near his parents’ house in Squirrel Hill after a trip home to check out CMU’s grad school, rattled off facts about other cities’ transit before declaring, “Even if my parents could drive me, I’d still take it.”
Added Hakan,“I go on conference trips, so I don’t have to pay for transportation, but I try to take public transit,” he says. “It’s more fun. Airports without transit are sad.”
There’s no official data, but, anecdotally it seems that about half of the 28X’s riders are associated somehow with one of the universities, as Hakan and Cam are. Probably another quarter are local commuters, while the rest look like non-academia “civilians” flying for business or pleasure.
‘Can’t beat it’
All of them, it’s fair to figure, know a bargain when they see it.
“Once it was crowded,” says Ernest, who grew up on the North Side and has flown home to visit relatives several times over the past few years. “But for $2.25, hey.”
That’s right, $2.25, your basic Zone 2 bus fare, and just 50 cents if you’re already a good little transiteer carrying a Zone 1 pass. Less than the cost of a latte. As Ernest put it, “You can’t beat it, unless you want to give your money away. And I don’t have money to give away.” (Except for Steelers gear, that is – Ernest sported a black-and-gold leather jacket, a Steelers hat and a full complement of Steelers-themed accessories.)
Compare $2.25 to a $40 cab ride. Or $17 for a trip Downtown on the “Airport Express” shuttle – which just so happens to share a parent company with Pittsburgh’s favorite monopoly, Yellow Cab. Or compare $2.25 to the minimum $6.50 per day to park, plus gas enough to dodge the truckers and SUV-driving maniacs on I-279 Parkway West. Compare $2.25 to all the favors you’d owe your friend for driving you. This is one fine bargain.
Port Authority first created the 28X route to the airport in the late ’90s, but it didn’t take off until the completion in 2000 of the West Busway, a five-mile buses-only road that bypasses the worst of parkway traffic at Green Tree Hill and the Fort Pitt Tunnels. The route currently starts at Carnegie Mellon’s campus and continues through Oakland and Downtown before catching the busway; the last leg of the trip is on the highway, with a loop through the Robinson Town Centre mall. According to Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove, the 28X had 1997 daily ridership of just 600 in 1997, but now carries roughly 1,650 seven days a week.
Ridin’ in style
Shocking though it may seem, some people cop a snobby attitude about city buses. Consider, please, that the 28X is not your overheated, herky-jerky in-town bus like the 71A or 61C. Though it is as frequent – every 20 minutes on weekdays, and every 30 minutes over the weekends – and there are only a half-dozen stops after Downtown. By dodging the Green Tree bottleneck, Grove says, “we’re able to sell it to people--this is a good alternative--you don’t have to sit now on the parkway. Now, we can feel sure what the travel times will be.” From Carnegie Mellon the trip takes about 45 minutes to get to the airport and around 40 minutes from Downtown. Even after the loop through the Robinson mall, the 28X can sometimes beat a Parkway West drive time.
The 28X’s challenge, in fact, is its popularity: Possibly because Port Authority didn’t know whether the 28X would catch on, it ordered minibuses for the route. While more fuel-efficient for the long trip, these smaller vehicles can crowd quickly, especially when the Pitt kids and the CMU’ers are flying in and out over school breaks. Spokesman Grove says that PAT sends bigger buses and extra trips when it can, but many riders suggest there’s still room for improvement.
And yeah, it is a bus -- not sparkly new light rail to the airport, as several cities were able to build in the 1990s with Clinton-era subsidies. There’s been talk of expanding Pittsburgh’s light rail to the airport, but don’t count on that anytime soon. At the same time don’t feel too bad: In vaunted New York City, only a pokey crosstown bus goes to LaGuardia. Maybe getting to the airport via bus – especially with the quintessentially local invention of a “busway” – is that familiar Pittsburgh blend: the rudiments of cosmopolitanism, cut with a dogged earthiness.
It’s still one of the best deals in town for convenience and cost. So next time you need to get to the airport, take the bus for Team Pittsburgh, just like the black-and-gold bedecked Ernest. As you think of the beloved Bettis, don’t you miss the bus, either.
All Photographs Copyright Tom Altany