Quote:
Originally Posted by relnahe
How sure are you that most of the riders are middle class that ride the buses downtown? What stats do you have?
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Downtown Pittsburgh has one of the highest transit modal shares for commuters of any downtown in the USA. Something like 50% or more of workers arrive by transit.
That right there is a huge middle class base utilizing the buses (the buses carry more people than the LRT).
I also have been to Pittsburgh often, and the transit riders are much more mixed than you will see in say Rochester, NY. It just does not seem as poor. There are for sure some poor people on the buses. But there is always a healthy dose of university students, and just other people that seem to be going out for a night on the town. I am sure there are routes that serve mostly poor areas. But overall the buses seem to attract a mix of people.
I never feel uneasy waiting for a bus in downtown Pittsburgh.
In downtown Rochester, even I can say that it was kinda freaky at times, and if I say that, then it means it is, because I don't get freaked by other people very easily. But in downtown Rochester, a number of the bus riders were aggressive, and were intimidating people walking on Main Street, etc.
But Pittsburgh just does not seem to have that problem.
Brandon who is on this forum. He also lived in Pittsburgh for a while, and also found the transit system to be much more mixed and used by middle class people, than other cities in the rust belt.