Pittsburghers pledge to get out of the car for 'Week Without Driving'

Puddles that form in Pittsburgh’s potholes and fractured sidewalks aren’t just a wet shoe nuisance for Gabby McMorland. McMorland, 42, of Bloomfield, is blind and walks and takes public transit to get around. In the winter, those puddles freeze into ice that’s hard to pick up on with a white cane that she uses to scan the ground ahead. She changes some of her routes in the winter to avoid some of the persistent frozen puddles that sit in front of local businesses and in the middle of crosswalks.

“A pothole isn't just a thing for a person to complain about,” McMorland said. “A puddle turns into a sheet of ice. And that's how I'm going to break my hip. We could fix it. And no one gets a Nobel Prize.”

McMorland isn’t alone in navigating a city without being behind the wheel of a car. In the city of Pittsburgh, 20% of households don’t have access to a vehicle, according to 2023 data from American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

This week, Pittsburghers are taking a pledge to get around without a car. The Week Without Driving, an initiative organized locally by Bike Pittsburgh, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Access Mob and the AARP, is a chance for regular drivers to get on the ground and navigate the transit system, step onto sidewalks and merge onto bike lanes to get a close look at the road pedestrians and cyclists face — the sidewalks that end, as well as infrastructure improvements that have popped up along Pittsburgh’s streets.

“There are decisions that we often don't think about as drivers but make a big difference for those outside of our car,” said Seth Bush, advocacy manager at Bike Pittsburgh. “This points to some of the challenges that we face when we are biking and walking: parking on the sidewalk, which blocks a wheelchair user. That's a choice. Parking in the bike lane, which causes a biker perhaps to dangerously swerve into traffic, that's a choice. Drivers creeping into the crosswalk at a red light or, you know, taking the infamous Pittsburgh left.”

Outside the car

Since the pandemic, the road has become a more dangerous place for pedestrians and cyclists. Pedestrian deaths have risen by 14% across the U.S. since 2019, according to the most recent report from the Government Highway Administration.

Last year, 23 people died on Pittsburgh’s streets, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. So far this year, three cyclists have died after being struck by a vehicle, including 9-year-old Courtney Carter in Homewood.

People with disabilities and seniors are some of the most vulnerable to vehicles and least likely to drive. And owning a car is expensive and out of reach for many low-income households. The average cost of owning a car was $12,182 for every 15,000 miles in the U.S., according to data from the American Automobile Association.

Changes to street design can make a big difference for safety outside of the car.

“We're not going to be taking out highways anytime soon,” Bush said. “But fortunately, there is a lot that we can do to design our streets to be safer for all road users.”

Bush pointed to the city’s conversion of Penn Circle from a one-way back into a two-way road connecting East Liberty in August. They added striped crosswalks, green space and bike lanes to create a street made for those walking, biking or rolling a stroller. “It’s really a shining example of good street design.”

This April, the city of Pittsburgh committed to “Vision Zero," a plan to improve the city’s streets and eliminate traffic fatalities. The Department of Infrastructure and Mobility has tackled roadway design and infrastructure improvements throughout the city, targeting the areas most in need.

“Public support is huge,” said Angela Martinez, assistant director of DOMI. “It's important because we know that people are asking for safe streets.”

They get the most requests from residents for their traffic calming improvements. They’ve put speed humps, raised crosswalks or a traffic chicane to slow speeding vehicles on the city’s residential streets. They’ve completed 68 projects so far, and they’re about to start putting in raised crosswalks on North Charles Street near Fowler Park in Perry Hilltop.

They’ve been fixing up the crumbling, puddling sidewalks and putting in new ones. While they don’t have an inventory of the state of the city’s sidewalks, “there’s no shortage of need for where to install sidewalks,” Martinez said. And they’re putting 86% of their sidewalk construction budget in Justice 40 communities, low-income neighborhoods where people are less likely to own a car.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit will be presenting the first draft of a redesigned bus system with new routes and timetables this fall. The public can weigh in for the first time on Oct. 16th in Schenley Park. They’re also working on a quick, efficient bus rapid transit system to carry people between downtown and Oakland.

But the agency faces a rough financial road ahead, as federal pandemic relief money comes to an end this year. They need more than the local tax base to keep running and rely heavily on state funding. Earlier in the year, Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed a $283 million boost for mass transit in the state, giving $39 million to PRT. But the final budget only included $80 million, leaving $11 million for PRT.

Bush hopes regular drives taking on the challenge will gain a new perspective when they roll out onto the road.

“Whether that's driving a little slower or making sure you're stopping at that stop sign or stop bar, maybe not taking that Pittsburgh left, which could perhaps cut off a pedestrian that you don't see," Bush said. "But I also hope that people who participate walk away with their own sense of joy for getting around without a car. I mean, frankly, it's pretty isolating and really frustrating to sit around in a car for a really large proportion of the day, getting to work, getting to the grocery store, getting to school. It's so much more pleasurable to be out on the street engaging with people, smelling the flowers, so to speak, enjoying being outside.”