Living In Pittsburgh: Eco-Friendly Communities

by Regional Internship Center Student Ambassador Carolyn Mazzella

In continuing with the theme of neighborhood livability, I would like to look in depth at other criteria young people desire in a neighborhood. One of the major factors for young people in the 21st Century, besides affordable housing, is transportation. Many young people today, it seems, look for neighborhoods with a friendly public transportation or bicycle network. The City of Pittsburgh, in a new initiative, has so happen to rank many of the categories young people look for in a neighborhood along with census data and interactive maps allowing you, the citizen, to understand the unique aspects of each neighborhood. On this database, www.pghsnap.com, you will find a detailed narrative of the public transportation networks supporting each neighborhood. Upon this data, I will choose some of the neighborhoods that seem to have the best public transit.  One of the categories the City of Pittsburgh has designed for ranking a neighborhood as “Carbon Neutral Commutes” which is defined by the percent of the working population who bike, walk, or work from home. This list is the top 10 neighborhoods that fit this description within the City of Pittsburgh, as follows:

1. Bluff (Uptown)
2. North Oakland
3. Central Oakland
4. Central Business District
5. West Oakland
6. AlleghenyCenter
7. Squirrel Hill North
8. NorthShore
9. TerranceVillage
10. Allegheny West

Many of these neighborhoods from a dashboard view would naturally be considered “Carbon Neutral” due to their proximity to large medical centers, such as Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side and the Oakland neighborhoods located close to the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC. Yet other neighborhoods stand out with the lack of immediate proximity to these amenities, such as Squirrel Hill North, which boasts a vibrant community with many residents who prefer to bike. However, these “Carbon Neutral Commutes” do not take into consideration public transit. Although not Carbon Neutral, is part of reducing carbon emission through less vehicle traffic on the road. Many neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh have great public transit. Oakland is a great example of being a “hub” neighborhood, with many bus lines converging through one community. Another community to the east is Squirrel Hill North and to the north the downtown business district. Other neighborhoods to the south, stretching into the suburban communities, have the eco-friendly Light Rail Transit or “T” line. Many communities with the City of Pittsburgh have some of the best public transit due to their proximity to the Rapid Bus Lanes, or Busways. The Lanes are exclusively for the bus use and stretch through several neighborhoods and are located to the south, east, and west of the downtown triangle.

In so if you want to live in a great public transit line in the City, you have many options, from the busways, to the “T” line, to hub communities. However, if you take the time to search out neighborhoods via public transit, this may be the best way to find the community you are looking for. So hop on a bus or “T”, explore a new neighborhood, and see what the city has to offer.