Starting Monday, commuters, workers and college students returning from spring break will face yet another change in Oakland’s traffic patterns.
January saw the closure of a counterflow bus lane along Fifth Avenue as part of Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s PRTX University Line bus rapid transit project. Beginning next week, that counterflow lane will reopen as a regular travel lane. All lanes will also shift left between Bellefield Avenue and Robinson Street.
The change is expected to last six to eight weeks.
“Motorists who plan to turn left onto cross streets should move into the left lane earlier than usual, as traffic patterns will be different than what drivers are accustomed to,” Pitt Mobility said in a release.
Pitt Mobility also urged pedestrians to “be extra vigilant” when crossing Fifth as “drivers may be adjusting to the new lane configuration and could be distracted.”
That last suggestion has its basis in reality — the corridor has been plagued with a rash of vehicles striking pedestrians, sometimes with deadly results. Part of University Line construction includes improved pedestrian crossings and signals and additional bike lanes on cross streets.
When fully built, dedicated bus lanes on both Fifth and Forbes avenues will result in a reduction of regular traffic lanes, leaving two lanes for car traffic in either direction.
Construction has been a regular feature of the Oakland landscape recently as the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC and housing developers undertake large-scale construction projects that have occasionally blocked additional lanes of travel during University Line construction.
The second phase of the PRTX project is expected to wrap up in 2027.
