A personal injury law firm’s recent poll confirms what most Pittsburghers already know — the Parkway East is anything but a fun stretch to drive.

Munley Law surveyed 3,015 U.S. workers who commute by car and found that Interstate 376 (aka Parkway East) on either side of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel is the third-worst stretch of highway in Pennsylvania.

As the law firm accurately describes, “the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, in particular, creates a daily pinch point where lanes narrow and grades change. Curves through communities like Edgewood and Swissvale require reduced speeds, contributing to steady backups during rush hours.”

The first- and second-worst stretches in the commonwealth, according to poll respondents, are I-95 between South Philadelphia and Bucks County and the Schuylkill Expressway, a busy section of I-76 also located in Philly. I-95 shows up elsewhere on Munley’s rankings, with the section between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. taking the top spot for disgruntled commuters.

Parkway East has long been a source of angst for locals, with gridlock heading eastbound causing delays for automobile commuters in Pittsburgh’s East End and those living in suburbs such as Edgewood, Forest Hills and Monroeville.

Longer-term plans to cut down on crashes and traffic jams are in the works, including a redesign of the multiple exit ramps approaching the tunnel, but these improvements are likely to cause delays in the near term.

Adding to these disruptions will be the planned Commercial Street Bridge replacement, which will close a section of the parkway entirely this summer. PennDOT has also considered replacing a separate span over Four Mile Run. Other scheduled construction, plus frequent and sometimes deadly crashes, mean these problems are likely to persist for several years.

“A lot of these rush hour frustrations will sound painfully familiar to anyone who drives regularly,” said Jack Cartwright, attorney with Munley Law. “We hear these stories all the time from people involved in collisions — not because they were doing anything reckless, but because the road itself had become a pressure point. When traffic is unpredictable, and everyone’s on edge, small mistakes can snowball quickly.”

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