Traffic plummets, business suffers on Route 30 during pandemic response

Route 30 usually is a place of perpetual traffic jams, but for the last week it’s looked more like a “ghost town,” according to Brandon Irdi, assistant manager at the Advance Auto Parts on Route 30 in Hempfield.

Traffic has declined dramatically as the coronavirus pandemic forced many businesses to close, and most workers to stay home. It could drop further in the weeks ahead, now that Gov. Tom Wolf has issued a stay-at-home order for Westmoreland County.

Route 30 is one of Westmoreland and Allegheny counties’ main commercial corridors, lined with strip malls and shopping plazas. Its busiest stretches see an average of 20,000 vehicles a day, according to PennDOT statistics. PennDOT doesn’t continuously monitor traffic on Route 30, so there’s no hard data to show what coronavirus has done to the number of vehicles on the road. However, those who still are working there say they just have to look out their window to see how traffic has plummeted.

“Lately, every day to me is like a Sunday,” Hamza Pehlivansaid. He owns Beer Marsala in Irwin, as well Pizza Marsala in North Huntingdon, both on Route 30.

A decline in traffic means a decline in business, Pehlivan said. Both his Route 30 businesses have been hit hard by the crisis — though he acknowledges he’s one of the lucky ones. Many shops on Route 30 are closed, with signs on their doors saying they’ll reopen once the pandemic is over.

Restaurants (serving takeout or delivery), beer distributors and auto parts stores have been deemed essential businesses by the state — meaning they’re exempt from Wolf’s order to close. Business has been slow, but steady, Pehlivan said.

“(People) are trying not to shop, but in the end, they’re hungry, or they’re thirsty,” he said.

Friday saw a brief flurry of activity, according to Irdi.

“An hour ago, it looked like rush hour traffic out here. It was so normal,” he said around 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Profits surged with traffic, his store did about $1,000 better than earlier in the week, he said. He suspects people who just received their paychecks were doing a burst of errands before the weekend. But the Friday surge in business was not nearly enough to compensate for the decline from earlier in the week, and things could get worse moving forward with the stay-at-home order, he said. “A lot of our drivers are in the senior citizen range, and they’ve been unable to come down, or scared to come down,” he said.

Servet Gul owns the pizza shop Siena at Norwin. He estimates traffic outside his shop has dropped by about 70%. Siena’s dining room is closed. Friday afternoon it was doing a brisk trade in takeout orders, but brief surges in activity can’t make up for the losses sustained during the rest of the day.

“It’s just for a couple hours, it’s not all day,” Gul said.

The stay-at-home order is set to last through April 6, though it could be extended if the pandemic continues. Even if its lifted, it does not mean nonessential businesses will be allowed to open.

Pehlivan said business owners have grown accustomed to not knowing what the next day will bring.

“Today we’re open, but we’re just going day by day,” he said.