Letter to the editor: Let's get to work on traffic issues

Interesting article about the Parkway East/West having major traffic problems, especially for a city the size of Pittsburgh (“Parkway East, West among the most congested U.S. roads, study finds,” Feb. 12, TribLIVE), plus the subsequent “lance” from the Trib’s editorial board a couple days later (“Laurels & Lances: Perfection, Parkway, Pittsburgh Dad and payment,” Feb. 14, TribLIVE).

Great, we know it’s a problem; it has been for years. Could we maybe start talking about actual ways to address the problem now? Maybe a comprehensive series of articles detailing past efforts and interviewing economic development/elected officials?

The issue made (the last section of) the recently approved Westmoreland County comprehensive plan, but is clearly not a priority even though public transit was ranked one of the highest areas of concern from the public meetings/comments. On top of that, the contractor the Westmoreland County Transit Authority uses can’t even keep enough drivers on staff to keep current operations going without interruptions (“Westmoreland Transit cancels more bus routes due to driver shortage,” Feb. 15, TribLIVE).

There are a lot of different ways to address these issues. It seems Norfolk Southern won’t cooperate with a (realistic) passenger rail study, so let’s start thinking outside the box for once. We need an official to step up and start coordinating meetings with transit authorities, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and all the other groups involved to actually get to work on fixing this issue, or the regional population will remain stagnant forever, and Pittsburgh will remain flyover country for decades to come.

Alec Italiano

Jeannette