I was talking to my grandniece, and she was bemoaning the lack of flying cars. I think she was joking, but you never know. I was going to go all angry uncle right there but I thought better of it, so instead, it's another rant to you, dear blog readers.
Flying cars! Sheesh. Whenever anyone talks about the state of transportation, they always say "where's my flying car?" Sorry, not yet. Maybe not ever. But I think they ought to focus a little more on what's going right here in Pittsburgh, instead of what's going wrong. It's been a heck of a ride (no pun intended) to maintain mobility here in all forms.
First is the buses. I can't believe they managed to save the bus system back in the Great Recession of the 2010s, but I'm glad they did. You saw how it played out in Miami: great city, lost their buses, just became impossible to live there. Everyone that could moved to Atlanta; the poverty that was left in the city just started its downward spiral. Well, that plus the fact that half the land just vanished, thanks to rising oceans. Anyway, Pittsburgh. Yeah, the service was crummy for a few years, but the buses kept running. As a hip, busy student I took my fair share of Ubers and Lyfts. Course, I mostly just rode my bike. Then those new H2Buses in the 40s: I was skeptical of them too. How's a bus that's half the size going to work in a bustling city like Pittsburgh? But they're saving enough on fuel that they can run twice as many of them. They're amazing. Every five minutes, without fail! I never thought we could have decent transport in the East End, especially given the area's structural inability to have a proper subway.
Speaking of which, I rode that new West Line of the T for the first time last week, and it is slick. Course, property values have been shooting up all along it now. Every stop, there's a Scotch bar and a body-mod parlor. Hipsters, huh?
I used to live in hipsterville. I remember when my friends were so jealous of my new loft in the Strip District because I could walk to work downtown. And now everyone walks to work! Of course, I didn't realize that the business-consulting hub would be in Squirrel Hill. My mistake; my commute stopped being so easy. I biked for a while, but that got harder as my joints got older. I traded my drop-bar road bike for a nice Amsterdam-style city bike, and then traded that for an electric-assist. Guess I'm a little old fashioned to keep riding that, but I still like the feel of pedaling. All these new gadgets, you're weaving or bouncing or doing all sorts of calisthenics to get up a hill. I never got used to them.
Luckily, the electric motor keeps getting better. It's kept me going for now, but I know someday I'll have to hang that up too. Thank goodness it's not the way it was when my grandparents got old. I can have a driver here in a minute, and I've heard those self-driving cars will even get here soon. It's a good thing; even the buses can be hard to ride sometimes. You'd think someday they'd finally figure out a way to fix these potholes...
Oh geez. Look what I've become, another geezer griping about bumpy buses. At least I'm not just avoiding buses like the geezers around the turn of the century. My grandniece would never believe that either. A stigma on riding buses? These days, that'd be like saying a stigma on artificial meat. But it's true. Back then, the city used to be real segregated, black and white, rich and poor. I think the shift to carlessness has really helped stop that.
And, side benefit, no cars means no digging them out of the snow and putting a chair in your parking spot. Hah! I love this city, quirks and all.