When you have someplace to go and you own a car, your schedule can be in your own hands.
You have an appointment at 2 p.m. It’s 2 miles away. Depending on where you are and what traffic is like, you could be sitting on the couch watching TV until maybe 1:45 p.m.
If you don’t have a car, it’s a very different story.
If you can walk that far, and you’re in good shape, it might take you half an hour. If you’re a bit slower on your feet, you might be closer to an hour.
If you have to take a bus, you don’t have the same options. You leave based on when the bus stops at the right place. If you have to change buses, that’s even longer. You have to make sure you are at the next stop soon enough to make the next bus, so maybe you have to build in an extra hour or so. Your 2 p.m. appointment might be an all-day affair.
But, if you don’t have a car and you need to get from one of Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s coverage areas to another, the access is more important than the amount of time it takes.
That makes the hearings on proposed service cuts and increasing single-ride fares to $3 awkward. If approved, the changes would go into effect in February.
The hearings will take place at David L. Lawrence Convention Center on April 29 and June 12, with another at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum on May 6. Each hearing will have two sessions: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 7 p.m.
But the cuts include places such as Trafford, Harrison and Brackenridge. The point of the cuts is scaling back on some of these particular areas rather than Downtown Pittsburgh or Oakland.
Yes, the fare increases will affect riders throughout Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s service area. That means hearings in the heart of the city make sense.
However, some of the most affected people will have to pay the agency to take them to a hearing far from home to voice their concerns about having their service taken away.
Public input can be provided in other ways. There’s an online survey. You can call 412-566-5525 and leave a message. You could even drive —sorry, ride the bus — to the Downtown Service Center on Smithfield Street and complete a survey in person.
But there is something about raising your voice at a meeting that speaks to the serious nature of concerns. There is a reason we enshrine the right to protest and assemble in the Constitution. There is also a reason hearings on these kind of issues are something agencies must do. The people affected have a right to more than producing an email or a piece of paper that is tucked in a file and stuck in a box.
When people speak in public, their pain and frustration are audible. When they note their hardship, you can hear the echo in murmurs of agreement in the crowd. Conversely, you can hear dissent if it exists — and doesn’t dissent exist everywhere these days?
It is probably inconvenient for the transit agency’s decision makers to get in a car and drive all the way to Trafford or Harrison for a hearing that would be more convenient for older users at a senior center or those who might rely on the bus to get to work.
But maybe recognizing how vital the bus service is in those areas is a testimony in itself. It’s unfortunate it won’t be heard.