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itsjscott t1_itupmg7 wrote

28 is SO MUCH BETTER than it was 15 years ago, even with the current construction debacle.

(edited for spelling)

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InfraredDiarrhea t1_itut2pk wrote

You mean you don’t miss that traffic signal at the 31st street bridge?

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itsjscott t1_itutryj wrote

Nope... nor do I miss the one at the 40th St. bridge. I also don't miss having to navigate through the traffic lights on the north side to get from 28 to the Ft. Duq / Ft. Pitt bridges. The Highland Park bridge construction sucks, but that's ALSO going to be 500% better when it's finished. The short-term sunk cost is worth the long-term benefit.

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PigDog4 t1_ituu7qc wrote

And they're making pretty good progress. I live near it and drive it regularly, used to be every day pre-pandemic. It's really moving along, just a huge job to reconfigure multiple on/off ramps and bridges.

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New_Acanthaceae709 t1_itvxxzu wrote

We know it's a huge job; they just seem to do bad project management.

Example: they just redid one side of the Highland Park Bridge. Why not do both sides at once for paving?

Example: they just redid the section north of the bridge, northbound. But they've taken several week-long pauses, while traffic pays the cost every day they're not done.

Do less at one time and do it well, which is a scheduling problem, but they have no accountability for that in their process.

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stoogemcduck t1_itw6gk7 wrote

… don’t you miss when it was a weird city grid with people trying to gun it in and of businesses and cars parked half on the sidewalk?

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mazhas t1_itxi1lf wrote

now I'm curious about this. are you saying there was a traffic signal below 31st directly on 28? I'm aware of the signals on 31st but never knew they had one on 28.

been here since 11 so before my time

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5TAR-LORD t1_itxu4t8 wrote

Yep. Very near the 40th St bridge on the Millvale side there was a bar/pizza joint (can't recall the name), a small DIY concert venue (Millvale Industrial Theater) and other businesses that stretched down at least to the 31st St bridge. Two stoplights to navigate between Millvale to Deutschtown.

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sockar101 t1_ityvcmw wrote

If you're thinking of the yellow brick building, that was at the light at the 31st Street Bridge and it was Lambro's Lounge.

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CL-MotoTech t1_itzmpsz wrote

Lambro's! I could not remember that name but I could picture it.

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BackmarkerLife t1_ity1atw wrote

Here's 28 in 2004 just before they started the massive upgrades.

https://imgur.com/fwPNbng (dotted line is proposal at the time)

40th, 31st, then a light at 16th was 28. You HAD to drive through the North Side to get on to 279, there was no easy way to get on to 579. (For some reason I'm misremembering if there was a random light between 31st and 16th for businesses or just traffic flow - there was a car garage, a historic church to consider in the construction as well.)

There were a fuckton of accidents in that corridor. You hear about accidents now due to speed, etc. There were major multicar accidents and head on collisions. There were no jersey barriers between North and South directions. At some point they added those flex posts that separate the bike lanes these days. Drivers drove just as fast on 28 in 2004 as they drive today: 80mph.

All of these bypasses below East to West did not exist and it made traffic hell in the North Side.

https://imgur.com/TF5kikq

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Excelius t1_ituxkp3 wrote

It's far from the worst major road in the area, but it's users like to complain the loudest.

I used to live in an area where it was a roughly equal distance between heading to 28 or the Parkway to commute into the city, and after experimenting with both I usually ended up with 28 being much faster. And every major construction project has really only made things better.

My theory is that since Route 28 generally leads out to the least developed quarter of the county, the folks that use it just aren't used to experiencing any significant traffic, so they complain more.

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Confident_End_3848 t1_ituztjm wrote

I think when the really get 28 to a four lane highway all the way, the Alle-Kiski corridor could see growth. It is probably one of the few areas left with affordable land.

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JustHereForTheSaul t1_itxd0ya wrote

There is a theory among some urban planners called "induced demand" which states pretty much what you're saying -- if you have a highway that has heavy traffic, and you expand it, it'll be less congested in the short term, but eventually you're going to have just as much traffic as you did before. Because people will see the decrease in congestion and move to that corridor, thus increasing traffic.

I don't know enough to know how true it is, but it makes sense logically.

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BackmarkerLife t1_ity1znp wrote

That's what happened to Robinson / Moon. 20 years ago that area was desolate as hell. Then they build the shopping center where Wal-Mart is. I remember working 1 exit down 22 and several times a day they would blast dynamite and the building would shake.

I lived in Oakland and going to Robinson for work was a breeze. It was my secret place to see a movie because despite the distance it was fast to get to.

Now it's a 6-lane death trap with a bunch of drivers who think they're Warboys.

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kyach25 t1_itvd49f wrote

We love it there. 25 minutes from downtown, 2 acres, and a 4 bed house for below $300k. Con is the Trumpsters, but we have privacy from them so it’s great.

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lydriseabove t1_itwnuu0 wrote

I’ve been in Pittsburgh for 10 years, when I first moved here, it was under construction and a nightmare, but then it ran smoothly and beautifully for like 5 years until this current project started, but everyone just forgets those amazing years.

It seems a lot of people also don’t know the end game of the current project, which is to add an exit lane for Highland park bridge. Instead of 1 lane to stay on 28 and 1 lane to exit for Highland park bridge, there will be two lanes for 28 and a proper exit lane for the bridge.

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stoogemcduck t1_itw7url wrote

I’ve been driving it every day and the current construction still doesn’t clog things up as bad as going through any of the tunnels on a good day. 28 drivers are just sociopaths.

I will say it’s super annoying that they close off lanes seemingly at random, so every day you’re caught off guard by when you’re supposed to merge.

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st1ggyt0p t1_itycxlm wrote

>I will say it’s super annoying that they close off lanes seemingly at random, so every day you’re caught off guard by when you’re supposed to merge.

This is my biggest gripe. I commute daily from Morningside to Harmar and it is wild trying to figure out which lanes are closed on a daily basis.

The sections they have the semi-permanent barriers leading onto 28N from the bridge, and after the Delafield Ave on/off ramps are so tight, and the pavement is super uneven causing me to panic thinking I am going to crash into the sides.

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kyach25 t1_itvcvx0 wrote

I live in an similar area and can choose between 28, Parkway, Freeport Road, or Allegheny River Blvd. Each has their pro and con. 28 is always faster in a perfect scenario, but that’s sometimes now the case. When that occurs, the other roads all offer a great alternative, but 28 ain’t that bad. Plus if you don’t want to sit in traffic at HPB, just drive through OHara or Fox Chapel and enjoy the leaves.

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sothatsathingnow t1_itvibx9 wrote

I drive it multiple times a week for work and as much of a pain in the ass as it was getting to this point it was absolutely worth it. Those fucking traffic lights were killer.

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vVSidewinderVv t1_itwh9wi wrote

On occasion 3 hour waits for what should have been a 40 minute trip. Usually cause some asshole tried to cut in at the Etna split and caused an accident.

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stoogemcduck t1_itw775v wrote

For the hell of it, I went on google street view back to 2007 and clicked down route 28, and it’s wild how there where literally sidewalks and houses inbound from 40th street down. Could you imagine living there???

Also, the current construction is kid stuff compared to when they were redo-ing 31st street and it took half and hour minimum just to get past the heinz lofts

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makearunforitx t1_itxkcen wrote

Lived in one of those houses for a few years, it wasn’t ideal for parking/yard but it was convenient to the city.

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1pghdude t1_itwsn1q wrote

I love telling this to new people. Even pointing out the little booth the cop would sit in to control rush hour lights.

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PirinTablets13 t1_iu373mi wrote

A former co-worker of mine was killed in a head-on collision on 28, before the intersections at the bridges were re-done. It really used to be so much worse. I’ll take construction that leads to improvement over going to a viewing for a kid in their mid-20s any day.

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itsjscott t1_iu4dgoe wrote

Sorry to hear that ... couldn't agree more

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