Bus service

Mary Lou Blasko's letter ("Too Many Buses," Oct. 1) regarding the number of Port Authority buses traveling on Orchard Spring Road in Scott instantly caught our eye, as we never thought we would read this headline in Allegheny County. The constant press about public transit funding challenges, service adjustments and route cuts suggests that "too many buses" is a problem many of our neighborhoods would relish.

We write as fellow residents of Orchard Spring Road. We frequently use the transit service on our street and greatly appreciate the convenience and value that it offers us and our neighbors. Ms. Blasko suggested that the bus service should move from our quiet neighborhood street to the nearby thoroughfare that is Greentree Road.

We must disagree with this position. In order to access inbound bus service from Greentree Road, we would be forced to walk about a half-mile on an exceptionally busy section of Greentree Road that does not have a sidewalk. Furthermore, we would have to cross four lanes of almost constant 35 mph traffic.

We do agree, however, that the buses on our quiet residential street do pose a safety hazard to the pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife that enjoy our little slice of suburbia. This hazard exists not because of the buses' presence but rather the performance of the Port Authority operators. We frequently see buses exceeding our posted 25 mph speed limit, coasting through stop signs and not allowing pedestrians a comfortable buffer on the side of the road. Instead of service changes, we would prefer to see our service continue with greater oversight and traffic enforcement in the area.

Nick and Rebecca Seibel
Scott