Systemwide Evaluation of Bus Stops Underway in the Pittsburgh Region

"[The Port Authority of Allegheny County] will make a major effort to improve and bring some uniformity to more than 7,000 bus stops over the next five to 10 years," reports Ed Blazina.

The Port Authority will face the significant challenge of not owning the land where most of the stops are located: "In suburban areas, municipalities own the land and control the location of bus stops, but the authority can design shelters and other amenities if the site can accommodate them. In Pittsburgh, the authority has even less say because the city has a contract with a private company to provide shelters."

The Port Authority has already taken the steps of releasing design guidelines for bus stops, recently posted online [pdf]. The subject of how to improve bus stops has been a popular focus of efforts to improve transit in an era of declining ridership. TransitCenter released a "From Sorry to Superb" report in 2018, for instance. 

David Huffaker, the agency’s chief development officer, is quoted in the article saying that the initial effort will focus on the quality of bus stops, not the spacing of stops, but eventually the Port Authority will also evaluate stop spacing in an effort to provide fast, efficient service.