Editorial: 93 bus line needed on weekends for Pitt populace

Port Authority buses are going to be hitting the streets a little harder on the weekends, starting mid-March.

Port Authority announced last Tuesday that a few more bus lines will operate on the weekend, starting March 15. The 60-Walnut-Crawford Village, the 53-Homestead Park, the P68-Braddock Hills Flyer, the 2-Mount Royal and the 67-Monroeville will all now be in full operation on Saturday and Sunday.

The 67 bus is the only bus with service changes that runs through Oakland. The bus travels outbound via Forbes Avenue and inbound via Fifth Avenue. There are other buses that run through Oakland, though, that don’t provide weekend service. One of these buses is the 93, which takes students from the far side of the Boulevard to campus, and runs into Bloomfield, Lawrenceville and Squirrel Hill. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a plan to add weekend bus service to the 93 bus schedule, but there should be.

The 93 runs inbound Oakland, Hazelwood, Glen Hazel via Greenfield and outbound Oakland through Lawrenceville. There are 82 stops along the busline, which most importantly transports students who live Juliet Street, Ward Street and Dawson Street — typically over a mile away from Pitt — to campus.

It’s not only convenient to have a steady service alongside the 30A campus shuttle — which also runs to the other side of the Boulevard of the Allies — but it’s also necessary. The Pitt shuttle is only available to Pitt students, and unlike the 10A, which goes to upper campus, the 30A does not run on the weekends either. For students, this is even more reason for the 93 to run seven days a week.

Plenty of people need access to Pitt’s campus on more than just the weekdays, though. And aside from the 93 directly, there aren’t other bus lines that are directly transferable. So people living on the far side of Boulevard are left only with the option to walk, or not come to Pitt at all. The 93 also provides an efficient and safe way for people to get home after dark, especially from a weekend campus event.

But the bus line is important for more than just the trip between South Oakland and campus. The 93 is also the only bus that runs directly from Oakland to Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville. Both Pitt faculty and students do a lot of work in this particular hospital, and it isn’t always on the weekdays. Medical students work in rotations there, and professors instruct clinical sessions. Senior nursing students work clinical shifts on the weekend as well as weekdays sometimes, and other STEM students and professors conduct research within the hospital labs. Programs in other departments — like education — also partner with Children’s. Anyone in Oakland — student/faculty or not — should have a direct route to primary hospitals in the City every day of the week.

So it’s time to add weekend service to the 93. Though bus services halt on the weekend, the journeys to campus, the partnerships, research and hospital rotations don’t.