Changin’ times: Port Authority adjusts bus schedules

In coming weeks, Pittsburgh Port Authority will adjust the schedules of 22 bus routes, more than 11 of which run through Oakland.

Effective Sunday, March 15, the changes are part of four annual service adjustments, according to a Port Authority release. 

Port Authority will adjust routes including the 75 Ellsworth route, the 69 Trafford route and all 61 and 71 routes. 

The physical routes will not change, but instead the times buses arrive, how long they spend at a given stop and when buses depart will, according to spokeswoman Heather Pharo. According to the updated schedules posted on Port Authority’s website, it is adjusting route times by only a few minutes each. 

Port Authority will adjust several of the routes’ trip times for all days of the week. Others, including all of the 61 and 71 routes, which run through Oakland, will only change for weekdays after 4 p.m.

Pharo said Port Authority collects route data via automated passenger counters, which are small black boxes that track when someone has gotten on or off a bus. These figures, she said, are then coordinated with GPS data, and Port Authority then calculates a “running time,” or the amount of time a driver is given to drive a route. A change in a route’s running time, Pharo said, is what constitutes a route change. 

“It just means small tweaks here or there,” Pharo said.

While Port Authority data has shown that usage of the buses in Oakland after 4 p.m. is “significant,” meaning busy, Pharo said she wasn’t sure if the changes to the 61 and 71 routes are a direct result of the traffic.

Gabby Lee, a sophomore majoring in Japanese and classics, said she usually catches the 71A, 71B or 75 Ellsworth every Monday through Friday at about 9 a.m.

She added that she doesn’t think the schedule changes will have a significant impact on her commute. 

“I have the same classes every day at the same time, so I pretty much leave home at the same time every day,” Lee said. “I leave super early … so a few minutes won’t affect me much.” 

On March 15, Pharo said, Port Authority will update all route changes on bus tracking applications like Google Maps. According to Pharo, Port Authority provides General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data directly to Google in anticipation of route changes. 

While the number of route changes can vary, Pharo said changes to 22 routes is “pretty typical.”

To publicize the changes, Pharo said Port Authority will post announcements on Twitter, their website and inside all buses.  

Port Authority’s next route changes are scheduled for June, according to its website.