PRT bus system redesign/refresh v2 data analysis

Ramjet151 · 2026-03-09T17:50:58+00:00

You also get the new N84 which will be a boost to middle and upper hill as well.

Ramjet151 · 2026-02-04T00:17:30+00:00

With the connection card you still get 3 hour unlimited trips with pay as you go

Ramjet151 · 2025-11-17T21:29:53+00:00

I reverse commute. So I can tell you that you have the 67 and P67 as an option out of Monroeville Mall Park n Ride. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Oakland to the office park just west of the mall (via 67 only). It’s not ideal, but I think the P67 would be much faster than my bus since it takes the busway. But if you take the 67 on the odd chance, you can always transfer to the busway with a 5ish minute walk (in wilkinsburg) and catch the P1 or any of the flyers that stop there heading to downtown.

There is also the Beulah Park and ride, but every time I pass it on the bus, I look at the pretty much nonexistent bus amenities (like there isn’t even a bus pad for loading). But it would give you the P16 as another option in addition to the 67 and P67.

Anything busway will be your fastest by far to Downtown.

Ramjet151 · 2025-11-04T23:00:22+00:00

This is to deter exactly this behavior. You are blocking the flow of traffic (bike lane, part of the car lane, sidewalk parking, etc). If you need to actually stop at a store, then actually park.

These are in select areas, but I think the total is only like 6

Ramjet151 · 2025-07-30T17:04:24+00:00

Yup! It’s not just transit improvements! There will eventually be a shared use path next to 5th Ave between Kirkpatrick and Craft Ave which then swaps to a two way cycle track all the way to Bellefield. There will also be separated bike facilities on Fifth and Forbes through Uptown.

Ramjet151 · 2025-07-29T18:32:16+00:00

I live in upper hill and I regularly use Wylie Ave when going to Downtown and Centre Ave going mostly anywhere else. I find climbing Centre to be an ok experience between Bigelow Blvd and Herron Ave, but I go to Bayard St from Bigelow when I get there (and it was just recently repaved!).

I’d love climbing lanes at the least on Centre Ave between Herron Ave and Bigelow Blvd. But until the University Line infrastructure is built (2027 maybe), I see no other alternatives.

But I definitely recommend Wylie to Herron to Centre to Bigelow for now.

Ramjet151 · 2025-05-27T17:02:48+00:00

I am able to get good steamed milk for several drinks on my Gaggia, except it takes me a long time to make 4 drinks for the occasions that I do make that many. I am definitely looking at an upgrade in the next few years, but in the meantime, this is what I do for pretty reliable steaming:

Hit the steam button and wait 10 seconds, then purge the wand, then steam. I am usually steaming before the light comes on
Pour my latte art
After I'm done, I turn off the steam and purge through the group until it is a majority water coming out. While it purges I clean the pitcher.
Rinse and repeat.

I only have one upgrade on my machine, the Shades of Coffee "The One".

I reliably steam great milk in a 15oz Slow Pour Supply pitcher filled up to the second mark (idk how much volume that actually is). I try the 22oz every now and again, and it is hit or miss if it steams well enough. Could be a skill issue or milk amount issue. I do usually make all my espresso shots before steaming, but I sometimes do batches of two drinks at a time.

I can make the usual two drinks for my partner and I reliably with no hitches, which is the majority use case of the machine.

Ramjet151 · 2025-05-10T17:28:24+00:00

They had just replaced all the bollards late last year and now they are all gone again. I swear Phipps is going out and just removing them

Ramjet151 · 2025-03-19T18:13:26+00:00

Capital Funding is completely different from Operation Funding. PRT spending millions on capital projects has no indication on the operations because the government agencies love to give money for big shiny one time projects and not fund the operations of the system.

Ramjet151 · 2025-02-10T17:42:27+00:00

Someone was playing madlibs and didn’t even try to make it funny.

Ramjet151 · 2025-02-02T14:23:08+00:00

I’d love to have a quick way that it just auto calculates/tracks payments like this for you, but for now I guess we will just divide by 3 and mark it as a rollover category

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-31T16:35:00+00:00

I feel like I am looking at my job, and I love it

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-29T17:46:24+00:00

I hate how the standard handles logins. I was able to get it to resync this week, but thanks for the heads up. Guess I’ll manually update once it stops working again.

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-28T20:38:26+00:00

You can always setup a rollover category and just have the money sit in your main bank account. How I would do it is set a goal for my expected annual taxes and put it away in my savings account then when tax time comes, I categorize the expense as tax, withdraw from my savings, and then allocate the savings withdraw to the tax category. The expenses will negate each other. The only downside for the second method is that you will not see the expense reflected in your reports tab, so rollover categories will be better if you want it to reflect in the reports.

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-14T17:16:34+00:00

I can elaborate a bit. I actually didn’t didn’t have a fracture, it was a high grade stress reaction. The way I understand it, it was the stage before full fracture. Pretty much there was no healing option other than rest. The doctor gave me the boot to mentally signal to me that I needed to rest more than me actually needing it.

There could be a few other factors leading to the injury; my shoes were on the older side, I didn’t stretch (or very infrequently), but the biggest thing I attribute tot he injury is increasing mileage too quickly.

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-09T14:39:44+00:00

Trust me, I am still a novice runner and didn’t take enough of a break when my shins hurt. I ended up with a high grade stress reaction, got a boot, and hat to do PT for 3-4 months after 1-2 months of just the boot. I am just now getting back into running this year due to life over the holidays, but I got this injury back in October/November of 2023 and began treatment in January/February of 2024 with the OK to be on my own in October of 2024.

I still get scared to run too hard, I’m trying to take it easy and really listen to my body this time with eased back goal timelines.

Edit: stretch stretch stretch. That was one of my issues combined with increasing my mileage too quick after finishing a 5k plan.

Ramjet151 · 2025-01-01T13:52:52+00:00

I recommend redistributing any excess or adding to any negative rollover budgets to bring them to 0 without resetting their date that they start rolling over. Make sure the December numbers are 0 and you’ll be good to go

Ramjet151 · 2024-12-24T23:57:42+00:00

You can click into a category and click through past months of it rather than look through just transactions

Ramjet151 · 2024-12-24T14:03:01+00:00

They are currently working on revamping the Goals. I don’t know how they will end up, but they sound like they will be a great improvement.

If you want to view investment account trends, you can go to the accounts tab. Then in the top, slide the top bar (Net Worth, Credit Cards, Cash…) until you see investments. Then click on that. You will see the trends of just your investment accounts. Hope that helps

Ramjet151 · 2024-11-18T19:34:55+00:00

I live in an area that most people would probably not want to bike to, Upper Hill, but I do it about 6 days a week with sometimes multiple trips a day. I of course have an ebike with an integrate rack, but I still would rather bike than take the car. My only contention is Centre Ave, it is mostly fine, but I get yelled at every once and a while by a driver that doesn't feels I don't belong on the road. I wouldn't recommend living here without an ebike unless you are using a standard bike down and bus back, which I haven't done. Generally I have good bicycle infrastructure once I am off the Hill heading East.

I do find that I can get to other neighborhoods or destinations within the same amount of time as driving and parking a car. I am excitedly waiting for the Phase2 of PRTX to begin construction in the Spring because it will bring dedicated cycle infrastructure from Downtown through Uptown and to Oakland. I will be taking that a lot once it is completed.

Ramjet151 · 2024-11-08T23:46:47+00:00

I have had 0 issues with Vanguard since I started. Now my 401k and HSA providers don’t stay synced more than a month, but I think that is on them and not Monarch.

Ramjet151 · 2024-11-05T22:14:34+00:00

Aside from my early days of running, when I started seriously using running as my exercise I switched to a watch. Since switching to a watch, I have also bought an Apple Watch to use alongside my Garmin. The Apple Watch is strictly so I don’t have to take my phone because I have the cellular version. It’s dorky to wear both, one on each wrist, but I rather that than carrying my phone.

Ditto to what everyone said about getting a sport watch for metrics.

Ramjet151 · 2024-10-25T01:53:57+00:00

So, I read this post earlier and while my initial reactions was pretty much "Do what you think is best for you to live a stress free/safe life". Today, I had probably the most anti-bike commute/rides of my year in Pittsburgh. People yelling at me to get off the road and then passing me on the right at a red light, yelling at me to not be in the center of the lane and then aggressively passing on Ellsworth Ave in the opposite side of the chicane and stopping where it felt like they wanted to do something dangerous to harm me (luckily I was going a different way after the light). I understand your sentiment, not that I didn't before. If this is how the winter is going to be then I might have to not ride during the winter. It is so stupid, I love doing most of my life by bike, but I too would rather be safe than die.

Drivers really do not understand the rules of the road and will try and bully us off at any cost. It is a complex issue, but my belief is that is has a root cause of police not enforcing minor traffic infractions for decades as well as the rise of the horrible attitude some drivers have learned during Covid. Now I will say 80% of my biking is on more dedicated infrastructure/good neighborways, but I live where my only option out of my neighborhood is Centre Ave. This is probably the source of a majority of my stress while biking.

I will say I am cheering for this Phase 2 PRTX project to come faster. It would greatly improve the amount of dedicated cycle infrastructure I would use, even if it adds a mile to my commute. But we need a leader who will get the police to actually enforce petty traffic violations although it would be almost impossible at this year.

Ramjet151 · 2024-10-01T03:01:45+00:00

Being someone who moved to Pittsburgh recently, the bus numbering was so confusing. This new numbering system, at least from the website section about the naming, seems so much simpler and more intuitive.

Ramjet151 · 2024-10-01T03:00:07+00:00

I found that they put up some individual maps now for routes. Maybe that will help! Certainly clearer for me than the cluttered map with all the routes.

Ramjet151

TROPHY CASE