Pittsburgh only cab service offically anounced

In an earlier post, I told you about Pittsburgh Transportation Group's plans to assign a small number of cars to work only in the core city.

From The Tribune Review

The Pittsburgh Transportation Group and city officials will announce a new taxi cab service Tuesday for Downtown, the North Shore, South Side and Oakland.

Jerry Campolongo, director of Yellow Cab Co., a Pittsburgh Transportation Group subsidiary, said the company will start with six new black-and-white cabs and expand to as many as 20 as demand warrants. He said the service is geared toward people living Downtown and visitors to entertainment venues and restaurants.

The significant growth in residents in core areas like Downtown and the Strip, is running straight into a declining and perhaps hopelessly dysfunctional transit system. Cabs alone are not the answer, but they could be part of it.

The original plan was to start with 15 cars to serve The South Side, North Shore and Downtown. Instead the service will cover a wider area including Oakland with only 6 cars to start.

Who Knew? It's Legal to Hail a Cab and Pittsburgh Transportation Group Wants to Promote it

Why do discussions about increasing urban convenience, vitality and reducing the parking footprint so rarely mention taxis or any other non standard transport like shuttle buses or mini vans? It's driving, big transit (perhaps biking) or nothing.

One look at the Burg told me this had the makings of a great cab city since so many of the key areas of town, The North Shore, The Strip, Downtown and The South Side are so close together. The problem is that it's hard to boost residential and business density in these areas without cabs and it's hard to run cabs without that density. (It's a whole lot harder if the land is hogged by mostly empty stadiums)

A new program by the biggest city cab company, Pittsburgh Transportation Group aims to dedicate at least 15 cars to just these areas.

From The Pittsburgh Business Times

"So here's the solution: Come March, Yellow Cab will roll out a fleet of black and white, newer model cars dedicated exclusively to the greater Golden Triangle Area-Downtown. South Side, North Shore and parts of the Strip District."

An ad campaign promoting the service will use catchy phrases like "What the Hail" and "Hail Yes" to promote the still foreign concept of flagging down a cab on the street here.

Personally, I have a few doubts about the service if it doesn't extend to include a slightly wider area like Bloomfield, The War Streets, the whole Strip District and most of Lawrenceville. Still, I like the thinking here.