It will take more than a year to complete, but Pittsburgh Regional Transit has started installing new signs at 7,000 bus stops that will help riders get instant information about when the next bus will arrive.
The black, blue and white signs, which began showing up on Downtown Pittsburgh streets this past week, mark where the buses will stop and which buses serve that stop, just like the signs they are replacing. The new signs also will have additional information, such as the number of the bus stop and a QR code, which riders can scan and instantly find out when the next bus is scheduled to arrive and where it is on the route.
The new signs also have a special coating to make them more reflective and easier to see.
Until now, the agency only offered riders real-time information about when their bus might arrive by texting their bus stop ID number to 41411, a feature the agency introduced in 2018.
“This will be a big improvement,” spokesman Adam Brandolph said.
Agency employees are making and installing the signs around other duties they have, so they likely will spend less than half of their work hours on the new signs. Brandolph said the signs will be installed along the service’s busiest routes first — Downtown, the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway and the West Busway.
The agency expects to spend about $30,000 a year on the signs.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.