If you’ve ever wanted to experience Pittsburgh virtually car-free, now’s the time to do it. Of course the reasons behind the streets being empty are the fear-mongering about protests, and so little inspiration on behalf of businesses to encourage their workers to find alternatives to get into work besides driving. This city prides itself on hard work, but as soon as access to Downtown becomes restricted, we close up shop. What kind of example is that to show the world?

By telling people to take the day off, the City lost a real opportunity to be “green” on a whole new scale. We pride ourselves on Pittsburgh’s transformation from a smokey, rust-belt city, to one that boasts tech companies, green buildings and green enterprises, but there was little to no mention in the papers about “green” transportation in Pittsburgh leading up to the G-20. Over twenty percent of all the greenhouse gases emitted in the U.S. come from personal mobile sources (i.e. cars, light trucks, and motorcycles), but cars are the sacred cows in this country. Instead of telling people to stay home during the G-20, the City, County and Allegheny Conference could have and should have issued a challenge for businesses to remain open and to encourage as many workers as possible to take “green” transportation into the city! How about that for a “green” showing on a massive scale? The URA was the only entity actively encouraging multimodalism by opening up one of their parking lots in the South Side for people to park and ride their bikes in to work on the trail. The cost to park there? $1/day. How many takers? Three or four. Downtown could have been a vibrant pedestrian mall. Instead it’s tumbleweeds…

Check out this video from the Post-Gazette on how empty it is Downtown:
http://www.post-gazette.com/multimedia/?videoID=102341