Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

I believe that one of the biggest challenges has been the slow pace with which we’ve adapted our infrastructure to modern mobility needs. In too many parts of the city, our neighborhoods are still built for cars and cars alone.

I remember when Pittsburgh seemed to reach its high point of its progressive commitments to rethinking how the city supports people’s mobility preferences and needs about a decade ago. Pittsburgh was lauded for taking on this tough challenge and starting long overdue work. It pursued this work aggressively, not only because it was important, but because it also had to make up for lost time.

However, it’s beginning to look like your pace has plateaued, especially as we struggle to properly maintain our existing infrastructure as it currently is, let alone redesign it for modern and forward-looking uses. It’s 2025, and if we want our city to keep moving forward, we have to take seriously the fact that more and more people are going to want to live here without owning a personal motor vehicle. A failure to do so is a failure to meet the needs and preferences of our residents both now and in the future.

Infrastructure maintenance is part of the meat and potatoes work of government. It isn’t flashy, and most people don’t notice infrastructure unless something has gone wrong. But, we can’t let a lack of recognition or excitement be a deterrent to doing what’s right to improve the quality of life of our residents.

These investments take time and resources. Redesigning the built environment, securing sufficient funding, and building and implementing changes are all time-consuming endeavors. Nevertheless, the city has to press forward. We need to pick up the pace and look at what our peer cities are doing. We need to be able to look around and ask ourselves why we can’t do it while they can.
We need effective resource and time management. That starts at the top. We need a Mayor committed to following through on projects and honoring the obligations to residents. As Mayor, I’ll work through gridlock and I’ll get our projects across the finish line.

Another major obstacle is overcoming the perception that someone absolutely needs their own personal motor vehicle to live a comfortable, fulfilling, and successful life here in Pittsburgh. Cultural change, unfortunately, can move even slower than the pace at which infrastructure improvements are completed. We need a Mayor with a vision of the future, who embraces change, and can amplify the expertise of urbanists who are fighting to help make our city more accessible and livable for more people. I will be that Mayor.

I’m no stranger to tough fights and working with constituents to get projects done, so let me be clear: I don’t care if I get angry phone calls and emails about building bike lanes or making our roads safer. If you live in Pittsburgh and you want safer ways to get around your neighborhoods, whether it’s by biking, walking, or taking public transit, then you deserve that right. Our neighborhoods belong to people, no personal cars. I plan to be a Mayor that prioritizes doing what’s right to make this city a more livable place for everyone, and I’ll champion a change in culture that takes our residents’ diverse mobility preferences seriously.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

Safety is the biggest challenge for residents who don’t own a personal motor vehicle. People who bike or walk to get around are among Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable road users and unfortunately we have the data to show it. While most fatal and serious crashes occur on roads where bikes and pedestrians are not even permitted, fully a third of serious roadway crashes involve vulnerable road users. We know that increasing speeds (drivers are moving at about 7 miles an hour faster than they did before the pandemic) and larger vehicles (vehicles are 12 percent longer and 17 percent wider than they were a decade ago) make matters worse.

We know that roadway safety has three components: roadway design, driver education, and enforcement. My administration has been attacking each. To make sure pedestrians and cyclists stay safe, we are making infrastructure revisions and focusing on roadway design, making inexpensive fixes (paint and flexposts) to make rapid progress, insisting on good bike/ped facilities in new construction (for instance, Bates Street) and planning for more expensive interventions as part of capital budgeting. We’ve invested in educational programs, particularly around schools, and partnered with community organizations to help them educate their neighbors. Since it’s tricky and costly to have police observe roadway infractions, we are focused on using technology for more consistent and efficient enforcement. Our ability to implement is dependent on state law, but we were successful in gaining authority to install red light enforcement cameras. From there, we will push for speed cameras.

Finally, we know that safety and convenience for cyclists must be part and parcel of an overall mobility plan that includes expanded transit options, bike share stations, good sidewalks and smart parking options. We are working with our partners at PRT, PennDot, the Parking Authority and advocacy organizations such as yours to ensure that the city’s parts of this puzzle are integrated with theirs.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

Ensure Pittsburgh has a thriving, predictable, reliable public transportation system that serves all of Pittsburgh safely.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

A key part of my vision for community and neighborhood development is connectivity. Let’s look at our neighborhood business districts’ main streets, for example. They enhance community engagement and help our residents connect with their neighbors while also spurring economic activity across Pittsburgh. Marquee developments and new projects must be tied to neighborhoods, and connections must ensure links — both physical and social — to new or expanded opportunities.

Someone who lives south on the Monongahela River shouldn’t have to give up half of their day just because they want to get to their favorite shop in the East End without using a car. A student in Oakland should be able to get to a Pirates game on the North Shore with ease even without a driver’s license. But, to move around our city with greater ease, we need to make it safer for people to do so. If we want people to be able to enjoy the full benefits of Pittsburgh, then Pittsburgh has to make it more practical, economical, and, critically, safer to get around.

Safe mobility options make it easier for people to move around our city in the way that suits them best. With easier movement of people, we’ll see our local businesses enjoying more customers and a broader reach. We’ll make car-dependency less of a factor in where people can choose to live. We’ll see fewer people harmed in traffic accidents on roads that are more dangerous than they should be for bikers, pedestrians, and people waiting for the bus.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

For much of its life, Pittsburgh was a city living off its coal seam. Hot heavy industries like glass making, ceramics and of course steel were situated here to exploit that resource, as well as the waterways needed for cooling and transport. Nearly all of the challenges and opportunities we face today can be linked to our most basic need for reinvention and renewal, and mobility is at the heart of each of them. I often say we are a city of 300,000 attempting to support infrastructure built for 600,000. Our need to grow our population, which is why I’ve been focused on creating high quality jobs, supporting high quality schools, and welcoming new immigrants. The obvious need to retain some number of the thousands and thousands of talented students who spend time here, the vast majority of whom are bikers and walkers and who consider mobility in choosing where to work and live, is a clear reason to integrate bike/ped facilities into all of our infrastructure. We especially love the projects where we are able to convert the past – for instance, disused railways – into the future, in the form of bike paths and trails. The same could be said for affordable housing. As we work to ensure that our reinvention does not push out lower income and in particular Black families, we are hard at work preserving and repurposing a wide range of structures to create attractive and affordable housing to attract and retain new Pittsburghers, as well as changing our zoning rules to permit the dense and walkable neighborhoods that are sustainable and attractive. Of course, meeting our climate goals depends on reducing carbon emissions. We need our mobility investments to advance that goal as well.

Finally, your observation that the city’s major goals are deeply entwined is entirely correct. That’s why we’ve funded the city’s first ever comprehensive plan, to engage residents, planners and advocates in thinking about how we harmonize our initiatives to create our future city for all.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

There currently are not enough options to consider. Expanding dedicated non stop bus , trolly and future transportation technologies should be considered as are transportation alternatives evolve. We still do not have a direct mass transportation route from the city to the airport.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

In 2017, through executive order, Pittsburgh committed to creating a city where we design our streets with better enforcement and design standards to, as it was written then, “achieve the vision of zero traffic fatalities.” The subsequent work of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure and the Vision Zero policy have sprung out of that central commitment, and I’ve believed in that mission from the start.

I commit to continuing to push forward toward the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries on our roads. It’s not just a matter of if we can achieve this goal — it’s that we must reach this goal. The city has a commitment to keep its residents safe everywhere, and that obviously includes our roads and public rights-of-way. That means that we have to take our obligations seriously and continue to do better year after year to cut down and ultimately eliminate these fatalities and injuries.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

Absolutely and absolutely. For three years we have been training our staff in the methods of root cause problem solving and the need to set our sights on zero harm. In public safety, that means zero homicides and non-fatal shootings. In worker safety, that means zero injuries. And in road safety, that means zero fatalities and serious injuries. This way of thinking and acting differs from traditional goal setting which tells us to reduce harm by, say, 50 percent in three years. No one would volunteer to be the person who it is “acceptable” to harm. Instead, we employ a method of investigating every fatal crash, implementing immediate steps to contain the situation, and then identifying the root cause solution and implementing that change not only at the site of the crash but everywhere that same root cause obtains. You’ve seen these rapid response changes in neighborhoods and on roadways as varied as the Boulevard of the Allies, Rowan and Paulson, Beaver Ave, and Johnston Avenue in Glen Hazel.

In addition, we have learned that 80% of our crashes occur on 12% of our roadways. Understanding our “biggest worst” areas allows us to plan for preventative interventions in our own capital budget or with partners and PennDot. In this way, we approach the goal of zero harm at the fastest rate possible.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

Managing our transportation lanes and keeping their users safe is always first priority. Address the problems and dangers individually and find the cause of the problem. Create a plane to make sure the known issues are fixed going forward. I don’t know the entirety of the program so I am unable to give a good answer beyond this.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

I’ve long been a supporter of Complete Streets policies. These efforts are meant to make sure that our roads are usable to everyone, whether they’re driving, biking, or walking. People should be able to move around their city safely, irrespective of the mobility option that they choose. Complete Streets policies include preventative measures like traffic calming, which aims to reconfigure traffic and road patterns to limit the actions that lead to dangerous, aggressive driving. Narrowing lanes, adding chicanes, and installing bump-outs, traffic medians, pedestrian islands, and speed humps / tables are all examples. A Complete Streets approach also prompts cities to think about the permission structure that allows dangerous and reckless driving. A city’s built environment shouldn’t be designed in such a way where people can find themselves in danger just by traveling around.

The city made the correct choice in choosing to embrace Complete Streets policies, both from a design and planning perspective and from an infrastructure perspective. I think that these interventions have been successful, and the efforts to reorient our neighborhood planning and capital investments around a holistic vision of Complete Streets through all neighborhoods.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

Though there’s always more work to be done, we’re making real progress planning for and installing neighborhood traffic calming, scheduling capital improvements on our most dangerous roadways, and winning grants to help us to extend our resources. I think we’ve also made tremendous strides breaking down silos between agencies with responsibility for our roadways. And our bike-sharing facilities are getting better every day. I especially love this year’s addition of adaptive cycles for people with physical disabilities. And I’m genuinely delighted to see us working to engage residents in improvements, whether by helping us to complete sidewalk assessments or with pop-up safety enhancements like planters.

As bureaucratic as it may sound, I want to highlight the power of collaboration. Our decision to co-locate the streets part of DOMI with the streets part of DPW has fostered strong cooperation that pays off, for instance, in maintenance of bike paths after snow events. Partnering deeply with PennDot has resulted in important bike friendly changes to the Fern Hollow reconstruction plans and plans for Bates Ave, the Squirrel Hill interchange, and West End Bridge reconstruction that add great bike/ped options. We needed our finance department to help us figure out how to make sidewalk repair convenient and affordable for residents. Tightened coordination with the utilities is allowing us to plan better for inconveniences as well as stretch our paving budget. Perhaps most importantly, we are orchestrating conversations between DOMI and our public safety bureaus, to help everyone plan together, so that our collective interests in the right of way accommodates, to the greatest extent possible, every team whose job it is to prevent injury and death.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

Large intersection roundabouts.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

Beyond how we design and use our roads, we also need to be serious about enforcement. We need to make sure that our safety regulations are enforced evenly and consistently, but we’re not doing a good enough job of that right now. Reckless driving endangers not only people in our neighborhoods, but the drivers themselves, too. Things like driving dangerously, blowing through stop signs in school zones, and speeding through neighborhoods all affect residents’ quality of life. These are serious issues and should be treated as such.

While traffic calming interventions can be successful, there has to be a multi-pronged approach to making our streets safer. Preventative measures like traffic calming help remove the possibility of dangerous, reckless driving, but there still may be motorists who resist these changers and continue to drive recklessly. That’s why we need consistent enforcement to be tied into our efforts.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

I think the shortest answer is “more”. More dedicated funding, more miles added to the bike network, more protection in the network we have. We also need more education and buy-in from the Pittsburgh community around roadway safety. Through Vision Zero education campaigns, we are beginning to tackle this issue but we need Pittsburghers to remember that bikers and pedestrians are our neighbors and we all need to share our streets safely.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

Lack of enforcement of current traffic laws that are in place to keep pedestrians safe.
Footbridges across larger intersections/roads

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

We need to show neighborhoods and Council Districts that we actually mean what we say. That means putting our money where our mouth is and getting the work done. How can a neighborhood believe that these investments and changes are actually going to come to their neighborhood when they’ve been continually delayed? How can we expect people to embrace change when they’re being short-changed on what was promised to them?

By reneging on or slow-walking commitments, you turn people off and risk alienating them from a good cause. As people lose faith in the city’s ability to follow-through, it turns would-be allies into enemies, making it harder and harder to secure robust community buy-in.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

We know that protected bike lanes are the safest for residents to travel in, but they are often difficult to implement due to funding and lack of community support. As we continue to expand our network, we will need to work with Council members to ensure they are bought-in to bicycling facilities and can engage with their respective constituents to garner community support for projects.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

I would have to see the entire plan and have a budget layover to get a good look at the achievements and downfalls. I see that we are spending money on resources in areas that do not appear to be top of the list for corrective action. I do not believe DOMI is utilizing state generated traffic data to efficiently and frugally put safety measures in place.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

We need to be realistic about not letting a vocal minority overrule what will be of a great benefit to a neighborhood. There will always be some folks who oppose neighborhood projects. That’s inevitable. But, we need to be pragmatic about building sufficient consensus to get these projects done.

I have experience building consensus. I served on City Council for 10 years and managed to pass several pieces of landmark legislation. I’ve had to fight against my own party at times to get legislation through City Council. I’ve had to work with many Council Members and multiple Mayors, all of whom have had different priorities and different neighborhoods to represent. As County Controller, I’ve never shied away from sharing hard facts about the state of Allegheny County’s finances, even when it’s unpopular. We need a leader who can actually build consensus and broaden coalitions.

As Mayor, you won’t always make everyone happy all of the time. Nevertheless, you have to do what needs to be done for the betterment of our communities.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

Recognizing that facts and figures aren’t the only elements of change management, we assigned a very skilled member of our neighborhood services team to help the expert planners designing better safety to plan their community engagement. The first thing he taught us was to talk about everyone’s right to safe travel, no matter how they get around. He also helped us to see that while negative voices are often the loudest, they’re not always the most numerous, so it’s important to actually understand what a neighborhood feels before deciding something is controversial. This was brought home to me recently in a community meeting where one angry resident asked the question “who wants these bollards anyway?!?!” and two thirds of the room raised their hands. Recently we’ve tried to reframe the question from being “how do we make the city better FOR bikes” to “how do we make the city better WITH bikes.” Answers range from highlighting savings to taxpayers from reducing wear and tear to our roadways to deliberately pairing safety improvements with economic development, so that concerns about (say) removing parking could be mitigated by plans to invest in the business district, perhaps in the roadway itself, through outdoor dining, or with lighting or other amenities. The cures for controversy are better information, more conversation, and actually addressing the concerns of people who oppose the project. And sometimes it’s important to go ahead and implement, knowing that over time people will adjust and begin to enjoy improved safety themselves.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

Every street and neighborhood affected by proposed routes should be canvassed with the data and proposals with options. Not every neighborhood wants a roundabout and some are demanding a speedhump. He are telling and not asking.

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond

Corey O’Connor
Democrat
coreyformayor.com

The Mayor needs to show up for everyone, and I’ll always do that. That’s what a Mayor is supposed to do, and it’s what our residents need. The people of Pittsburgh want a Mayor who takes their concerns seriously. I’m ready on day one to be a Mayor for everyone in Pittsburgh. I want the people of Pittsburgh to know that their concerns and their priorities will be my concerns and my priorities, and that includes making our street safer for all users and not just centering motor vehicles as the most important form of mobility.

You deserve safe streets. Building them and maintaining them is a core service and responsibility of the city. Safe streets belong to everyone. They don’t only belong to certain parts of the cities or the places where the streets are safe right now. They belong everywhere. As Mayor, I won’t let your zip code determine what you’re owed. As a Pittsburgher, you deserve vibrant, prosperous neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods include safe streets.

Mayor Ed Gainey (Incumbent)
Democrat
gaineyformayor.com

I take safety seriously and I’ve changed policy, resource allocation and the very way that people work together in order to make progress. Despite tight budgets and tough community conversations, we’ve continued to invest and innovate to make biking, walking and rolling more convenient and safe for everyone. Through Vision Zero, we’ve put roadway injuries on a par with other hazards and risks that Pittsburghers face. We’ve built relationships with other agencies to make sure their investments benefit our biking, walking and rolling residents. We’ve pushed through controversy on a number of occasions to do what we know is right, even when other elected leaders have advised us not to. And we will continue to do that. Finally, we’re running our campaign without needing the support of or making promises to people and organizations who are indifferent to or have actively opposed investments in bike/bed facilities or the pressing need to address climate change.

Tony Moreno
Republican
realsteelmayor.com

I am the only candidate who will keep you safe in all venues and utilize all tools available to target and eliminate the dangers presented in our difficult road structures. I will spend your tax dollars transparently and frugally and ask the residents of Pittsburgh how we can make their transportation experience easier and safer.
I still believe in mag lev technology. I grew up in Southern California and Disneyland has had magnetic technology that has run a people mover around the entire park(as does Disney world FLA) comfortably and consistently since the 1950’s. We have a solid foundation of railways to start to build on and I see that as the future of direct routes from the city to the airport and growing to all suburban areas. My bicycle was the magic carpet of my youth. It gave me freedom and I have biked my entire life until an injury limits my riding.
Thank you Bike Pittsburgh

Thomas West
Republican
west4mayor.com

Did not respond