New South Side Shuttle Service Makes Debut On St. Patrick's Day
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The South Side is typically a place where people like to go to have a good time. This is why the city of Pittsburgh is trying to make things easier and worry-free for party-goers.
The city says they want to cut down on parking issues.
"It's just always tough to find a spot, and then I've had a couple parking tickets, so I don't have to deal with it," Brandon Hoehn, of Gibsonia, said.
For that reason, Hoehn took the Nite Rider Shuttle over to the South Side on Friday and parked his car in the Second Avenue Parking Plaza downtown.
Nite Rider made its debut Friday evening, on St. Patrick's Day. The Pittsburgh Parking Authority provided around 800 free parking spaces and will take riders across the 10th Street Bridge and East to 21st Street via Muriel, Wharton and East Carson Streets.
"If you come back, brought your car, and thought you had too much don't want to take your car home, you can leave your car penalty free, no cost at all, you get your Z-Trip, your Lyft, your Uber, go home and come back to pick it up the next day," City Councilman Bruce Kraus said.
For more information on the shuttle service, visit Nite Rider's website here.
KDKA caught up with Councilman Kraus while he was testing out the first day of the new shuttle.
Parking is still available on the South Side.
"Meters are in affect from 6 p.m. till 12 a.m. and that revenue is purposely sequestered for police and transportation and clean-up services in the South Side Flats and that alone," Councilman Kraus said.
The cost is $1.50 an hour from 6 p.m. until midnight Friday and Saturdays, but it won't be enforced until April 14 with a small grace period until then. The money will be used for extra law enforcement.
"I'm trying to help the businesses out here and the last thing you want to do is make people not want to come here for paying even more," South Side resident Ryan Kadlik said.
"They're gonna get a lot of revenue, because no one is gonna understand it for a long time. They're gonna be unaware of it," owner of Jesters Court Tattoos, Sean McCarthy, said.
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Councilman Kraus says he will re-evaluate the new shuttle and parking changes in a year.
The shuttle will run every Friday night from 6 p.m. until 4 a.m., pick back up Saturday at 4 p.m. and run until 4 a.m. Sunday.