Welcome back to another edition of Transit Talk. This is now an award-winning column, and I’d like to offer my thanks to the powers that be — as well as you, dear reader — for your ongoing interest!
However, it occurred to me recently that, whether you’ve enjoyed this column for a while or not, you might be intrigued by my flights of fancy about the T or advocacy for transit funding but still not know what the hell a “neckdown” is or why FlexPosts are so inferior to bollards. I’ll be back to squawking about Pittsburgh’s many mobility needs next month, but this time, I thought I’d offer a brief glossary of some of the terms that crop up frequently in transit advocacy. Hopefully, this helps readers better advocate for and understand transit projects and infrastructure improvement in their communities:
Accessible transit: Perhaps self-explanatory, accessible transit can be used by anyone regardless of ability. For disabled transit users, accommodations include kneeling buses, motorized ramps, low-floor trains or raised platforms, and paratransit services such as ACCESS. One notable accessible transit project currently underway is Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s plan to elevate the platform at Beechview’s Belasco Station for easier boarding.
Bollard: A metal or concrete post designed to prevent vehicle access to pedestrian areas or secure facilities. Some bollards can retract to allow limited access for cars and trucks.
Bulb-out or bulbout: Also called curb extensions, bump-outs, or neckdowns, such projects involve narrowing the right-of-way for cars by enlarging curb and tree lawn space to limit speed and increase pedestrian safety, especially at dangerous intersections. While not transit-related, per se, using bulbouts to add bioswales is a two-for-one solution to overparking and stormwater management (like in the city’s Wightman Park project).
Chicane: A traffic pattern that forces cars to turn slightly. Chicanes can be accomplished through physical infrastructure such as bulbouts and bollards, alternating which side of the street is available for parking, and/or using protected bike lanes to divert vehicles. The reconfiguring of Stanton Avenue between East Liberty and Highland Park is a good example of a local chicane.
Complete streets: Streets designed for use not just by cars, but also by transit vehicles, walkers, rollers, cyclists, and micromobility vehicles such as e-scooters.
Contraflow lane: A bike lane that flows counter to vehicular traffic along a one-way car and truck route (e.g., Third Avenue downtown).
Curb cut: Ramps cut into curbs where walker and roller traffic is intended to cross. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires curb cuts in many projects, and the City of Pittsburgh has been improving new and old curb cuts with tactile paving for blind and low-vision users.
Daylighting: The process of modifying intersections to restrict car parking near the crossing for greater visibility of both traffic and non-drivers. Daylighting can be achieved with paint and signage or physical infrastructure such as bulbouts and bike racks.
FlexPost: A plastic, flexible tube with reflective tape designed to restrict vehicle access to part of the road (e.g., a bike lane) without cutting it off entirely as a bollard would.
Headway: The amount of time between vehicles stopping at a given station or bus stop. For example, the 71A bus has roughly 15-minute headways during peak hours.
Leading pedestrian interval (LPI): The programming of pedestrian signals to allow walkers and rollers to begin crossing before vehicular traffic gets a green light. This practice provides greater visibility to crossing pedestrians when and helps decrease the likelihood of a crash. While antithetical to the “Pittsburgh Left”, LPIs are a proven, cost-effective way to reduce danger at busy crossings.
Protected bike lane: A bike lane separated from traffic by flex posts, bollards, a parking lane, and/or concrete parking stops. A bike lane may also be grade-separated (i.e., on a different level than the street) to prevent vehicle intrusion.
Runnel: A channel added to steps to allow users to push a bike, cart, or other vehicle upward while walking, as the city did on the Joncaire Street steps.
Sharrow: A painted arrow, sometimes against a green background, instructing drivers to share the road with cyclists. While popular among city governments looking to encourage bicycling, some studies have found them to be “mostly useless,” and advocates for complete streets generally favor full bike lanes instead of sharrows.
Sneckdown: A portmanteau for when snowfall reveals areas of roadway that cars don’t generally use, which can help show where neckdowns or bulbouts could be helpful. Neckdowns that appear in autumn among fallen leaves are sometimes called “leckdowns.”
Traffic calming: Any process seeking to reduce vehicle speed and increase pedestrian safety. Traffic calming is usually achieved with a combination of bulbouts/neckdowns, chicanes, and the introduction of speed bumps, humps, or lumps, sometimes including a raised pedestrian crossing (see also: Bigelow Boulevard near the University of Pittsburgh campus).
Transit-oriented development (TOD): Residential or mixed-use development designed around a nearby transit hub or frequently used station. TODs, such as the developments along the East Busway in Shadyside and East Liberty, may limit resident parking options, include on-site bicycle parking and repair facilities, and feature higher density than other developments.
Truck apron: Another important tool in the traffic-calming toolbox, truck aprons can be driven over but are raised or textured, thus creating chicanes or soft bulbouts that allow semi trucks to turn normally while restricting private vehicles to a narrower roadway, as in Allegheny Circle.
There are probably other definitions worth knowing, but the above terms capture some of the ways the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure has helped improve the city for people not stuck behind a steering wheel. As Pittsburgh continues reconnecting parts of the city that have been long hostile to non-drivers, hopefully, we can work to keep locals aware of the longer-term benefits for everyone.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2025.
