Living in the pittsburgh area

[luv2shopp85]

Right now I live about 45 minutes away from Pittsburhg with my parents. I just got a job at UPMC Shadyside so I'm looking to relocate to somewhere closer to work.

Is anyone familiar with the good and bad areas of Pittsburgh?

I know Shadyside is a pretty expensive area to live in but I've found some cheaper apartments. I don't know if I want to live in the busy congested city though. I'm thinking about maybe living in Fox Chapel, Blawnox, or Aspinwall. Then maybe taking the bus to work.

What are hte good and bad things about public transportation? I've never used it before either, lol. I looked at the port authority website and it said that the buses don't run on weekends or holidays which would really suck!

Parking at UPMC Shadyside is really expensive. Its $85 a month. So I'd either want to live within walking distance or somewhere on a bus line that could take me to teh hospital in a short amont of time.

I also want to live in a FUN area. I'm 22 and I want to meet new young people.

[K98]

My daughter lives off of Ellsworth in Shadyside. She is about 4-5 blocks from the hospital. She loves it there, lots of people in her age group. My wife and I are less enamored with it, we get a parking ticket every time we visit. My daughter has a car, but rarely uses it. She walks/bikes/rides the bus almost everywhere. Public transportation is pretty good in the east end, less so in the outlying suburbs (much less so).

[eager1hasbegun]

If you do choose to live in the burbs, you will find it hard to get public transportation after 7 pm during the week all day sat. and sun (although, aspinwall might not be too bad if you live close to where the 1A or 500 pass by) Check out Highland Park which is pretty close to Shadyside and has lovely architecture and affordable prices (I lived there for a year or so and only left because of a bad roomie situation). All that said, if you find affordable housing in Shadyside GO FOR IT. I would love to live there. It is a great area with great shopping, great food, and plenty of young people hitting up the great bars. Good luck!

Elise

[luv2shopp85]

Thanks for all your help!

I really only need to use the bus in the winter time. I'm scared to drive when its snowing and I just hate it. But any other time I would be okay with driving 15-20 min to work.. that isn't a problem.

Does the bus not run on weekends and holidays?

[eager1hasbegun]

Fortunately buses run pretty well in the city, especially around Shadyside. They don't run so well very far outside of the city (other than main drags like McKnight Road, Freeport Road, or Rt. 51, to name a few) just around times when people typically commute to town for work (if you worked nightshift or weekends you could potentially have a problem). You can check out PAT's website http://www.portauthority.org/PAAC/Schedules/tabid/166/Default.aspx and see how many routes are available in the areas you are looking at. Just pick the neighborhood from the dropdown menu in the first frame.