A large metropolitan area that is surrounded by rivers and hills, Pittsburgh has an infrastructure system that has been built out over the years to include roads, tunnels, bridges, railroads, inclines, bike paths, and stairways; however, the hills and rivers still form many barriers to transportation within the city.

Roads and infrastructure The high number of freeze/thaw cycles during the winter is sometimes blamed for the difficulty of maintaining local roads.

Streets

Pittsburgh is home to several notable streets. Roslyn Place is a small wooden-paved cul-de-sac located in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The street was built in 1914 in the Nicolson Pavement style and is home to the historic Roslyn Place district.

Canton Avenue is the steepest officially recorded public street in the United States.

East Carson Street has one of the largest concentrations of 19th-century homes, which has prompted outsiders to call the neighborhood the city's Georgetown. It includes many bars and restaurants as well as residences.

Grant Street is the main government and business corridor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is home to the global headquarters of U.S. Steel, Koppers Chemicals, Federated Investors, and Oxford Development. It is also home to the seat of Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh, and the regional Federal Government offices. It is part of the Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District.

Expressways

The main highway connecting Pittsburgh to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) on the east is I-376, known to locals as the "Parkway East." It includes the locally notorious Squirrel Hill interchange, where unusual traffic patterns and the adjoining tunnel often cause traffic congestion. Several accidents have involved tall trucks getting stuck against the tunnel roof. Also part of I-376 is the "Parkway West," which leads from downtown Pittsburgh to the Pittsburgh International Airport's main terminal and leads into the contiguous Airport Parkway and Southern Expressway. I-279, known as the "Parkway North," runs north of the city to merge with I-79. It connects the city with the North Hills and the Cranberry area. There is no "Parkway South".

I-579, or the "Crosstown Boulevard," is a spur off of I-279 that alleviates downtown and North Shore traffic headed north or south and to events at either the convention center or the PPG Paints Arena.

North of the city, the Parkway North and a short section of Interstate 579 over the Veterans Bridge have reversible high occupancy vehicle HOV lanes for rush-hour commuting, which require a minimum of two occupants per vehicle for use; no electric/hybrid vehicle "HOV OK" program has yet been made available. On August 25, 1995, six people were killed in a head-on collision on the HOV lanes after PennDOT employee William Dean Snyder failed to follow procedures. Snyder maintained the traffic gates open for both directions simultaneously.

Belt system

Unlike many other major U.S. cities, Pittsburgh lacks a dedicated contiguous beltway surrounding the city. I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike), I-79, and I-70 form a roughly triangular-shaped "beltway," but the distance of these roads from the city center and the need to exit and enter each leg to continue circling the city render them impractical as a beltway; commuters are forced to use secondary roads to go from suburb to suburb. The Allegheny County Belt System is an attempt to address this without building additional infrastructure. The Pittsburgh Wayfinder System is a similar system that aims to guide travelers to popular destinations and services in the city proper.

Bridges and tunnels

Pittsburgh is a city of bridges: over 2,000 bridges dot the landscape of Allegheny County. The southern entrance to downtown is through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and then over the Fort Pitt Bridge.

The Panhandle Bridge, a former railroad bridge, carries Pittsburgh Regional Transit's Blue, Silver, and Red (formerly 42S/47L) light rail lines across the Monongahela River. Other notable bridges are Fort Duquesne Bridge, the Liberty Bridge, and The Three Sisters.

Notable tunnels include two interstate highway tunnels on I-376, Fort Pitt Tunnel and Squirrel Hill Tunnel; major traffic tunnels Armstrong Tunnel and Liberty Tunnels; the light rail tunnel, Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel, the Schenley Tunnel, the Wabash Tunnel and Corliss Tunnel.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit

Local public transportation is coordinated by Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), the 14th-largest urban mass transit system in the United States. It services , including all of Allegheny County and portions of Armstrong, Beaver, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. PRT maintains a network of intracity bus routes, two inclines on Mt. Washington above Downtown (mostly a tourist attraction rather than a means of commuting), and a light rail/busway system. The transit agency discontinued its commuter rail system, the PATrain, in 1989. However, A New Line To Arnold Has Been Proposed Since 2009.

Light rail

The light rail network is a direct descendant of the original streetcar system, which once numbered dozens of lines and included interurban routes to neighboring cities such as Washington and Charleroi. The current network comprises five routes on of track, operated by modern articulated light rail vehicles. However, most is on dedicated right-of-way, including the Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel, trains still street run in the Beechview neighborhood. Once across the Monongahela River, trains enter a subway to serve Downtown Pittsburgh. Since March 2012, the North Shore Connector has extended service across the Allegheny River, via tunnel, to such destinations as PNC Park, Heinz Field, and Rivers Casino.

The following colors designate light rail lines: Red Line—former 42S South Hills Village via Beechview light rail route Blue Line—former 47S South Hills Village via Overbrook light rail route Silver Line — former 47L Library via Overbrook light rail route

Busways and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

PRT operates over 800 buses on both standard routes and bus rapid transit routes in Allegheny County. The latter use high-speed articulated buses that run at grade and above ground on their own right-of-way with platform stations, much like a rail system. In some instances, such as the Mount Washington tunnel, these buses travel along paved sections of the light rail line. There are currently three routes: the South Busway, from downtown to the southern part of Allegheny County, the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, from the Amtrak station to the eastern suburbs, and the West Busway, to the western suburbs. Plans include extending the West Busway to the Pittsburgh International Airport.

All light rail/busway stations outside the downtown have PRT station shuttles that serve the surrounding neighborhoods, and sections of the metropolitan area not served by the light rail/busway system, including most of the northern suburbs, have regular PRT bus routes. The mass transit systems of Beaver, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland counties (including Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority) operate their own commuter shuttles to and from the city; the private company Myers Coach Line operates commuter service from Butler County. The mass transit system of Monongalia County, West Virginia also provides connections to Pittsburgh. In early 2005, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission proposed combining Pittsburgh Regional Transit, then known as Port Authority, with the nine surrounding metro counties' transit agencies.

The following colors designate busways: Green—bus routes using the West Busway, designated with a 'G' Purple—bus routes using the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, designated with a 'P' Orange—bus routes using the I-279 HOV lane, designated with an 'O' Yellow—bus routes using the South Busway, designated with a 'Y'

On July 22, 2011, the Port Authority approved spending at least $1 million, including $837,993 in federal funding and $209,498 in county money, to study developing a rapid bus line from downtown to the Oakland section. The study was projected to take 18 months and use no money from Pittsburgh Regional Transit's operating budget. The study resulted in planning for the new University Line. Rerouting existing bus routes and implementing other system changes began in October 2023. The first phase of construction began in Downtown Pittsburgh on September 13, 2023, and was completed in Summer 2025. The second phase of construction started in Uptown and Oakland in January 2025 and is expected to be completed in 2027.

Funiculars

Two inclines ascend Mount Washington: Duquesne Incline and Monongahela Incline. Pittsburgh had considerably more inclines, and a freight incline parallelled the Monongahela Incline.

Intercity travel Pittsburgh International Airport

The city is primarily served by Pittsburgh International Airport in suburban Findlay Township, Pennsylvania, formerly a hub and key focus city for US Airways."USAirways USA Route Map." USAirways route map. Retrieved June 1, 2007.

Other area airports also serve Pittsburgh. General aviation is served by the Allegheny County Airport. Its terminal is of a 1920s art-deco design. It once hosted Charles Lindbergh and handles 139,000 private and corporate-jet flights a year.

A secondary reliever airport is in the eastern suburb of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Over the last few decades, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport has been served by 2-3 daily flights from US Airways, Northwest Airlines/Delta Air Lines, and presently Spirit Airlines, as well as serving as a general aviation hub for east hills communities.

Other area airports include:

North Metro: Butler County Airport Zelienople Municipal Airport Rock Airport New Castle Municipal Airport Lakehill Airport South Metro: Allegheny County Airport Rostraver Airport Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport Washington County Airport East Metro: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Greensburg Jeannette Regional Airport Indiana County-Jimmy Stewart Airport West Metro: Beaver County Airport Eddie Dew Memorial Airpark (Ohio) Jefferson County Airpark (Ohio) Herron Airport (West Virginia) Wheeling Airport (West Virginia)

Grant Street Transportation Center

Megabus, Greyhound Lines, and Fullington Trailways connect Pittsburgh with distant cities by bus; Greyhound and Fullington Trailways buses stop at the Grant Street Transportation Center intercity bus terminal. Popular destinations include Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

Pittsburgh Union Station

Two Amtrak trains serve Penn Station: the Pennsylvanian to New York City via Philadelphia, and the Capitol Limited between Washington, D.C. and Chicago, which uses CSX from Washington to Pittsburgh's outer perimeter, the AVR on the P&W Subdivision through the Panther Hollow Tunnel in the university district, and NS from the AVR interchange through Penn Station to Chicago.

Pedestrians and bicycling Pedestrian staircases

Pittsburgh has more public staircases (737) than any other city in the United States, followed by Cincinnati and San Francisco. Many of these staircases have street names, and lead to hillside neighborhoods that can be difficult to access by car in winter.

The large number of steps is an engineering approach to the topography upon which the City of Pittsburgh is built. According to author Martin Aurand, Pittsburgh "lies unevenly on unruly land". The city is located at the confluence of two rivers which cut through elevated land of the Appalachian Plateau. The city is settled at elevations ranging from above sea level.

Pedestrian trails