{"id":261162,"date":"2026-08-07T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261162\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:02:08","slug":"wtae-editorial-free-public-transportation-for-city-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261162\/","title":{"rendered":"WTAE Editorial: Free public transportation for city employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Opinion<\/p>\n<p>WTAE Editorial: Free public transportation for city employees<\/p>\n<p>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">WTAE President &amp; General Manager Charles W. Wolfertz III speaks on behalf of the editorial board following Pittsburgh&#8217;s plan to provide free public transit to city employees. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Pittsburgh is piloting a program to provide free public transit passes to 750 downtown city employees, with the city investing $275,000 to cover eligible employees regardless of whether they use the passes regularly.   <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">Taxpayers expect more than a promising idea, they expect results. Participation alone cannot define success, and officials should report on metrics such as how many workers use the passes, how many stop driving, whether parking expenses decrease, and whether the benefit improves attendance or employee retention.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">Employer-paid transit could be a worthwhile investment for Pittsburgh, but before renewing or expanding the program, the city must demonstrate that it is changing commuting habits rather than simply covering fares for employees who already use public transportation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinion WTAE Editorial: Free public transportation for city employees PITTSBURGH \u2014 WTAE President &amp; General Manager Charles W.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,110689],"class_list":["post-261162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-wtae-editorial-free-public-transportation-for-city-employees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}