Pittsburgh Questions?

I'm going to be attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh this March, and there's a few things I'd like to know before moving to the city.

First: What's the city's major form of transportation? I don't have a car yet, so what can I use to get around? Are buses my best bet, and if so are they clean? Because the ones in Detroit ((where I'm moving from)) can be pretty nasty. I'm not too picky, I just don't want to sit on a seat with questionable stains and gunk lol.

Second: Is it expensive? I'm going to be living in a dorm so renting isn't a concern, but how are restaurant, grocery, clothing, ect prices?

Third: Jobs. Are jobs in the city hard to find? I'm sure it's better than Michigan, but do places in the city normally hire college students?

Fourth: Is it safe? I'm going to be doing a lot of walking and taking public transportation for a while so I guess my question is will I have to carry a taser and mace, or is the city basically not shady?

These are the four things I'm concerned about, but if you can give me any more advice that may make moving to the city easier, please feel free, and thank you so much! :DPittsburgh Questions?
March is a ways off, but let me welcome you to Pittsburgh! I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities, since I spend most of my time either northwest of the city proper or in Oakland attending the University of Pittsburgh.



First: The major form of transportation, as in any other city, is cars :P. Kidding aside, we do have an expansive and mostly-reliable bus network that will take you to anywhere of interest in and around Pittsburgh. I can't really offer more details, because the entire bus system will be overhauled in February, but they are promising an upgrade to the bus fleet along with better scheduling, so when you arrive there should be plenty of new, pretty clean buses running frequently to all points of Allegheny County. Even now, though, only a few buses that operate the most traffic-clogged routes are often late, and all the buses I've been on don't have any mysterious gunk aside from the usual litter of the inconsiderate.



Second: I've never been to Detroit, so I can't say if Pittsburgh is cheaper or more expensive, so I will simply offer some common price points: bus fare runs from 2-4 dollars, depending on how far you travel, with 50 cent transfers valid for 3 hours. Gas is about $2.60 a gallon right now, and a meal at TGI Friday's, Chili's, or other sit-down restaurants of the same class goes for between $12 to $16, with McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, etc coming in around $5-7 for a combo meal. Clothing prices should be similar to Detroit, if maybe slightly more expensive, since all we seem to have around here are franchise stores and a high property tax rate. Groceries for my girlfriend and I for a week run to approximately $80-100, depending on what we get; she likes to go for the slightly pricier organic stuff, so you can find stuff cheaper.



Third: You can almost always find someplace seeking the usual minimum-wage worker to wait tables, run a cash register, answer phones, etc. If you wait to apply to jobs until mid-April, you're going to have some competition, though, as that's when the 20,000-student University of Pittsburgh ends the term, which floods the local job market, so start looking as soon as you arrive and you stand a good chance of getting something.



Fourth: The city overall isn't dangerous enough to be walking around with a taser and mace, but there are a few neighborhoods you'd do well to avoid or be cautious in, particularly at night. There are occasional shootings, but none really have anything to do with strangers and are simply cases of gun-owning family members, neighbors, or friends getting a little heated towards each other. If it makes you feel safer, you can bring the taser and mace with you, but in all my time here, I've never had a friend robbed, mugged, or otherwise be the victim of a crime. Public transport here is very safe; to my knowledge, no crime more serious than the theft of an item accidentally left on the bus has happened in recent history. And you can go around the bad neighborhoods altogether, even when walking. The one thing I will warn you about is that the rate of burglary jumps up a bit near the end of the universities' terms, when students are packing up and forget to lock doors or windows. Do that, and you're as safe in Pittsburgh as anywhere.



My last bit of advice is this: if you can help it, time your move into the city to occur either between 10AM and 3PM, or else after 7PM. From 7 to 10 is morning rush hour, and from 3 to 7 is afternoon rush, and the highways tend to get stuffed very quickly.



If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, and I hope you have a great time when you get here.