BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I don't know... I get really nervous around girls.

i'm kind of surly if that helps.

@Joe, I don't believe it for a minute....

@lolly, I hope to be at the hearing. I am wearing a lot of brown today...if I make it over I'll try to look for you.

I wish they didn't put these things in the middle of the day when us full-time wage slaves are working.

D'oh! It's in the middle of the day, when us normal people are at our normal-people jobs.

Watch it live,

http://pittsburgh.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&event_id=75

or go to

http://pittsburgh.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

and watch it later...

i am wearing a lot of black and a lot of blue.

i am a normal type of person, too, but one of those who has been recessioned out of a normal person type of job. so i go to hearings in the middle of the day.

1:30 pm

City Council Chambers

5th Floor City-County Building

414 Grant St.

Starting to look like I might not make it. I had submitted written testimony in advance of the Feb meeting date, but wanted to be there as a show of support. May still make it, but can't be certain.

How did this go???? I would have really liked to have been there.

Yeah, did anyone get to go to this?? I hope the bike community was able to represent!

There were about 15 of us there. For the most part Council seemed inclined to pass the bill, with Dowd (totally) and Kraus (generally) in favor of it. But, the devil is in the details, and Shields and at least one other Council member struggled with one element of the bill in particular. It seems that under certain conditions, a developer/property owner can reduce the number of auto spaces they need to provide by adding an equal number of bike parking spaces, up to 30 percent of the total auto parking required. So, basically, a one for one swap of car spaces for bike spaces, up to 30 percent of the total. The question was, what happens in winter, and bike ridership drops. Will we need those additional car spaces? Most of the council seemed inclined to vote in favor, but as one said "he wanted to understand the full implications of what he was voting on."

In the winter, you wear a bit more and use slightly beefier tires.

I was there, and was happy to nervously, quickly read a prepared statement to the assembled members of council. Council members questioned representatives of city planning (who sponsored this legislation) about many issues, mostly involving the 30 percent swap option. I didn't anticipate the amount of questioning they had for the staff--almost an hour of Steve Patchan and two other people responding to council's concerns--and so had to go right after my statement. It seems, though, they decided to have an additional post-agenda meeting on this--I'm not sure if that's open to the public or what.

@Joe (and @CouncilmanLavelle) I did mention that the seasonal aspect may not be much of an issue--that people who do transfer away from biking in the winter will just as likely take the bus as drive a car.

Topics I did not get into--being beyond the scope of this--included the silliness of minimum parking requirements in the first place and other Shoupista ideas--though one other speaker did mention the 85 percent capacity rule and neighborhood-based performance parking plans. I also didn't get into the fact that 30 percent of Pittsburgh households don't own a car. Only three minutes and all.

I agree with the assessment that Councilman Dowd seemed very supportive (and would vote for it) and others seemed generally supportive if cautious about all the implications.

the reduction in car spaces was actually a positive for many of the smaller time developers that we talked to. the big ones won't give a toss about the reduction, but the smaller ones are the ones where a reduction can help. imagine a place that needs 10 parking spaces for a rehab of a building, but only has room for 8 spaces. this will really help get some abandoned properties back in use.

While we're on the topic of bike parking, what's the deal with the unused lot in the Southside Works?

I believe CDCP controls that lot.

The vote has been held for one week. Councilpersons Kraus and Rudiak requested the additional week to investigate further. Although a approval would have been ideal today (with BikePGH's staff's opportunity to announce to their present company), the overall vibe is still optimistic that the bill will be approved.

The unsused parking lot at SSW was the subject of a fair amount of discussion at the CSX National Gateway meeting last week. Local retailers would like to see that lot re-opened for customer parking. The City apparently owns it. They used to operate a pay station/booth at the exit to collect payment, but found the staffing costs to be too high for that location, so closed the booth and removed it. So, there'd no longer any entry into the lot.

I don't understand how they could possibly need any more time to investigate.

Swalfoort, You would think that to encourage people to shop and use the SSW that they would open up that lot and just not charge for it.

Opening up that lot would probably gut the income for that garage, which must have a huge monthly payment to make. They would be much better off making it available for another building or housing or something.

Structured parking costs $10,000 to $25,000 per space. An open lot with "free" spaces (still costing about $1,000 each) would definitely cut into the mortgage payments.

I don't understand how they could possibly need any more time to investigate.

seriously...

I don't understand how they could possibly need any more time to investigate.

Read: I need to investigate if this particular bill will help or hinder my chances of re-election.

I was at the hearing Tuesday and have a summary on my blog-thing.

ew. sorry i'm not trying to self-promote, but i was there and i wrote about it.

http://wp.me/pBRi5-8n

thanks for the write up!

I want to thank all of you who showed up to this and took the time to speak on behalf of this ordinance. You are what this city needs in order to progress, and you are what makes BikePGH work. Thank you for your dedicated advocacy! City Planning and I will follow up with Krause and hopefully answer all of his questions.

so this officially passed now 9-0

Been getting some press. Check out this kdka article where the polish hammer weighs in on riding in pittsburgh

http://kdka.com/green/Pittsburgh.bike.law.2.1585254.html

hammer's face on my 42" tv is not how i planned on waking up from my post dog feeding nap this morning. i almost fell off the couch.

Wow, that's great. The press is even positive regarding this measure. Not a single dissenting opinion in the video clip or city council!