BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

the Ellsworth yuppie death highway needs some sharrows badly

Ellesworth is the best way to or from Shadyside, IMO.

Sharrows are NEVER a bad idea, but I haven't had a huge amount of trouble there.

that's the whole problem, around rush hour it becomes much faster to get to Trader Joes in your massive suv with tv's in it than Penn or Center

if the parking was organized better, ie not a mish mash of switching sides, i think it could be waaaaaaay safer.

all those people have huge driveways too.

nice thread title by the way

This is what Lo Pan does to crappy Ellesworth drivers.

Ellsworth needs repaved on the portion from Negley to Shady Ave.

Just my two cents.

one of my good friends got banged up there a while ago on a rainy rushhour evening... it does get crazy sometimes

Ellsworth needs some traffic calming measures. People do speed around you there, I assume because they are trying to use it as a shortcut.

...this is what impatient driver's look like on Ellsworth when waiting for cyclists:

haha dave.

could just start making helmets look like this

Spak, was that a driver? Or a cyclist?

If it is a driver, the chances of him lurking here are roughly the same as Sarah Palin voting for Nader.

Dave, I know I've seen that guy on Ellsworth. Really. Would I say something that wasn't true?

Mick

I've been known to yell at cyclists to get off the sidewalk a time or two, but I haven't been on ellsworth in a couple of weeks

James Hong is awesome.

What boggles the mind about Ellsworth is that it only seems to be an evening thing. I never see much traffic on it during the morning rush, but it can often be backed up from Negley to Aiken at 5:30.

Isn't the speed limit on Ellsworth 25mph? How fast are these cars going, or wanting to go? Is the solution to just place a few city cops on it at evening rush to hand out some speeding tix? Or am I not understanding something here?

@stu I didn't know city cops wrote speeding tix.

Speeding tickets aren't going to bother the people who have the disposable income to be able to afford to drive a big v8 anyway. They may annoy the driver in question, but because that driver can easily pay a small speeding fine, they will continue to drive as they please.

@mick

The guy made a big point of yelling, "look at my sticker on my car! I have been riding a bike for 20 years".

Couldn't read it but I assume it was some sort of cycling sticker. When I asked him specifically what I did wrong, he had nothing to say. When I started to walk over, he shut the window and drove away.

The only reason it even bothered me was that I was trying to teach my gf how to take the lane after she was run off the road by a bus and a car in the same night on that same stretch.

I'd have to agree with the peddler's comment. A general lack of respect to the privilege of operating a motor vehicle in our free society by speeding, texting or aggressive driving will not be tempered by a ticket or a fine. You have to take the privilege away from them.

@spak: you should carry some slices around with you in these situations. you'll be more disarming and easily approachable.

@spak... oh so you got yelled at to ride ON the sidewalk???

i hope it wasn't a bikepgh sticker

He just told me that I needed to learn how to ride on the street safely. Which I do.

I think the guy was just trying to act tough which he stopped promptly the second I started over towards the car.

The speed limit is indeed 25 mph on (I believe) the entire length of Ellsworth Avenue, except by Winchester-Thurston and Liberty Schools where during school hours it would be even lower. Going eastbound by Liberty (with a "grade assist"), I often can get into the over-20 range, and going at the "prevailing speed," I take the full lane, and love it.

Maybe they should be clearer: the speed limit is an UPPER limit.

Does the city not do speed cameras (if we see you at two points X yards apart within Y seconds, you must have been speeding)? This could probably solve the city's budget problems if well-placed.(Bigelow Boulevard, I'm looking in your direction.)

I look at tickets as an educational tool. I look at the highly increased insurance costs when your carrier finds out you got a ticket as extortion. But all the more reason to be on a bike.

Right around noon, I was going eastbound on Ellsworth approaching Morewood. I was cruising at like 17 mph, but a guy in a red Mustang-esque car just had to get to that red light 2 seconds earlier, so he pulled into the oncoming lane and raced ahead, when the light turned green and a long line of cars started coming the other direction.

At least he didn't try to run me off the road.

Speed limit is 25mph, and but I think most people go about 35mph on the section between Morewood and Negley, partly b/c of the lack of stop signs. After that, the poor road surface and 4-way stops slow people down (or at least it slows me down when I'm in my car).