This, unfortunately, is a gripe. I thought BikePGH and partners were doing a great job on getting sustainable bike infrastructure installed more and more each year over the last decade or so.
However, this year it looks like that progress has screeched to a halt. The city is FINALLY repaving and reconstructing many of the streets in East Liberty, Garfield, and Friendship this year, after a few decades of neglect. This includes Penn Ave, a notoriously dangerous and pot-hole-riddled thoroughfare, and Negley Ave, which is heavily traversed by bikers every day.
But with all of this construction activity, and at a time when more residents than ever are riding bikes, we haven't seen a single new bike lane or sharrow on any of these newly paved streets - let alone a protected bikeway like we really need.
BikePGH, WHERE ARE YOU?! How can this be happening in this time and place, in the city dubbed "America's Most Livable"? While auto drivers speed past us within inches and barely a handful have been ticketed for breaking the 4-foot law, cops around here have actually taken to ticketing bike riders who feel unsafe on the street and decide to ride slowly and carefully on the sidewalks.
I think it is time for drastic action—please post your ideas and let's make this better.
eastenders
2013-09-10 20:08:21
There have been a lot of new sharrows and bike lanes installed this year, apparently just not where you ride.
You could write 311. Write your city councilperson. Vote. Organize Critical Mass. Start a bike and pedestrian committee in your neighborhood.
rsprake
2013-09-11 08:33:59
The city has done the following this year: Polish hill got bike lanes and sharrows, so did braddock ave, and some new green lanes over by the bloomfield bridge, bike lanes on bouquet st in oakland, and they repainted some lanes on beechwood (I think this has been renewed).
Bike PGH has also been working hard to put on events like pedal pittsburgh, bikefest, and doing a lot of legwork to get pittsburgh up and running with a functional bike share system.
They can't do it all. You need to show up to city planning meetings (there have been several for east liberty BTW), SPC planning meetings, community meetings and make your voice heard.
benzo
2013-09-11 10:40:03
Is Penn Ave in it's toughest part under city control? I though it was under PennDOT.
mikhail
2013-09-11 12:00:54
Penn ave reconstruction is beginning soon, they are going to rebuild a lot of the street infrastructure around this corridor. Several bike corrals are planned to be installed as well as installing bump outs at intersections, and much more. However, there are no plans to install bike lanes on penn due to lack of space and little willingness to remove much parking.
benzo
2013-09-11 12:08:11
I think maybe Mikhail was referring to the section from Braddock to Fifth/Wash Blvd. That is PennDot.
edmonds59
2013-09-11 12:22:00
edmonds59 wrote:I think maybe Mikhail was referring to the section from Braddock to Fifth/Wash Blvd. That is PennDot.
This is correct. Four lane highway with no respect to speed limit.
mikhail
2013-09-11 13:01:33
With regard to Penn Ave being under state control, the issue is that Penn is both State Route 8 and State Route 380, for parts of that stretch. I think your starting point is to try to get the state to abandon that as a numbered state highway, leaving jurisdiction to the municipality, in this case, the City. The question upstream of that is, What purpose does it serve the populace to have PA8 continue to meet US22/30, or PA380 to connect to Penn, which at one time, decades ago, was US22? It might have served a purpose in 1930, but is that purpose still valid?
Once we take PennDOT out of the picture, I think we might have a fighting chance of having the city deal with speed limits, at the very least.
stuinmccandless
2013-09-11 14:55:00
New sharrows on Atwood!
mick
2013-09-11 17:44:33
edmonds59 wrote:I think maybe Mikhail was referring to the section from Braddock to Fifth/Wash Blvd. That is PennDot.
FWIW, Penn is a numbered highway the entire length east from Penn Circle to the city line, but not all state roads are numbered highways. The fact that Penn isn't a numbered highway west of PC East doesn't mean it's automatically a City road--Butler Street through Lawrenceville, for example, is a state road. There are also roads which are County responsibility--I don't know of any currently offhand, but surely I'm not the only one who remembers the old "COUNTY MAINTAINED ROAD" sign at the top of the crumbling ramp from Boulevard of the Allies to Forbes Avenue...
epanastrophe
2013-09-11 18:08:53
Just because it is newly paved and painted doesn't mean bike lanes or sharrows can't come in later. At least, this is my hope for Penn Circle which I was under the impression would have a cycle track.
dmtroyer
2013-09-11 19:02:32
Looks like Ellsworth is milled on the block before the pedestrian bridge!!! So happy. Am I mistaken or was moorewood milled also at Ellsworth??
stefb
2013-09-11 21:09:32
Complaining that bike-pgh hasnt done anything, particularly in the
east end is kind of laughable. In addition to above, green lane on Liberty?
Amberson is milled at Ellsworth
steevo
2013-09-12 07:50:38
steevo wrote:Amberson is milled at Ellsworth
indeed, and morewood is not. morewood at ellsworth is in pretty decent shape except for the improperly patched construction hole and cracks along the crosswalks.
hiddenvariable
2013-09-12 09:32:39
Ok I was heading home last night on Ellsworth and wasn't paying attention to the cross streets. I didn't think it was moorewood, though I have seen roads that were in decent shape milled while others that really needed new pavement go untouched.
Yeah I think the east end has the most bicycle infrastructure.
stefb
2013-09-12 17:23:33
Yup, I can count on one finger the bike infrastructure in the South Hills...
marko82
2013-09-12 18:51:20
The milled Ellsworth is much nicer than the street used to be. The nastiest potholes are all gone!
The Morewood between 5th and Ellsworth was repaved recently; it's very nice. And, yes, they are working on the street to the east (Amberson) which actually did not need repaving anywhere as much as other streets thereabouts. Of course the residents are quite well-to-do, which does seems reason enough to do the street. Right?
ahlir
2013-09-12 21:53:18
BTW, not quite East End, but East Of Downtown, Penn downriver of 16th and most of Railroad have also been milled as of last weekend.
epanastrophe
2013-09-12 21:55:13
Marko82 wrote:Yup, I can count on one finger the bike infrastructure in the South Hills…
And you don't need fingers if you go further south... :)
mikhail
2013-09-12 22:00:55
Traditionally, road work in Pittsburgh is at its height during election years. But usually it's something that's meant to be explicitly associated with the establishment candidate ( who, this year, was Jack Wagner).
I find it confusing; perhaps the roadwork was contracted before the primaries? But I'm not complaining.
ahlir
2013-09-12 22:03:45
Chartiers Ave from Ellopia all the way to Windgap got new asphalt. If you remember it was a concrete pavement with a lot of cracks. Now if you go on Chartiers from Fairdale down to Windgap is real nice downhill.
mikhail
2013-09-12 22:20:09
Amberson was just dug up earlier this summer for gas pipeline replacement:
http://www.equitablegas.com/pressRoom/projects/default.aspx
So it was actually in not very good shape just before the repaving milling was done. And I'm pretty sure these things were actually coordinated to be done in the right order.
astrobiker
2013-09-13 07:33:52
here you go, a newly paved street getting the treatment it deserves.
it will be fun to see if you're still allowed to park there, though.
hiddenvariable
2013-09-27 15:08:03
according to BP twitter, parking will still be allowed--all day, in fact, no peak restrictions. which makes me wonder how this will be better. guess i'll have to ride it to understand it.
epanastrophe
2013-09-27 16:26:18
Enjoyed my ride in on the new Penn Ave bike lane. Thank you!!
that_tickles
2013-09-30 06:37:18
