Show your support at this important Public Meeting for the Forbes Ave bike lane project
Carnegie Mellon University is currently embarking on updating their Master Plan. Master Plans typically cover everything from what new buildings they want to build to transportation issues, and will help the University set its goals for the next 10 years.
One of the earliest projects that they are interested in advancing is a “lane diet” on Forbes Ave, through their campus. Many of our readers may remember an earlier public meeting about this, and thanks to your large turnout and support, the project moved forward. Since then, BikePGH has been working with CMU to turn this project into a reality.
CMU is interested in slowing down traffic through the campus, providing a safer passage for their students to cross Forbes Ave on foot, as well as make it easier to get around campus by bike. The plan is to remove one lane in each direction, from Margaret Morrison St to Craig St. The lanes will be turned into bike lanes that will connect to the existing Forbes Ave bike lanes starting at Margaret Morrison and continuing up to Squirrel Hill.
According to CMU’s director of design, Bob Reppe, their planners ran models that indicated traffic flow would not be impeded after the planned traffic enhancements. These enhancements include the timing of traffic lights and going from four lanes to two, causing motorists to make fewer lane changes which currently slows traffic on the four-lane road.
This makes sense too, considering Forbes Ave is reduced to one lane in each direction at Margaret Morrison already, with no significant traffic problems.
More specifics about the proposal are listed in this article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
We need you at the Public Meeting, Tuesday July 19
Any proposal that will significantly change things brings the naysayers. This is no different and there will most likely be some passionate backlash against this lane reduction. If you want to see this type of improvement for Forbes Ave, and the City at large, you must show up to show your support.
Here are the details:
- Tuesday, July 19th
- 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
- University Center, Connan Room (The big building off of Forbes next to the lawn)
- Parking will be available in the East Campus Garage on Forbes Avenue. Bike racks are available.
Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership
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4 Comments
This is great – I will try to attend as I ride that corridor somewhat frequently. One thing they need to address, however, is the issue of buses crossing/blocking bike lanes to make stops. There are at least 2-3 stops in each direction in that stretch, and a bus crossing the bike lane without warning can really ruin a morning commute!
Perhaps they could have some sort of raised (curb-height) platform adjoining the traffic lane, as they do for streetcars/electric buses in San Francisco.
[…] switch back to DZBLs, the group bike-pgh.org put out a video extolling the virtues of a road-diet they successfully advocated for; a traffic lane was removed and a bike lane was added. So far so […]
[…] Commission. For over a year, we’ve been getting residents, students, and bike advocates to show up en masse to CMU’s Master Planning public meetings where there has been a proposal on the table to change the configuration of Forbes Ave through the […]
[…] current dialogue for changing the state of Forbes Ave at CMU, started way back in 2011, when CMU held a well attended public meeting calling for bike lanes, as part of their Master Plan update. Since that time, CMU and OTMA obtained a federal grant to […]