A ride heads through the Strip District during a Flock of Cycles Steelers ride last winter. Photo by edmonds39

Essential Public Radio 90.5 FM has an excellent piece about the state of cycling in Pittsburgh

On Memorial Day, Bob Noll and two of his friends decided to go on a bike ride. As their small group reached the bottom of the hill behind the Pittsburgh zoo, they turned right.

“There’s a traffic light at Allegheny River Boulevard and Washington, and it’s almost always red. It was green! I was delighted because it’s downhill,” he said.

A vehicle approached on their left, and cut in front of the riders as it made a right turn onto Washington Boulevard.

“I never saw him. I never heard it coming. He just ran me over … or she.”

BikePGH Executive Director, Scott Bricker says having more bike lanes would be in keeping with Pittsburgh’s “livable city” image.

“When it’s car-centric, that’s not where people want to live. Just drive along McKnight Road. Is that the vision of Pittsburgh that people think of when they think of a livable city with a high quality of life? No, absolutely not,” Bricker said.

The driver fled the scene and hasn’t been found. Noll, a professor of pediatrics, psychology, and psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, continues to recover. He says most of the damage was to the left side of his body.

He jokes, “I’m left handed, too! It’s not fair!”

Though Noll has a sense of humor and acceptance about his brush with death, the crash disrupted an important part his life. For decades, Noll has been racing, commuting, and cross-country touring. He’s lived in cities around the country, and finds that bicyclists are treated the same regardless of geography.

“I think most of the drivers in Pittsburgh are just as careful as drivers in other places where I’ve lived,” he said. “I think a lot of the animosity that you get from drivers, the bike riders sort of bring on themselves.”

Listen to or read the rest of this in on the Essential Public Radio 90.5 website

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