A bicycle has been Josh Gould’s main form of transportation for more than a year. But after getting hit by a car on July 22, he doesn’t plan on riding anymore.

“It’s the lack of care and the flagrancy in which people … don’t pay attention,” he says. “A [motorist] makes a mistake on the road that you’re on, and they hit you with a two-ton weapon.”

Gould, of Bloomfield, was pedaling home from his job in Edgewood early one morning when a car ran a light at the intersection of Fifth and South Highland avenues in Shadyside.

Seconds later, Gould flipped across the hood and landed on his feet, and the Cannondale bike he inherited from his grandfather lay mangled nearby. Gould walked away physically unscathed, but shaken by the experience

By all accounts, though, Gould was one of the lucky ones. In just over a one-week span earlier this month, two cyclists were killed in collisions with motor vehicles. James Price, of Homewood, was killed in a hit-and-run accident July 25 while cycling along Penn Avenue in Point Breeze. Police are still searching for the driver. Anthony Green, of Wilkinsburg, died on Aug. 1, a day after he was struck by an SUV on Penn, just blocks away. And even when police stepped up to provide a bike-safety detail on Penn, an SUV struck a motorcycle officer.

“If that doesn’t tell you how dangerous the street is, I don’t know what does,” says Scott Bricker, executive director of bicycle-advocacy group BikePGH. “It was our worst week, in terms of crashes, in 10 years.”

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh City Paper

Get ready for BikeFest, a fifteen-day celebration of bicycling, August 5th-19th. The activities kick off with Pedal Pittsburgh on August 5th’ which includes a car-free section and a finish line festival. On August 10th the Bike Fest Party returns to the Pittsburgh Opera in the Strip District.