BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

here ya go:

http://bike-pgh.org/2009/05/07/new-bike-lanes-on-wightman-and-beacon-in-squirell-hill/

Very cool. Will make a huge difference.

bah! there goes another two-lane drag strip...

haha

I might have to make a trip today to check out the lanes.

I hate it when cars treat one lane roads like two lanes.

Wowee! More great work from Bike Pittsburgh. Thank you.

So much safer for pedestrians, too.

I hate it when cars treat one lane roads like two lanes.

This is an issue on so many residential streets that are really only two lanes but quite wide. It drives me nuts.

i think the city just needs to pump reggae music to get everyone who's driving to chill out

I think there might need to be some better signage in some places to indicate that it IS one lane, mainly where there's a change from two lanes to one.

The example I'm thinking of is Negley just past the intersection with Penn (heading south towards Friendship Ave., right by the Babyland). It starts off as two lanes just after the intersection, yet the second lane mysteriously disappears...with no sign about merging (at least I've never seen one there!). When I first moved here, it confused me driving in the car...on my bike, I nearly got smushed trying to get over towards the curb as the cars in both the right and left lanes tried to go around me.

2 more places I run into this.

Highland ave by peabody highschool

Penn ave. past braddock ave. it goes from 2 to 1 but eveyone still act like its 2 until the rr overpass.

The intersection by Peabody is notorious...cars cut off the 500 bus there all the time.

The example I'm thinking of is Negley just past the intersection with Penn (heading south towards Friendship Ave., right by the Babyland). It starts off as two lanes just after the intersection, yet the second lane mysteriously disappears...with no sign about merging (at least I've never seen one there!). When I first moved here, it confused me driving in the car...on my bike, I nearly got smushed trying to get over towards the curb as the cars in both the right and left lanes tried to go around me.

Nearly every morning I deal with this, and it's also bad coming the other way after you cross Baum.

yeah, it's such a problem. i kind of think it's like that due to a bit of laziness on engineers of a long time ago, and no one has been trying to re-visit this stuff until now. i think instead of signage, these roads are many times ripe for road diets, ie added bike amenities. another place that we've identified is aiken, between ellsworth and center.

The first day I noticed the Wightman lanes I also observed a car cruising along over the bike lane. I feel like I need to ride back and forth on those new bike lanes to hasten the learning process for the drivers.

I like how they 'boxed in' the parking area with lines. I guess drivers need to be reminded that you aren't supposed to park on top of intersections.

I like how they 'boxed in' the parking area with lines. I guess drivers need to be reminded that you aren't supposed to park on top of intersections.

Haha! Yeah, I've noticed on Beechwood sometimes that someone has parked their car so that they take up the whole bike lane.

those beechwood lanes are slated for redesign too

awesome. it's crazy how there is no room to actually ride a bike in the bike lane. and in the sections where no one parks, there are usually tree branches and such inhibiting one's movement.

Those boxes are buffers to keep riders out of the door zone.

Just wanted to add that I'm super psyched about these lanes. I ride Wightman every day. Can't wait to see more.

C'mon West Liberty...

Ah... West Liberty. That's a complicated one. One thing I can assure you is that it's on our radar. PennDOT is required to do something about how dangerous it is in the next couple of years due to how many crashes have happened on it. We're going to be working them to solve this issue. That said, with all the businesses along that road, the parking issues, the narrowing as it enters Dormont and the fact that it leads to a tunnel that can't be widened, we need to think very creatively on how to do this (some thoughts would be to limit parking in some areas while widening the road in others to accommodate a bike lane. But besides trying to design facilities to get folks to Boggs and up over the mountain, how can we work with the Port Authority to better accommodate cyclists on the T and buses? We need to get bikes on the T during peak hours, we need better/protected bike parking facilities at T stops, and all of our buses need to be outfitted with bike racks.

Of course the thing that would be absolutely incredible, is if we could get, say 4 feet on both sides of the tunnel to put in a protected bike lane (protected by bollards). I have no idea if the space exists to do this. It seems doubtful, but that would change people's lives and make the city so much more accessible to bicyclists from the south hills. We need people like you calling the city and the state to encourage them to do this. We need your advocacy!

I would imagine the Wabash tunnel would be better for a bike lane through the mount than the Liberty tunnel.

Since they restrict traffic to one-way, I would bet there is enough room to put a bike lane in there.

I have not driven through that thing in awhile and I assume that riding my bike through it (even the correct direction) would be enough to get the flashing lights chasing after me.

Isn't that tunnel 2-lanes wide even though they restrict traffic to a single direction?

The "boxing" I was referring to are the diagonal lines that extend from the corners of intersections to the buffer zone. I don't know what good they'll do, though, as people don't seem to follow the even-more-obvious striping found in parking lots. They're amusing, though. :]

Oh, and thanks for getting us some more bikes lanes! I think I'll start integrating Beacon and Wightman into more of my trips.

I'd be ecstatic if the street sweeper hit the first mile on the outbound side of West Liberty on a regular basis.

Bikes on the T during peak hours is going to be tough. I ride the T to work when I don't ride my bike and it would be tough to get a bike on there when it is crowded. With the mix of high and low level stops on the 42 and the fact that doors on both sides of the train need to open, there is maybe one good spot where a bike would not have to maneuvered when going the length of trip. Maybe in the second car you could do it most of the time. The 47s seem to be a little less crowded in the 2nd car at peak times since there are two of them going for every one 42. I take my bike on the T occasionally, but during rush hour will be a tough sell. How are you approaching it with the Port Authority?

Some kind of hydrolic/pneumatic swing out racks on the front of the T might be cool as long as it would stop people from falling on the tracks when they took their bikes off. At least there is no 3rd rail.

If I had to pick a tunnel to go through, I'd vote for the transit tunnel. I won't even drive through the Liberty tubes with the vents open and Wabash is no fun to get to on 51. Probably half the time you'd never see any traffic in your direction, it has the least amount of exhaust, and drops you in a great location on the downtown side. Plus traffic is already restricted to < 25 mph. Just those pesky steel rails on the ground and 6 inches of clearance between the wall and the side of the passing T. Same problem with the ramp going from West Liberty to Palm Garden. Too bad they didn't widen that bridge when they were doing all that work.

Thanks for all you folks are doing.

There used to be a walkway in the liberty tunnnels, up until about 1970-something. When I go through now, it's hard to see where the space for that was.

The Liberty tunnels were a very narrow, brick-paved thing then. A walk through there would have been pretty damaging. No emissions controls and leaded gasoline.

I'm guessing the Wabash tunnels would be the easiest to get. I don't really know where it comes out on the south end.

I'd imagine that bike infrastructure as pricey as one or two of the major trails is what it would take really open it up. A shared ped/bike bridge from the tunnel across Saw Mill run and trails through the greenway to Fallowfield/Broadway and W. Liberty/Pioneer would open up the whole South Hills.

I don't think the transit tunnel will ever be an option.

That street sweeper on West Liberty thing? That would make a huge difference. I could maybe be done with a few calls to 311, I dunno. Businesses using the sidewalk as their permanet parking spaces along there is a problem, too.

Mick

word on the street is that wightman is also supposed to get a planted median strip. not sure when it will be happening, but i have been told this summer. that should slow things down even more.