BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I'm not exactly sure what bike routes and 9/11 have to do with one another - seems more like attaching the words "9/11" to get funding to finish up most of the existing routes. I would much prefer the goal to be connecting NPS sites in general.

Yeah, I had the same reaction. But it does connect Pittsburgh and NYC, which is worthwhile.

"Somerset County recently received a $50,000 matching grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and National Resources, which will be used to hire a consultant to flesh out how the Great Allegheny Passage will connect with the Flight 93 site and, the more complicated project, how to link the Flight 93 site with the Liberty Water Gap Trail,..." My reaction was, I'm pretty sure roads already connect these places, if motor vehicle operators weren't asshats and would indeed share the road without endangering other road users, it wouldn't be complicated in the least. I exist in a difficult mixture of idealism and cynicism.

I would love to see a path along or parallel to the PA canal built, at least as far as Harrisburg... as is, it's just a bunch of discombobulated segments of PA history. We have a lot of unused resources out there.

The Liberty Gap Trail is in New Jersey with one end at the Delaware Water Gap. Connecting this to the GAP near Somerset would be a wondrous thing indeed! The plan seems to be for a trail connecting the crash site with NYC - that would be massive for long distance off road cycling. *** To me, this makes the issue of connecting Pittsburgh west to the PAnhandle Trail critical. Yeah, there is the Montour Trail - if we want a national route to bipass Pittsburgh, that's the way to go. I'm not for it.

Mick, what about the other end of the Montour Trail? So the Groveton (Moon) northeast end of the Montour is going to be expanded into the new Montour Sports Complex that broaches over into Neville Island, if I understand the geography correctly. Then the Ohio River Trail goes Coraopolis-Aliquippa-Monaca (in first phase) and then Rochester-Beaver-Midland (second phase). So for both the Pittsburgh to Panhandle, and Pittsburgh to Cleveland connections, isn't the missing link something like either StationSquare to Neville Island, or Western Penitentiary - McKeesRocksBridge-Neville Island? Which makes the current West Carson Street project all the more a missed opportunity. Boy, just the one lane closest to the river, dedicated to two-direction bike traffic would go so very far to connecting so many things. Because your point (if I apprehend it) is quite right - the GAP- Clairton- Montour Trail - Airport - Panhandle Connection completely bypasses Pittsburgh, and I don't think that's the optimal gameplan for Pittsburgh bike advocacy.

^Yep.

@Vannevar - I think that is about the best summary I have ever read of the current/proposed connections in the region.

@ vannevar - Thanks for clearly articulating my 'Westward ho!'rant.

The trail network interprets PennDOT as blockage and routes around it.