BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Be careful ... it's addictive

Kick ass! That's only 9.4 miles?

What route did you take? How do you usually bus it or car-bus it?

Rode straight down 60/Steubenville pike

to west end circle, Carson to the sta sq drive to Smithfield. I normally drive to Crafton bus sta and busway in.

Congrats edmonds!

Yeah, Dude!

Curious. Did you do the trip back up the hill? How was it?

Yeah, still need to make the trip back home, but I'm committed now. There will be beer at the home end.

Congrats! What route are you planning for the homeward leg?

Will probably do West End circ to Steubenville pike to Ingram, then I'm going to try jumping over to the Rocks on Windgap so I can continue on back roads, kind of an experiment. I don't like outbound on 60 because of the climbing, inbound you can narrow the speed diff with traffic on the hills.

Could you do something like an outbound-only bus ride to some point? Like a point that would get you over a big hill or bypassing some crazy-busy route or something?

I feel like if I were commuting from the South Hills or something I would want to combine with a bus at some point, if not to just get over that big-ass Mt. Washington ridge.

Nah, go over the hill. It builds character + it makes the beer that much better!

@rsprake: It does kinda suck that it's so short. But he could do it twice to get the mileage up.

Lyle/rspraake It does kinda suck that it's so short. But he could do it twice to get the mileage up.

If he has a fixie, he could always do the return up the hill backwards.

If he has a ruler handy, you all could all measure your adam's apples.

Mick, that's a good idea.

Purely by bike, I'd WCarson sidewalk to Corliss tunnel, Corliss thru Sheraden, Chartiers all the way to Windgap, thru Ingram and then out Steubenville.

Using a bus, I'd G2 it (better chance of a rack) to Ingram.

For a nice ride, I'd get on the NShore Trail, past the old jail, over to Eckert, McClure, L Antrim, R Fleming, L Termon, McKees Rocks Bridge, R Island, L Stowe Tunnel, R Broadway, R Pine Hollow, L Fairhaven, R Clever, and then wherever you're headed.

Thanks, I'll give those a try also.

only 9 miles? my commute from HP to northside is 6. i'm flummoxed.

@edmonds - wow, and congratulations. It's all that enthusiasm that you built up at the meetings in Carnegie over the past month. Just kidding. But I am thrilled to learn that you've managed to pull the ride off on a weekday.

No, Sara, that was a big part of it!

If it makes anybody feel any better, the ride home was 13 miles and took 1-1/2 hrs, climbing, climbing. I came up with a nice route that mostly stays off 60 and doesn't go too far out of the way. The West End circle is a piece of cake to navigate either direction, you just flow with the traffic. The worst part of the whole trip is the 200 yards on Carson from the WEC ramp to the Station Square drive. If some kind of simple modifications could be done to that little stretch, the whole west end would be open.

The West End circle is a piece of cake to navigate either direction, you just flow with the traffic.

Yeah, that's what I've always said. I understand that people get overwhelmed by it, but it's shame that they then use their fear to scare others.

+1. The best thing I could come up with was riding straight up (or between) the double yellow. If I had the chance I'd make the immediate left into the gas station and take the sidewalk, otherwise I'd continue up to the light.

I merged over to the curb side right at the bottom of the ramp, and there's a little safe triangle of "no cars land" where the lanes come together, then rode up as far as the Sta Sq drive. The only adjustment I had to make was, at that point traffic flow was too heavy to get to the left turn lane, so I just peeled off into a parking lot on the right until things were clear.

Yeah edmonds, that situation on Carson between the West End Circle and Duquesne Incline inbound is harrowing indeed. A worse example of something similar is Forbes Ave between the Birmingham Bridge and Craft Ave. I feel like the best thing to do for *most* cyclists is to stop on the shoulder space before the lanes come together, watch the traffic and then move over the right lane. I suppose the only issue with that could be that from that stopping point one still might not have a good vantage point to see the traffic, but I think it would be still safer to stand still and just watch the traffic in that scenario.

Would it make any more sense to ride the WEC around to the West End Bridge, carry the bike down the upstream staircase, and sail away eastward from there on the sidewalk? (Reverse, if outbound.)

you guys should've seen that stretch of west carson before they repaved it.

I spent last summer riding on it before, during, and after the repaving. trying to dodge those manhole covers sticking a few inches up while also dodging traffic was a lot of fun.

+1 Salty. I think you're referring to this thread.

I think the thread began in April or May 2009, working from Scott's comments about it "going under the knife soon" (about the 10th post). My trip to Coraopolis, a couple of posts later, was Memorial Day weekend '09.

+1 Stu on carrying the bike down the upstream staircase.

That's what I do all the time.