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Good news thread

With all the BAD news from the local cycling front in recent weeks, I thought I'd start a good news thread.


Here's my submission for the day:


I had submitted a 311 comment about a month ago about some really shoddy patching on McClure Street just north of Antrim. The patch material had sagged, as if something heavy had been placed on it when it was not yet dry.


The City said they'd have it fixed in a week. It took a little longer than that, but it's the best solution to a 311 complaint that I have every seen. They didn't just patch the three of four areas that were sagging. They overlaid the entire width of the street for a distance of 20 or 30 feet. Nice, smooth dark pavement. I smile now everytime I get to the that corner.


Thanks, City. I like your response to my concern. (And yes, I've told them that.)


Anyone else with a GOOD NEWS story to share?


swalfoort
2012-09-07 13:58:47

A student at Robert Morris is trying to start a cycling club on the campus!


pseudacris
2012-09-07 13:59:47

I spent an hour driving around between millvale, lawrenceville, squirrel hill, shady side, and squirrel hill last night between 6:30PM and 9PM, and was never out of sight of a cyclist. In other words, my entire drive, all directions, there was at least one (often more than one) cyclist visible.


And at no time did I witness any driver or cyclist shenanigans.


I think that counts as good news. I've literally never seen so many cyclists out and about.


ejwme
2012-09-07 15:06:58

I had a police officer tell me yesterday, on my way in to work, that she was happy to see a cyclist who followed the rules, was safe and predictable, and was singing on the way down Arlington Ave. Guess I was a bit louder than I thought! I had "Shimmy Low" by the Clarks stuck in my head and had to let it out...


ajbooth
2012-09-07 15:15:54

This morning I was stopped at Beechwood at Fifth and Elsworth at Aiken with two or more other cyclists and it wasn't a big deal.


rsprake
2012-09-07 16:05:46

+1 Ryan


We'll be doing counts at both of those locations in the next two weeks. Be sure to wave to the volunteers counting bikes if you happen to see them.


swalfoort
2012-09-07 16:07:26

The other day I had a city bus pass me on Forbes @ frick park, and it literally moved ALL THE WAY into the left lane to pass me, instead of hugging the bike lane. I wanted to cheer! I should have remembered the bus number and called PAT to have them give that guy a raise!


2012-09-07 17:05:12

It's Friday...?


That's all I have.


I need to ride or something, my brain is exploding.


edmonds59
2012-09-07 17:09:50

had an awesome ~10 mile ride to school with my son this morning (8th grade).


sarah_q
2012-09-07 17:56:50

The other night @ Forbes and Beechwood a PAT bus driver flipped his lights at me and gave me a Pgh left. Thanks man. Appreciated.


ka_jun
2012-09-07 18:08:10

pretty much every day on my way to work, i come down main, make a right on butler, then a left on 42nd street. and pretty much every day, someone stops and waves me through that last turn.


oh, and also: the sharrows on butler inbound went down a few days ago. it will be fun to see what this street becomes once the 28 work is done, and maybe if they repave the mohawk.


hiddenvariable
2012-09-07 18:15:17

Bodega Bike art project coming to NYC. reclaiming food waste via cargo bike: http://www.excessnyc.org/


pseudacris
2012-09-07 18:15:54

I got a new bike and finally got around to taking a pic and making it my avatar.


Small steps for the technically challenged...


2012-09-07 18:36:05

I just receivd a surprise packet of BikePGH stickers from a friend in the mail today. YAHOO! New stickers for my new bike! Yes, small steps.


julieb
2012-09-07 19:25:04

When a driver of a tow truck laid on the horn because the person in front of them was trying to park (legally and safely, not in any way that obstructed traffic - the tow truck guy was just being a jerk), one of the parking lot attendants at Market Outlet yelled "Does that help? Do you feel better?" at him.


rubberfactory
2012-09-07 19:46:33

Yesterday a driver flashed their lights to give me the left turn from 45th onto Penn (outbound) and they were the third car to come up to the green light. A *delayed* pgh left, if you will. Felt like rare and nice gesture.


+1 Swalfoort for the thread idea. Great to read about some good things happening.


2012-09-07 20:07:05

I just receivd a surprise packet of BikePGH stickers from a friend in the mail today. YAHOO! New stickers for my new bike! Yes, small steps.


i thought packets had to be recv()ed! sorry, just a bit of nerd humor, that probably only i will find funny.


hiddenvariable
2012-09-07 20:24:17

@HV I've been in networking for 15 years. So packed could recvfrom()ed too.


2012-09-07 21:12:20

Swalfoort,


Thank you for starting this post and making my daily ride a little smoother!


Also, I know the patch you are referring to and it really helps! That was a pretty tricky section of road b/c it's right on a bend where cars jet out from Antrim.


I actually had a woman in a van apologize to me the other day b/c she was "holding me up" when dropping someone off. She wasn't really holding me up at all and I told her so and said thanks, but I thought it was nice of her to apologize anyway.


2012-09-08 13:18:03

Last night coming down Kirkpatrick Street in the hill I had a car behind me hanging back a little. The road narrows considerably and gets curvy at the bottom (and since it was Friday night and dark) so I started to slow way down to allow the car to pass me. The car started to slow down too and he came to a stop in the classic ‘no you go first’ kind of way. As we moved onto the Birmingham bridge we both exchanged waves.


marko82
2012-09-08 13:45:53

Enjoyed my first MTB ride last night in Frick. I'm hooked! Thanks, Colin. Next time i'll remember my prescription glasses so that i can really see the trail while the sun is going down. Sunglasses in the woods, when the sun is going down not so good! Nice to have a community of people to teach us new skills!


julieb
2012-09-08 15:04:44

All CLPGH copies of Just ride : a radically practical guide to riding your bike / Grant Petersen are checked out.


Author Petersen, Grant.

Title Just ride : a radically practical guide to riding your bike / Grant Petersen ; illustrations by Retsu Takahashi.


LOCATION CALL # STATUS

Jefferson Hills Non-Fiction PB 796.64 PET Checked Out

Pleasant Hills Nonfiction 796.64 P48 Checked Out

Sewickley New Book 796.64 PET 2012 Checked Out

South Park Twp New Books 796.6 PET Checked Out

Upper St. Clair New Book Shelves - Non-fiction 796.6 PET IN TRANSIT


ka_jun
2012-09-08 20:28:22

I know this is a little out of the way for you "city" bikers, but one of my favorite rail trails is getting extended as we speak. The Lisbon bike trail, AKA Little Beaver Creek Greenway is getting connected to the Mill Creek bikeway. I took pictures of the construction this weekend. The connection is 8 miles of trail, that connects a 10 mile trail to a 15 mile trail. that will be a 33 mile continuous black top trail with no breaks in it from lisbon ohio to waren ohio.


Now that is some good news!


2012-09-10 18:03:36

Ok, I got it.

I was riding home from work today, about 13 miles into my 14 mile ride. I was stopped at a light, chillaxin in the left turn lane to make my turn, and a pickup truck with 2 good old boys in it pulls up to my right, jovial fellows. The driver says "Did you ride all the way from McCoy Road (about 1 1/2 mi back)?". So I said, no, I just rode from downtown. Their faces went as big as pizza pans and the driver said "WAAAA...? YOU'RE A BAAAD MAN!" And we all started laughing our asses off. Right there at the light.

Then he asked me if I needed a couple bucks for gas, and I told them no, just go have a drink on me. Hoot.


edmonds59
2012-09-11 01:03:43

Coming out of Panther Hollow and waiting to turn right (with the green) down Greenfield to go right on 2nd and to get to the Jail Trail, cars usually don't slow down even if I am signaling I am turning right.

As I approached the corner, a dumptruck barrelled across in front of me, but the truck behind him hesitated and waved for me to go. Made my day so far.


helen-s
2012-09-11 16:56:02

Standing outside the Rite Aid in Glassport, dumping Gatorade into my water bottle, a woman came up to the door. As she was going in, she said, "That's what I need to do. Get my bike out."


Made me feel better about being in Glassport instead of Boston. Whoops.


epkiley
2012-09-11 17:46:11

This is even farther away that the Ohio trail awesomeness (33 miles! Woot!), but perhaps provides some evidence of the culture shift across the US...


I'm right now in semi-rural Georgia, and this morning I saw 4 commuter cyclists. In rural Georgia. At least I assume they were commuters - they were dressed in working clothes (mix of blue and white collar), as adults, with bags or some type of cargo on their bikes. In rural Georgia. Not a place I would have normally pegged to have an active commuter cycling culture.


ejwme
2012-09-11 18:30:10

epkiley - are you riding the clairton connector? It is my normal commute, but the rail crossing in McKeesport was blocked for maintenence the other day. Had to ride down to the flyover bridge. Folks in a construction zone are not patient with bikers.


2012-09-11 19:15:43

Folks in a construction zone are not patient with bikers.


They need to talk with the crew that was working on the ramp from Millvale up to the 40th St Bridge all summer. They were quite willing to back up equipment, flag traffic, suggest paths around transient piles of stuff, whatever. Always a smile.


stuinmccandless
2012-09-11 21:29:40

I had intended to ride from the Watefront to Boston and back. Never been that far that direction before. The construction was certainly confusing, but I really have no idea where I got off track. At least I got the distance I wanted in.


epkiley
2012-09-11 23:11:14

The fun part was following @epkiley's ride via Endomondo and texting her "you realize that's the Mon and not the Yough on your right, right?"


jamesk
2012-09-12 12:14:58

epkiley - my guess is when you got off the paved trail in Mckeesport and made a right on Lylse, you went over the bridge into Glassport instead of staying right and going under the bridge toward the GAP.


A very easy mistake to make when you are dodging orange barrels and patched cement.


2012-09-12 14:09:01

Well, I still haven't found my stolen bike. But the good news is it convinced my wife I needed a new bike, and currently heading to pick up my new wheels! New to me bike is some great news! :D


2012-09-12 15:27:47

@tony P @epkiley - my guess is when you got off the paved trail in Mckeesport and made a right on Lylse, you went over the bridge into Glassport instead of staying right and going under the bridge toward the GAP.


Another good way to get to the GAP is to actually cross that bridge> If you go straight, you get to Glassport If you mkae a right, you get to Port Vue.


If you make a right, then an second right immediately, you get to a road by the3 river and half a mile down that road there is a sweet path through the forbodingly named "Dead Man's Hollow" that is part of the GAP.


mick
2012-09-12 16:33:28

Mick, I had no idea. I cross the bridge and then take a right off the bridge down the ramp into that neighborhood. It is the signed "clairton connector". I haven't ever made another right.....do you cross back over the river somewhere further down/up stream?


2012-09-12 17:32:40

@TonyP Stepping through Google maps that seems to be what I did wrong.


@Mick ... darn it, back to Google maps to look for that now too.


epkiley
2012-09-12 18:40:56

Tony, just to be clear: There are paths on BOTH sides of the Youghiogheny River from McKeesport to Boston.


Coming from Pittsburgh, you can either cross at the Boston Bridge or the 15th street bridge.


When I wrote earlier I was confused between the 15th street bridge and the Lylse St bridge. I also said "right and right again" when I meant "LEFT and LEFT again."


You can see the GAP (North) coming off the 15 Street Bridge this map


https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.336551,-79.861958&spn=0.001865,0.003363&t=m&z=18


Unless it has changed in the time since I've last been there, you need to be on the street in this section, even though Google says different.


Finding the trail when you get to the South-East end of River Ridge Road isn't completely trivial - if you didn't know it was there, you might not find it. Easier to understand coming from the other direction - coming inbound, go straight on the trail instead of coming into McKeesport over the Boston Bridge and it's easy to comprehend.


mick
2012-09-12 18:48:55

Going south along the Yough, your choices are either: left (east) bank -- amazingly crappy road surface for part of the ride (I mean, the new Mars rover would have trouble with some parts of the trail); or right (west) bank -- sharing part of the "trail" with heavy truck traffic going in and out of a railyard.


jamesk
2012-09-12 19:12:43

It's certainly not the nicest ride to get to Boston.


rsprake
2012-09-13 13:14:47

Thanks Mick...I haven't ever been on that part of the GAP....I have often wanted to ride west newton to the waterfront, just never got the time to do it.


2012-09-13 14:42:25

Fun anecdote: I was flying down the hill on Herron Ave. out of Polish Hill and at the light by the Quick Stop the driver behind me pulled alongside me and rolled down their window. Expecting the worst, it was this little old lady probably in her mid-70's saying "You were riding your bike so fast, I was worried that you were going to fall. I wish I could still ride a bicycle."


Not a news story, but made my morning commute.


2012-09-13 18:58:36

good news of the day for me... I watched my odometer turn 2000 miles for this year. Yeah, baby!


teamdecafweekend
2012-09-14 01:37:29

Access Van honked at me on Perry Highway.


At the next red light I pulled up alongside and he said "You shouldn't be out here" I replied "But there's two lanes and I'm going to CCAC. (McCandless) That's where I work and there's not really any other way to get there."


With that he seemed sympathetic, said something like "oh, alright..." and gave me a nice kind of three-little honks as he drove off.


sgtjonson
2012-09-14 01:44:46

I was in Wexford getting a ride from the (car) mechanic to the office, and saw a bike lane.


It was only a small block long, it was down hill (the uphill side had nothing), and it was about half as wide as they usually are (the other half was marked for peds). It didn't seem to go much of anywhere, it was a quiet back street anyway, but...


While I believe WAY more can be done and I'm sad that they've made future improvements more difficult for themselves, I'm more than happy to celebrate the fact that someone up there is thinking about bikes - at least a little bit. The more they think about bikes, the better life will be for cyclists up there.


I call it good news.


ejwme
2012-09-14 02:01:30

Ohio Township police department just added their first bucycle patrol to the force. Yay, community and bicycle policing!


swalfoort
2012-09-14 13:15:24

The cooler weather yesterday made for a nice commute home. I even had a pickup let me cut in front of them coming off the 40SB onto Foster (I didn't play it very safely actually, and I wouldn't have blamed them if they had blown past me) and then give me space all the way up to 43rd.


On top of that I saw some fun bikes on the road (lavender tires? aw yeah!). Good end to the week.


2012-09-15 13:49:49

A guy in an SUV at a red light tonight complemented me on my visibility. He told me that no one could miss my lights.


stefb
2012-09-18 02:08:21

On "activism". The Rebecca Solnit piece within the page. Originally from 2003, long but quite worthwhile. Read with cycling in mind. I think this Solnit may be a new hero of mine. "History is like weather, not like checkers. A game of checkers ends. The weather never does."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/677/rebecca_solnit_on_hope_in_dark_times


edmonds59
2012-09-18 20:10:37

Wasn't sure where to post this, but since this is the good news thread, I'll say it. A crossing guard just told me that I am a "very excellent cyclist". Hehe, I got all filled with warm fuzzies right at the end of a long day of courier hooha! Thanks, crossing guard, I AM very excellent!


parvipica
2012-09-19 20:21:43

@marko - That graph is awesome. I would not have thought that to be the case. I suppose because cars dominant the landscape (roads, commercials, politics) I assumed the opposite would be true.


2012-09-20 01:46:39

Commuting today was a wonderful experience!


mick
2012-09-20 16:50:47

Don't know if everybody's going to take this as good news or not, but next week is the 20th anniv of Critical Mass.

Amazing poster:



also, just for kicks,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTmmmG-mzOQ


edmonds59
2012-09-20 17:58:45

Thx! I posted that in the Pgh CM Fb page.


stuinmccandless
2012-09-20 18:53:17

As I was driving down W Carson late yesterday, I got a brief view of what appeared to be oodles of bike racks installed at the new soccer stadium by Sta Sq. They were the coathanger racks. But still, oodles! I'll try and get a pic somewhere along the line here.


edmonds59
2012-09-28 10:47:17

My dislocated (since reduced) shoulder, and my body in general, is recovering extremely well after being smashed by an SUV in Cleveland on August 25th. I could have easily been killed or paralyzed from the neck down, or lost a mouthful of teeth. But I am ALIVE and my life didn't change! What a great practical and spiritual lesson this turned out to be. I'm loving riding my spare bike on the GAP trail from work downtown to physical therapy near the Hot Metal Bridge.


2012-09-28 12:40:23

3rd Ave garage is FULL of new bike racks and a Fix-It Station.


Oh after six weeks off from a dislocated elbow and I'm back in the saddle!


lou-m
2012-09-28 12:58:41

My kid endo'd on the way to school while going very fast and walked away with nothing but road rash and can't wait for his bike to be fixed so he can keep riding. :)


sarah_q
2012-09-28 20:29:54

@Lou, where on 3rd is the garage has the fix-it station? I can't think of any on 3rd.


marko82
2012-09-28 21:52:25

It's in between PPG Plaza and Wood Street.


lou-m
2012-09-28 22:48:47

there are *TWO* fixit stations at the entrance to the east campus garage at cmu (on the corner nearest the university center building)


melange396
2012-10-02 21:56:05

Hubby got his Caliente up and running, and commuted to work on it today. Good news!


pinky
2012-10-03 12:08:37

I have a day off! I mean, I had to go to the bookstore for an hour, but that's the least amount of work I've had to do in a day since Labor Day.


rubberfactory
2012-10-03 15:51:10

Hey Pinky, where does hubby commute to?

As I rode in today, I was thinking "somebody ought to poke Crafton about putting in some bike infrastructure". That Jeanine Zappa lives there too and I think works for Fitzgerald's office. Any interest in kicking around some ideas?


edmonds59
2012-10-04 14:26:22

Great day on the commute! Also i actually saw more women riding today than men on the way in to work. I hear that is a statistical anomaly, which I think is interesting.


zjc2a
2012-10-05 02:19:12

Bike racks at the new Highmark stadium I mentioned before. Nice racks! They are prepping for a buttload of bikes. And they're bolted down.





edmonds59
2012-10-05 03:31:04

that's amazing! biggest rack in the city?


dmtroyer
2012-10-05 03:36:11

Insert joke about strip club here.


stefb
2012-10-05 03:48:17

They look a little exposed, and I don't mean from weather. It wouldn't take too much to jump a curb and plow into that whole set. OTOH, that can happen with cars right now and isn't that big of an issue, I guess.


Props to them for even thinking about bikes. What's the capacity of this thing? 40 or 50? At a cost of about four car spaces? I approve.


stuinmccandless
2012-10-05 07:26:54

To be honest they probably got a trade-off for some of the auto parking requirements. Which could be viewed cynically or positively. I went with positive this time.

The thing I like about the location is they are right adjacent to the 2 field entrances, not stuck in some back afterthought.


edmonds59
2012-10-05 11:02:42

@edmonds - Hubby commutes to the North Shore. Email me, using gmail at amy L super, and we can kick some ideas around.


I'm on acquaintance terms with the president of Crafton's council, and they're in the midst of planning some updates to parks and recreation areas.


Fair warning, though, that the main roads through Crafton (Steuben and Noble Ave) are PennDOT controlled.


pinky
2012-10-05 11:41:19

@edmonds and pinky -- PennDIT isn't necessarily insurmountable. Here in Butler we talked them into letting us sharrow sections of streets they maintain. No one is sure exaactly how we did it, including me.


Note: each PennDOT district is autonomous and has their own philosophy about enforcing the written standards. No surprise here. Ours is District 10. Since I think you are a different district YMMV.


Three suggestions for you to consider:


1. Bike lanes will be far harder to do because when you formally change traffic patterns like you do with bike lanes, PennDOT wants a traffic study. That's 5 figures, and the proposing party (probably Crafton) has to foot the bill. Sharrows are much easier since they don't involve change of traffic patterns, just calling attention to another type of traffic that would use the existing pattern.


2. PennDOT is all about safety since they get sued for everything at the drop of a hat. When we met with them we played traffic engineer looking at the proposed routes from a safety for bicyclists viewpoint. We showed them every street and told them exactly how we thought our analysis would improve the safety of cyclists using those streets for where we wanted to put them to ride on a given street.


3. Do your homework. Get familiar with the AASHTO Bicycling manual, the current MUTCD manual, and the PennDOT regs that pertain to signage on PennDOT highways. We showed up with the now current MUTCD signage manual before it had been formally approved by PennDOT for their use (but we knew it would be because they have to have it in place to get Federal funding for road projects) and they ended up asking us if they could have our copy to review because they didn't have theirs yet. What a hoot!!


If you decide to puruse this and would want me to, I would be happy to look over your shoulder while you work on this.


cdavey
2012-10-05 13:19:23

Sharrows to Carnegie n'at, woot!


marko82
2012-10-05 14:12:32

Thanks ccdavey, yeah, my first step is going to be some research to get familiar with studies etc that have already been done through here. And I'd like to talk to Scott a bit and make sure we wouldn't be fracking anything already in progress. But I have a bit of a crush on Crafton and I think it would be very cool to germinate a little local cycling advocacy pod.

Scott, if you see this, edmonds59 at hotmail dot com

Thx!


edmonds59
2012-10-05 14:12:55

The "Pedal America" show on Sunday morning featured the Raystown Lake trails. That place looks fantastic. Never been, need to go.


edmonds59
2012-10-08 21:43:28

i'm going to attempt to organize a day trip there in early november.


cburch
2012-10-08 22:04:59

Raystown: YES! GO! That's an incredible good time.


But also, this morning I had to leave an office in squirrel hill and go to Oakland. In that short trip I saw 9 cyclists and the usually high number of cars. Nobody was misbehaving. Everybody was sharing safely.


2012-10-08 22:13:59

Text messages from co-workers;



And yes, I can be a dick. :D


edmonds59
2012-10-12 13:06:46

Show the love Bill and don't forget to mention how pretty the trees are looking.


marko82
2012-10-12 13:20:59

Also, 2 mile long stack of cars that I am about to pass this morning, just had to memorialize this. @40 ft/car (generous) in 2 miles, that's 264 cars, an incredibly small number of cars to choke up an entire quadrant of a city. It was a great morning, and the trees were lovely.




edmonds59
2012-10-12 14:34:21

@edmonds59 I hope you rang your bike bell for them.


mick
2012-10-12 22:12:58

Heh heh. I encountered traffic jammed on Blvd of the Allies between stanwix and grant. I waited for about 10 minutes, got pissed at motorists grid locking, then filtered, which i rarely do. It was also a mess on Ellsworth and highland. Don't know why it seemed worse than usual. Filtered again. Advantage: bicycle.


stefb
2012-10-12 22:16:33

Good news: I think I converted one to our ranks.


My baby brother (19) came to visit from the lovely suburbs of the Volunteer State, back where I grew up where they haven't even figured out sidewalks yet, much less bike lanes. We made plans to go shopping in South Side Works, and I casually suggested that the trip from Friendship to South Side was much more pleasant on a bike than in a car, but he was nervous about the hills and offered to drive. I reluctantly went along with it. Somewhere on the way back, while we were stuck in traffic on Forbes after getting off the Birmingham Bridge, he said something to the effect of "Ohhhhh, now I see why you ride bikes every day here. I had been wondering why you did that, and I totally didn't get it, but now I do. This is horrible. We are not driving anywhere for the rest of this weekend. Bikes only."


And so we did. We had a very pleasant ride through the Northeast Passage to EEFC last night - his first ride as an adult / for transportation. Even despite carrying a ten-pound jug of apple cider back in his backpack (he offered!) and getting passed too close a couple times despite my best efforts to ride to his left and act like a douchebag wall, he still couldn't stop saying "This is fun!"


And I think this means the bike I bought from Benzo for my boyfriend, who has not been riding it, may be finding a new home in Tennessee where it will be loved properly


2012-10-13 15:18:10

They got the guy who ran over James Price


sgtjonson
2012-10-13 15:28:17

@edmonds59 - That's Steubenville and Lorish, right? Was the backup all the way from the Thornburg Bridge? How far out did it go?


stuinmccandless
2012-10-13 15:31:07

Pretty close. It was actually backed up the 79 ramp coming onto Steuby pike, all the way into Crafton.

Pear, great story!


edmonds59
2012-10-13 17:18:16

@Pierce: seriously?


pseudacris
2012-10-14 14:49:55

Really!! When, where, and how


marvelousm3
2012-10-14 15:12:57

@pearmask: Tennessee? that's my home state! what part are you from?


@Pierce: post the dets already!


2012-10-14 16:32:03

I'm from Knoxville, mostly. (And went to college in Nashville.) Didn't you post one time that you were from Chattanooga?


2012-10-14 17:03:18

I like Knoxville for many reasons, not least of which is that one of my favorite bands resides there.


I posted in another thread when Chattanooga got a bikeshare. I was happy to see my hometown making such a progressive step in public transportation options.


It's nice to find a fellow southern transplant here in PGH every now and then.


2012-10-14 22:42:21

Pierce! Details please--maybe a new thread?


2012-10-14 22:54:40

I have been on the internet all day looking for this story and have found nothing. I've been watching the news also nothing. This is an important story we need to know more.


marvelousm3
2012-10-14 22:59:03

Yes!! Pierce, where did you hear this?? Just watched the news and heard nothing about it. Please give details.


2012-10-14 23:01:41

Two items:


1) today I saw another cyclist on my bus to work. He got on and off at the same stops I use, and pedaled up in the general direction of where I work. Unfortunately, I was without my bike today, due to cold-like symptoms on my part. Otherwise, I might've had some company for the ride up College Park drive. Regardless, it's nice to see someone else going multi-modal and car-free despite dropping temperatures.


2) I recently rode Negley Ave from Ellsworth to Northumberland (including the hill that starts after crossing Fifth Ave). I did it after a long (for me) ride around town. Maybe I'm not such a terrible cyclist after all.


2012-11-09 02:54:31

^ good milestones of different sorts!

Hope you feel better soon.


pseudacris
2012-11-09 03:00:02

The pedestrian gate at Sandcastle has been left unchained. It's usually closed to make it "look" locked. So shut the gate after you pass through. No need to hop the fence before 7AM and after 5 PM. Sure does speed up my commute :)


durishange
2012-11-09 21:56:56

Had a nice ride to and from work today. Really everyone was nice and I ride at midnight on Friday, so you never know what you are going to deal with. Beautiful weather and really nice people, even the ones in pickup trucks, who love to show who is boss crap. Great times!


2012-11-10 06:54:18

The David Bowie alleycat is tonight. Yay. Good weather expected also.


stefb
2012-11-10 12:20:28

huzzah!


2012-11-10 15:36:04

Well the holiday catalogs have started coming in. I'm starting to see a pattern. Anybody else seeing this?



edmonds59
2012-11-14 13:29:12

Too bad neither of those bikes appear to be rideable...


salty
2012-11-14 13:47:00

Why is Vera Bradley riding a ghost bike? not cool, man. not cool...


2012-11-14 13:47:17

Yep, thought of that, and that. Also considered that neither is wearing a helmet and that catalogs contribute to global deforestation and landfills. Don't care, still like it.


edmonds59
2012-11-14 14:10:35

I think I am jealous. The Delia's cover model seems to have reached a level of cycling exhilaration/Nirvana I have rarely seen.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....


2012-11-14 15:16:28

thats because the Delia's model is on her way to get aerospokes.


or the magic mushrooms finally kicked into high gear.


2012-11-14 19:04:12

Her joy strikes me as being of the "When Harry met Sally" "I'll have what she's having" variety.


mick
2012-11-14 19:10:12

^it might be a new saddle.


marko82
2012-11-15 01:16:16

Just got home from work. It was a nice crisp night and to be quite honest about a perfect ride home. Not many cars out and the idiots tend to stay indoors when it gets colder. Some people don't like to ride in colder weather, but to be honest it is the best time to ride. Morons tend to not come out in cold. Great times. Enjoy all.


2012-11-15 06:43:20

@helen s

In Pittsburgh drivers would consider them as new and fancy space to stop cars. :(


2012-11-18 03:46:38

Seen in a random shop window in St. Augustine FL. Sharrowing the oldest city in North America, and 'splaining it to the public. This does not suck.

FW: Sharrow


edmonds59
2012-11-23 13:30:45

Excellent. (and I hope you're enjoying FLA!)

I was intrigued at the details on the bottom of the poster and they're really quite good.

"Welcome Cyclists" and they seem to mean it.



vannever
2012-11-23 14:02:56

I like the fact that it says cyclists MUST take the full lane when passing parked cars


stefb
2012-11-23 14:44:41

Exactly, it communicates exactly what "we" want the drivers to understand with a semi-official imprimatur.


possibly moving a bit OT for this thread

It intrigues me to think about the effect of a similar Pittsburgh public awareness campaign.


Drivers seeing sharrows definitely reinforces some sort of "bikes" message in the driver's consciousness, but how many drivers know what the symbol means?


Granted, a minority of people read the poster's footer. It does advance the cause pretty effectively.


If there were a campaign putting similar posters up along five corridors - say, StripDistrict, EastCarson, Bloomfield, SquirrelHill, Penn (where the deaths were) - it would probably do a good job of delivering specific information in high-impact communities.


It is Good News.


vannever
2012-11-23 15:43:46

I'd put the posters in less intuitive areas: Lincoln-Lemington and the suburbs. After that incident at the end of the Reverse Keg Ride last month, it seems to me there is a car-entrapped segment of the community that our regular channels of communication do not reach. The woman who gave us a hard time looked like she'd never seen a bicycle on the street before, and was clueless how to deal with them. That and suburban high schools, in which areas on-road cyclists are rarities.


stuinmccandless
2012-11-23 17:52:41

In excellent news from our otherwise lovely neighbors to the north, bike-hating behemoth of a Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto has been ousted from his seat due to ethics violations. Yay! Eh? Bring back the bike lanes!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20501833

Let's see if I can get a gif to work;



edmonds59
2012-11-27 22:50:48

Haha!!


2012-11-28 00:20:19

Ya know if he got regular exercise by say, riding a bike, he might not trip over his own fat ass.


marko82
2012-11-28 01:36:13

goodness me, seriously? this is pretty great news. that guy has clearly been anti-city, and as a huge-huge-huge fan of toronto as a city, i can now hope that it won't become mississauga. i don't think i am overstating it to say that that man was a blot on what should be an amazing landscape. i had no idea there were ethics violations in he offing, and i follow a number of toronto-based reporters (hockey! mostly) on twitter.


tl;dr: great news! he seemed like an unapologetic a-hole, and i say a hearty good riddance!


hiddenvariable
2012-11-28 04:40:38

If he'd been riding in one of those bike lanes he axed, maybe he wouldn't have been hit by that karma.


steven
2012-11-28 05:52:58

i can't stop watching that gif


erok
2012-11-28 14:33:53

Obviously the gif proves that what the mayor says is correct: He's been sacked by a leftist conspiracy. No doubt they were invisible UN forces that arrived there by bicycle.


Had Toronto relied on the free market's self-regulation he would not have fallen down.


You can't be too careful these days.


mick
2012-11-28 18:23:29

That's Canadian football for you


sgtjonson
2012-11-28 21:42:36

I wonder how many of the riders realized they had celebrities in their midst. Given that LeBron plays for a local team, I'm guessing quite a few. I wouldn't have known him. But yeah, that's one helluva crowd.


stuinmccandless
2012-12-02 16:10:05

This morning coming from Craft onto Fifth, there was a police car in the left hand lane of 5th stopped for the light. In the right-most lane, someone went through the red light just as I was passing in front of the police.


I gave the cop a look, but he just looked kinda sheepish. After I cleared the cop's path, I stopped and gave him my best professorial "you-don't-have-your-homework?" look. He put on his lights and went after the guy.


Not sure if I really influenced this or not, but it felt good.


mick
2012-12-06 16:04:44
Pretty regularly when trying to cross Wightman on Bartlett heading east, I have drivers heading south on Wightman stop to let me cross. I never know how to react- I feel like I should wait my turn like anyone else. This has happened numerous times- I would say almost weekly. And it is only cars heading south- the cars heading north there are usually going well over the speed limit., which makes that intersection hard to get across.
helen-s
2013-09-02 11:27:38
nice, bikey!
salty
2013-10-16 20:12:48
salty wrote:helen s – drivers are legally required to yield the right of way to pedestrians in a crosswalk (marked or not), so it should be happening *every* time. There is no obligation for you to wait and I wouldn’t feel anything but happy about it when cars actually do stop – since as you point out far too many do not. I was not clear - this happens when I am on my bicycle! Maybe they think that because my foot is down, I deserve the rights of a pedestrian instead of an two wheeled vehicle trying to get across a busy intersection.
helen-s
2013-10-18 14:18:47
Yesterday I was riding the PMTCC ride from Cranberry. About 16 miles in, I got a flat. I fixed it and kept riding, not thinking much about it. Three miles later, another flat. Somewhere along the ride I shredded my tire, exposing threads and opening a pretty sizable hole in the tire. I called for a ride and then started pulling the tire apart again to see if I could fix it enough to limp back to the start. As I am working on it, a guy pulls over and asks if I need help. I explain what happened and he offered me a ride back to the start about 5 miles away. Help much appreciated when I needed it!
sew
2013-10-21 07:32:40
This could belong in the "news from out of town" thread, but the good news thread suited my mood better today. Lehigh Township officials work with bikers to keep track Safety, insurance issues being resolved at secluded spot in Indian Trail Park. When Lehigh Township police Chief Scott Fogle discovered bike ramps hidden behind the trees in Indian Trail Park it looked like an old secret playground might go away forever. Instead, officials in the rural northwestern Northampton County municipality are working with the boys — now young men — who built it. Guys in suits are paid to worry, of course. What about lawsuits if somebody falls off a bike and gets hurt on township property? On Tuesday night, board of supervisors Chairman Darryl Snover told the trail's architects what their insurance company had to say about that. "They didn't say bulldoze it," he said. That doesn't mean the bikers — four guys in their early 20s who sat in a row between the mostly graying heads assembled at Tuesday night's Lehigh Township meeting — get off scot-free. Snover said the township's insurance company is requiring that they fill in some of the dangerous holes around the trail and take down the tall platform they constructed at its opening. That'll be their job, Snover said. "But the good news is, guess what: You'll have a BMX track," township solicitor David Backenstoe said. The bikers are already complying. Hours before the meeting, Dave Washburn, 23, of Lehigh Township, and two friends were ferrying wheelbarrow loads of dirt around the dozens of chest-high earthen slopes hidden behind the woods in Indian Trail Park. As they worked, a group of boys and girls kicked soccer balls in the park's field just off of Route 248. The only evidence of the trail was a red and white "No Bicycles" sign the township recently posted at the tree line. About 50 yards from the edge of the woods, dozens of pyramids materialize between the trees. "I feel like an Indian defending my land," Washburn said as he poured black soil into the holes he and his friends had created in constructing their ramps. Washburn works at Lehigh Township's Fronti Fabrications and has a toddler at home, but he still rides when he gets the chance. When he was 16, Washburn had stumbled upon the trail by accident. He'd been at a family picnic at Indian Trail Park. In a patch of woods he found a few mounds of dirt. A boy could race his bike up one and both would go airborne. He returned with his Haro bike and gave it a shot. Turns out, he discovered, bike enthusiasts had been using the trail for nearly 20 years. For seven years, Washburn and three friends turned it into bicycle nirvana. Dozens of ramps went in — steep ones, gentle grades, series of ramps that ascend higher and higher. It's really a number of trails with names like Chief, Cliffside and Swedish Fish. When Washburn and his friends aren't there, they cover each ramp with plastic tarps. They run chains between trees in select spots around the trail, making it impossible to use. You enter what they call Indian Trails from an 11-foot high platform the boys constructed from pressure-treated lumber, then drop down a steep ramp. That gives you speed, Washburn said. That entrance platform is an insurance risk, Snover said. The township is requiring it to be taken down. Washburn said a shorter ramp could reduce their speeds by 10 mph or so. But, he said, they'd find a solution. Until then, the riders can't use that track. But Lehigh Township officials don't want the ban to last forever.
swalfoort
2013-10-24 10:17:17
This was kinda sweet: Fairfax, VA, missed connection: "To the bicyclist I almost ran into..."
Dear random bicyclist, After almost running into you yesterday around 6 pm on a neighborhood street, I pulled over and spent a good 20 minutes pulling myself together and seriously questioning my own functionality....
epanastrophe
2013-10-25 14:09:39
Probably not news, but this made me happy earlier today. I was in a meeting with a colleague at Starbucks on Penn Circle this afternoon, and saw a young lady come in and ask a barista something. I couldn't quite hear but it seemed she had left something behind, and was hoping it was either where she left it or in the lost and found. I was sitting where she had been, so they came over towards me to look for it, but to no avail. Then the barista went into the back room, and emerged, triumphantly, with a bike helmet, which he gave to the obviously-relieved cyclist while I smiled. Sometimes life just kind of works out.
ieverhart
2013-11-13 00:27:29
I ran into a co-worker of mine that works at a different location than I do (although I used to ride my bike to where he's currently at) and over the past several months he's been commuting from McKeesport to the North Shore via the completed GAP trail He says the time difference isn't that much and he really enjoys the ride I'm glad I'm not the only one who's commuting by bike in my department/institution now (although he said he stopped now because it's too cold :/ ) But still! Completing that trail has made a big difference
sgtjonson
2013-11-14 17:18:39
Point him to the thread about What are you wearing? and see if he'll continue to ride on days when it's merely chilly. As long as he protects his ears, fingers and toes from getting too cold, right now is a really nice time of year to get some miles in.
stuinmccandless
2013-11-14 17:52:33
Two positive articles in the Trib on the same day! "Mon Valley commuters taking to 2 wheels" http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmckeesport/yourmckeesportmore/4756423-74/evans-church-bicycles#axzz2kjIWADIL "Bicycles are not one size fits all, West Mifflin shop owner says" http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmckeesport/yourmckeesportmore/4756346-74/bike-bikes-pawlak#ixzz2kjQOTrnU EDIT: Ok lets make that THREE articles! Hmmm. "Waterfront bike lane the first of its kind in Pa." http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmckeesport/yourmckeesportmore/4756368-74/trail-bike-lane#ixzz2kjT277Q8
marko82
2013-11-15 11:14:49
Another one from the "small victories" department: This afternoon at (November 22, 2013) at 2 pm during a fairly chilly, light-intensity drizzle, I was coming down Fifth Avenue inbound, about to turn left on Morewood Avenue towards CMU. Up towards Central Catholic I saw a bike's blinky light fired up for daytime visibility, and as I made the turn I saw two other cyclists waiting at the light to go straight down Morewood. And this wasn't even rush hour! Then later today I saw a number of cyclists downtown beating Light Up Night traffic, and then another couple coming down Ellsworth Avenue later in the evening. All this not even at rush hour, and in sub-optimal weather! It's just wonderful.
ieverhart
2013-11-22 23:30:52
Hey, when did Westhall Street (by Western Penitentiary) get a Dero Fixit station (and an air pump)? Very sweet. Isn't there a map somewhere of these things? Can anybody remember it - I'd like to add this to it.
vannever
2014-11-17 23:17:43
This is dbacklover's map of racks, drinking fountains, and other stuff. But there are a bunch of newer racks and corrals it doesn't include. it used to show covered racks in a different color, but Google seems to have broken that part. (That info is still on ieverhart's earlier map, so it could be copied over.)
steven
2014-11-18 00:52:57
So this is the BikePgh map of DIY repair stations: http://localhost/2014/03/03/diy-bike-repair-locations-in-pittsburgh/ and my best hero "somebody" is going to add this new one to the map. "Somebody" is always being asked to do something, they're awesome. Erok tells me that AlcoSan made the investment, very cool.
vannever
2014-11-18 14:08:23
There is one more unofficial repair station. :) At my cube at Ansaldo (former Union Switch&Signals -- 1000 Technology Drive). I have a floor pump, a couple of wrenches, screwdrivers, hex-keys, and a patch kit (or two).
mikhail
2014-11-18 22:27:54
Haha, that's almost exactly at the midpoint on my ride home!
byogman
2014-11-18 22:40:04
Today, there was a couple sitting on one of the reserved priority seats on the T. Unprompted, they gave up their seat so that a cyclist that had just gotten on the train could sit there and hold on to his bike more comfortably. This made me smile :-)
chrishent
2015-04-03 17:00:26
Just looking at the message board... * The Amtrak thing is finally here and working well * The Aspinwall park happened and the talking heads are talking trails ...that's exactly what I needed to see on a Monday morning.
stuinmccandless
2015-09-21 08:39:18
Also in the last month: 40th street uphill bike lanes installation was begun, bollards, green paint, and removal of parking signs to come soon. Bayard/bigelow/ohara lanes are in, and continue to be worked on, bike boxes and removal of parking signage coming soon. Liberty Ave lanes were restriped a couple weeks ago. Friendship ave lanes (despite them not being optimal) were also restriped S Millvale Ave lanes were restriped.
benzo
2015-09-21 09:15:44
It's consistently below 80 deg F out.
edmonds59
2015-09-21 10:58:25
I've taken the girls on the bike train to and from school most days since it started, enough for it to be normal enough for it not be a conversation piece there anymore. With only one exception so far, which even then I wouldn't have batted an eye at if my kids weren't with me, motorists have been patient and nice, some embarrassingly and slightly confusingly so. All the crossing guards know us and smile. And it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. And it's Friday.
byogman
2015-09-25 07:30:53