http://www.pittsburghpa.gov/311/form

Central Oakland, Polish Hill get first bike lanes. Park Place, Squirrel Hill connections made

The Polish Hill lanes in particular are under attack by a vocal contingent who live in PH. We need to start counteracting that by calling, writing, thanking DPW and City Planning and the Mayor’s office.

How ridiculous. The bike lanes do nothing to obstruct or limit motor vehicle access.

Burgh shame indeed…

I sent a thank you and requested the sharrows on Braddock be extended to the Pittsburgh border.

Submitted a 311 form.

submission made

Will definitely voice my support. Actually, reading http://bikepgh.org/2013/07/31/central-oakland-polish-hill-get-first-bike-lanes-park-place-squirrel-hill-connections-made/ I’m especially excited about the “small connections”, most especially “Beacon St bike lanes to the Beechwood Blvd bike lanes”. Even just taking the Beacon Street lanes and bringing them to Murray will be huge. The eastern side has some questions/options given how Beacon elbows, so I’m very curious to see how the final plan looks.

Is there a better place to send these than just 311?

What possible objection could there be to a lane on Brereton? It’s one of those “way too wide for 1 lane but not really 2” places that’s perfect for it. Plus it’s a pretty steep hill.

Also, I mentioned some of the businesses I like to visit in Polish Hill (and the rec center), maybe that helps?

@byogman; Shady/Beacon east to the curve is wide enough for lanes, with sharrows thereafter. I’m fond of that stretch because, in my imagination, it’s the highest spot in Squirrel Hill.
But I’m not sure it’s a regular bikeway.

I used to live near Shady & Forward and went to Pitt; I preferred riding through the 5-way cluster* to Wightman vs climbing up Shady (although there was also less total climbing involved so the results may be biased).

Right now the battle is just being fought via 311, but in the future, when we have a new mayor and new councilperson for district 7, these thank yous would be best sent to them.

I seriously don’t get it. Brereton/Herron or Brereton/Paulowna outbound has at least a 3 light cycle wait to cross or turn onto Bigelow Blvd. at rush hour. It’s definitely not cyclists impeding traffic up there.

How do we know that PH residents are up in arms? Word of mouth?

Has there been similar opposition to other bike lanes installed around the city that we haven’t heard about – or is this a special case? I’m assuming there’s always going to be some small contingent of gripers about new paint, and curious if the Brereton lane complaints are out of the ordinary.

i bike through polish hill on a regular basis, and i have never encountered anything but enthusiastic smiles from the residents. the folks passing through at 40mph on a one lane road with two way traffic and jagoffs who pass me AT the stop sign..well i may have different interactions with people driving through. but i always kind of thought the neighborhood felt the same way as i did.

The Polish Hill lanes in particular are under attack by a vocal contingent who live in PH.

If you could tell us the source of the attacks, we could be more knowledgable in our responses. Have they written to a paper or something?

I only know what the bike/ped coordinator told me. He mentioned no names, only that they wrote to 311 calling for the bike lanes’ removal and that the complaint caught the attention of the director of DPW. I would simply just write some thank yous for the bike lanes to counteract the handful of negative complaints.

Just received:

311 Response Web Form Reply Notification
The following reply has been made to Ticket ID #56681:

Thank you for submitting to 311. We will pass your appreciation on to the proper department. Please let us know if there is any other way we can assist you.

311 Response Team