BikePGH Message Board Archive

Bike Route advice: Clairton to the SouthSide

I did the run from Waterfront to McKeesport today. What a beautiful ride! I extended it to Clairton on the "Steel Valley Trail" and discovered that is a total joke: sidewalks, alleys, backyards, oneway streets (the wrong way). I was looking for a route back directly through the south hills to the South Side but it all looked dodgy. In the end I retraced my route. Pgh Bike map does not list any routes in that region. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on a non-suicide route that goes from Clariton to Carson St.?

jlfunder

2012-07-16 03:06:01

Define "suicide"

I used to take 887 from about Clariton to the Waterfront when I lived in Glassport. You'd have to take a lane about half of the way, but I don't think the traffic is too bad. (But this is coming from the guy who takes 885 from Second Ave to West Mifflin everyday)

Once you get to the Waterfront, you have some more suicide options. You can go on through Homestead until you wind up on Carson St (long road, absolutely no shoulder, no room to pass, storm grates to mess with you if you try to hug the curb) or you can walk along a train track for about a hundred yards and be maybe 12 feet away from hundreds of tons steel going 35/40? MPH

sgtjonson

2012-07-16 03:56:42

If you stay on Monongahela Avenue through Glassport, you'll avoid all the alleys and backyards and the one-way street (signed to permit contraflow bike traffic) of the Clairton Connector. Monongahela Avenue is not bad at all, and the part the route skips via its network of back alleys is nicer than the parts the route is forced to use, north and south of Glassport.

The only remaining sidewalk section is on the bridge over the Yough, and I guess you could take the road for that too, skipping the few blocks along Atlantic or Pacific and staying on West Fifth Avenue. But I haven't tried it.

steven

2012-07-16 06:55:03

jlfunder - you rode my commute route from Clairton to the Waterfront. I agree with Steven, staying on Monongahela Ave. is pretty easy. The back alleys and one way streets of the Clairton Connector are designed to keep you out of the main traffic flow, and are sometimes faster than all of the stopping on Monongahela Ave. I ride the sidewalk across the Clairton Coke works bridge and then hit 837 to the Montour Trail. Recent road construction in Mckeesport is a nightmare.

Pierce - When I am in the car, I often take 885. Wonder if that is you I sometimes see.

2012-07-16 18:33:32

By suicide I am thinking of the time that I lost focus for a second going W on 5th in Oakland and ended up on 376. Sort of had to toss my bike over the guard rail and dive after it. Going East on Carson street from the West End Circle gives you that same kind of end of time feeling too. Sorry to be difficult but I don't see a road labeled 887 in Clariton. 837 is Carson street...yum. I was wondering about maybe 'Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd" that climbs up to Munhall. Anybody done that? JimF

jlfunder

2012-07-17 03:03:53