By Margaret Harding

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

With a broken cheekbone and scraped hands, Dr. Jonathan Finder played the banjo on his Highland Park front porch a day after a hit-run driver injured him and another bicyclist.

“I’m a little battered and bruised,” Finder said, adding that he was taking advantage of his time off as a physician at Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville to work on his banjo-playing skills.

Finder, 50, and Robert Noll, 63, were riding in a group on Monday, as they have on weekends for five years, when a car quickly turned and hit Noll at a turn on Allegheny River and Washington boulevards in Highland Park. Finder was right behind Noll and struck him. Finder believes the car was a gold-colored sedan.

“We try to ride early in the morning to be as safe as possible,” Finder said. “We’ve ridden on this road countless times.”

Cyclists approaching that intersection often encounter speeding drivers, said Scott Bricker, executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, a cyclist advocacy group.

“People are flying past you,” Bricker said. “The only time it’s good is when there’s backed-up traffic. It is fairly dangerous there.”

Bricker said his organization asked for bike lanes in the area last year. City bicycle coordinator Stephen Patchan and mayoral spokeswoman Joanna Doven did not return messages seeking comment.

Cyclists who ride to the nearby Washington Oval for racing twice a week often travel those roads, Bricker said.

“It’s a common occurrence to see bicyclists all around that area,” Bricker said. “It could definitely be more bike-friendly than it is.”

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