Pop City sums up the week of cycling successes

It has been a good week for the Pittsburgh bicycling community. Several upgrades have been made to the city’s bike infrastructure, including the reopening of the Eliza Furnace Trail and new bike lanes in Bloomfield. And on Friday, the Port Authority announced that 100% of buses are now equipped with bus-mounted bike racks.

Bike Pittsburgh’s Eric Boerer says these racks are a win-win for bikers and the Port Authority . According to Boer, this type of multimodal transit helps increase the catchment area for bus stops and can potentially increase ridership.

For cyclists it allows commuters the option of utilizing bus routes for an otherwise lengthy commute, or for avoiding riding in poor weather conditions. And buses can also address the issue of hills.

“Pittsburgh’s a hilly city and it’s easy to bike downhill, and not so easy to bike uphill,” Boerer says. “[Bike racks] just help increase the options for people to use as many modes as possible.”

Boerer says the effort to fully equip the Port Authority fleet with bike racks began over ten years ago with the work of Sustainable Pittsburgh. In recent years Bike Pittsburgh had continued to push for this goal as a priority identified by the organization’s membership.

Read the rest of this article in Pop City

Mark your calendar for this year’s Day of Giving: Tuesday, October 4

Never been a member?  Need to renew? This is a great opportunity to have your donation matched and go even further! All contributions on Oct. 4 made through PittsburghGives.org will be matched by the Pittsburgh Foundation. PLUS, another generous private foundation will kick in an extra match to DOUBLE your support that day (up to $5000 total) for a bike-friendly Pittsburgh and give you great member benefits for the year!

Visit PittsburghGives.org for more info.