By Stacy Lee, MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Work recently was finished on a unique bicycle lane in Munhall — which is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
While Connellsville had the first two-way bicycle lane in the state, Munhall`s new design is specific to National Association of City Transportation Officials bikeway guidelines.
“Actually what they did in Connellsville is different than what they did in Munhall,” Allegheny Trail Alliance president Linda McKenna Boxx said. “I still give Munhall the star for the new bicycle lane. Connellsville took a residential street and turned it from a two-way road into a one-way road. They used the extra lane for a bike lane. What Munhall did was in NACTO standards. They came up with a way to squeeze a bike lane in an existing traffic lane. They still have two lanes of vehicular traffic. They designed it specifically to NACTO guidelines.”
“It`s a significant engineering feat,” Bike Pittsburgh executive director Scott Bricker said.
“We`re one of the first ones to originate this,” Munhall Mayor Raymond Bodnar said. “On the Waterfront, they can peacefully ride their bicycles and if they want they can go to Washington, D.C., from there.”
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1 Comment
This bicycle lens is all WRONG! Look at it: you have bicycles going AGAINST the flow of car traffic. It is only a matter of time before someone on either side of that lane loses concentration and crashes head on.
A better answer is TWO BIKE LANES, one in each direction and with the same flow of traffic as motorized vehicles. This would encourage acceptance of bicycles as vehicles. Two lanes, one on each side of the roadway, would be the same overall width of this plan but would reinforce proper bicycle riding of going WITH the flow of motorized traffic, not AGAINST the flow of motorized traffic and reinforce the idea that bicycles are vehicles.