A rider enjoying the new bike lanes on West Ohio St in the Northside.  The new lanes go past Gus and Yiayia’s, a street vendor that has been selling shaved ice, peanuts, popcorn, and other treats since 1934.

Bike lane connections near completion on projects began last year

In December of 2011, we reported that the City began installing shared lane markings that expanded upon Bloomfield’s Liberty Ave bike lanes.  The project encompassed Friendship Ave, Millvale Ave, Centre Ave, Neville St, and Ellsworth Ave (click on the image below to see a larger version).  In addition, the City began installing the Northside’s first on-street bicycle markings connecting the North Shore Trail to Wood’s Run Rd along Brighton Rd.

In both cases, the infrastructure itself varies between sharrows where the cartway was narrow, and bike lanes, where the road was wide enough, creating clearly marked routes.  In December, the City managed to only install the sharrows of the projects, leaving many people wondering what was going on.  We are happy to report that the project is nearing completion with the installation over the past several days of the bike lane portion of the project.

Brighton Rd received the lanes first, on a near 1.5 mile stretch to Woods Run.  West Ohio St also received the bike lane treatment through the Commons (photo above).

The City installed bike lanes on a near 1.5 mile stretch of Brighton Rd, connecting the Central Northside to Wood’s Run

A few days later, the installation began in the East End.  Bike lanes went in on sections of the long stretch of roads connecting Bloomfield to Oakland – Friendship Ave, Millvale Ave, Centre Ave and Neville St – expanding upon the ever-popular Liberty Ave bike lane.

Bike lanes on Friendship Ave, around Friendship Park

Millvale Ave uphill bike lanes (to Liberty Ave) and downhill sharrows (away from Liberty Ave)

The Millvale Ave bike infrastructure is a good example of how bike lanes and sharrows can complement each other.  The street isn’t wide enough to include bike lanes on both sides (without removing parking), so the downhill side (with on-street parking) was outfitted with sharrows.  Since riders tend to do the speed limit on downhill stretches, it is best to orient oneself toward the middle of the lane, riding with cars, outside of the door zone.  On the uphill side, it is difficult to ride at the speed of a car, so there is a climbing bike lane to give a bit of room to help you get to the top of the hill.

Another shot of Millvale Ave, between Centre Ave and Baum Blvd. Millvale is a popular route between Bloomfield and the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University

Neville St bike lane under construction.  The bike lane marking hasn’t been installed yet. This is approaching Fifth Ave with Ellsworth Ave on the left.

To see other examples of Pittsburgh’s expanding bike infrastructure, see our Flickr site.

Do you have photos of cycling in Pittsburgh?  Be sure to add them to the BikePGH Flickr Group.

We’d like to give special thanks to the members of the City’s Urban Cycling Committee who made this happen: Amanda Purcell, Steve Patchan, Pat Hassett, and Bob Dudash.

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