James Knox / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Tom Fontaine

Saturday, April 20, 2013, 9:00 p.m. 

Filling the last gap of the Great Allegheny Passage could bring out-of-town bicyclists to Downtown Pittsburgh in droves.

But once here, they would be on their own in a bustling Downtown with no shared or dedicated bike lanes, few bike racks and what can be a confusing street grid, advocates say.

“There’s nothing Downtown that really says, ‘Welcome cyclists,’ ” said Eric Boerer, advocacy director for the Lawrenceville-based nonprofit Bike Pittsburgh.

Officials are looking for ways to change that, but any significant improvements probably would happen after the Great Allegheny Passage’s missing link — a one-mile stretch near Sandcastle Waterpark in West Homestead — opens in June.

When done, the 150-mile passage will be unbroken from the end of the Eliza Furnace Trail at PNC’s Firstside Center and Grant Street to Cumberland, Md. There, it connects with the C&O Canal Towpath, which goes to Washington.

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, with video and slideshow.

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