Who doesn’t love a shortcut?

In our quirky city of rivers, hills, hidden staircases and you-can’t-get-there-from-heres, the shortcut is prized. The shortcut is guarded. When one is shared, it is generally person-to-person, with the unspoken understanding that if everyone were hip then no one could be hip.

So it is with some hesitancy that I write about Gold Way. I can still remember the night years ago that former columnist Peter Leo shared the secret of this winding passage between North Oakland and Polish Hill.

Gold Way is in the news because Bike Pittsburgh (bikepgh.org) is touting the “city’s first speed humps and bike boulevard.” The organization credits the Polish Hill Civic Association for working with city officials to introduce the “humps” ( “bumps,” among friends). Scott Bricker, Bike Pittsburgh’s executive director, is pleased this traffic calming is accompanied by “prioritizing bikes in some fashion.”