The Pittsburgh Bike Plan is almost ready, but the City needs your help

We know we’ve been pushing this for a long time, but the City is rounding third and heading into the homestretch to publish their long-awaited City Bike Plan.

The City is currently working off of a Bike Plan, published in 1999, and is more or less complete. In the early 2010s, the City began planning related work toward the completion and eventual publishing of a new bike plan reflective of modern times. Over this same time period, bike infrastructure has been rapidly evolving and being installed in the United States, and a bike plan is important t0 keep Pittsburgh up with the times.

Consider this: when the 1999 Bike Plan was drafted, the Eliza Furnace Trail was brand new. Today, we have high-tech bike share (that you can rent with your phone), OpenStreetsPGH, a trail that connects to Washington DC, and protected bike lanes – things whose existence was barely conceivable two decades ago.

An updated Bike Plan is a necessary tool to set expectations and provide the vision for bike infrastructure, policies, and events, and the City’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) is committed to publishing one.

A Bike Plan allows the City to more easily seek funding for projects, has a level of public and political buy-in, sets expectations for residents and businesses, and was one of our top three policy requests of the City of Pittsburgh from our Member’s Meeting in November of 2014.

How can you Provide Feedback?

The City plans to use all of the collected comments from their previous outreach efforts, and add this round of feedback to finalize the plan. There are several ways to provide feedback to help carry the bike plan into the end zone.

First of all, be sure to check out DOMI’s new Bike Plan website. On the site you’ll find links to their Bike Plan Wikimap, public meetings, and an explanation of next steps. The site will eventually house information about upcoming projects and schedules, among other information related to bicycle mobility and planning in Pittsburgh.

Attend a Public Meeting

Showing up to a public meeting is the best way to give feedback and to understand the bike plan and next steps. There are three opportunities to attend.

Wikimap from your computer

The completed Bike Plan will include a map of proposed bike infrastructure and a list of prioritized projects. The City has created an online Wikimap where residents can provide feedback on top of an online map. Users can add their “preferred routes,” where they think there are “missing links,” or leave comments on specific points and trouble spots.

Tip: When adding your “preferred route,” turn off “snap to route” otherwise it will pick the streets for you.

One final thing. If you haven’t seen it, DOMI has a brand new facebook page. Be sure to “like” it.

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