Over 1 Million Trips Counted On The Penn Ave Bike Lane #ExtendPenn

Handing out socks to riders in the Penn Ave. bike lane to celebrate 1 million trips

In 3 years, over 1 million trips have been counted on the Penn Ave bike lane

In 2014, the outbound lane on Penn Avenue was converted to a protected bidirectional bike lane, something that BikePGH wholeheartedly supported. Then in 2016, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership installed the eco counters (black tubes across the bike lanes) to track the number of trips on the Penn Ave. bike lane.

This week, the counters clocked their 1 millionth trip and Bike Pittsburgh celebrated with a flash pop-up sock giveaway.

The counters tell the bike lane’s story

The eco counters are set up at 3 different locations along the Penn Ave. bike lane at the 1200, 900, and 600 blocks. While they have not been there for all 5 years of the bike lane’s existence, the past 3 years have given us a great way to tell a story of the use of the bike lane.

The Penn Ave bike lane is 1 mile long and with 1 million trips over it, this is equivalent to about 40 trips around the world, 2 round trips to the moon, and roughly 50,000 gallons of gas saved with a car that averages 20mpg. Not to mention, with a daily average of 324 trips, there is a significant number of cars that have been taken off the road, freeing up space for transit and other road users, like emergency vehicles.

It should be noted as well that the eco counters are only placed in the lanes during fair weather months (April – November). So, not counting the first two years of the bike lane’s life and the months that the bike counters are not counting, the numbers of trips over the lanes are actually much higher than 1 million.

One Million Trips in 3 years – Congrats, here’s some socks!

People Want to Be Protected: #ExtendPenn Now

If there’s one thing that the story of 1 million trips says, is that people use the bike lane, every day. We are now in the 5th year of waiting for the City to extend the Penn Ave bike lanes to the eastern neighborhoods, something that was the intention from the beginning.

Much has changed over the past five years, except making it safer to ride a bicycle. The Strip District Trail has been closed due to development. Other large developments, with their required parking, have also been built. It’s no surprise that if we increase the number of people living and working in a neighborhood without providing safe biking and walking facilities, people will drive.

Please join our #ExtendPenn campaign and make sure the future of the eastern neighborhoods isn’t a traffic jam. BikePGH.org/ExtendPenn

STAY TUNED AND STAY INVOLVED!

Stay tuned for future public meetings, project updates, advocacy efforts and ways to get involved.

The results show that it is important to show up to public meetings, be vocal, and state your case. Your presence at future meetings will be even more important as we push toward the more difficult, yet ultimate goal of securing the connection between 21st St and the eastern neighborhoods.