Thanks to new infrastructure, the simple act of slowing down may lead you to care even more about your community

During my first ride on the new Forbes Ave protected bike lanes next to Frick Park (created after the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse), I stumbled upon a small revelation. Once over the initial excitement of the concrete protected lanes, I couldn’t help but notice the large amount of trash in Frick Park’s greenspace adjacent to the bike lanes. 

Previously, this stretch of Forbes was for fast moving cars and bicyclists brave enough to ride next to these drivers. As there is no sidewalk on this side of the street, nor a place to ride slower and take in the your surroundings, the wooded area more resembled the side of a highway than a city park. 

Years of trash, everything from broken car parts to bottles filled with urine, accumulated next to this highway-like road. Even if someone wanted to clean up the debris, there was no safe place to walk along the road to do so. 

With the addition of the bike lanes, the accumulation became all the more noticeable, stirring the sense of wanting things to simply look nice after getting nice things.

So we did what anyone would want to do – we organized a trash cleanup.

Using our networks, we made a callout for volunteers, and aligned the cleanup with a public meeting about the future redesign of the Forbes/Braddock intersection in the hopes of drawing more people to it. Over the course of about an hour, we collected 5 bags of trash and a car bumper.

Penn Circle Two-Way Conversion Project

The same thing happened after the City opened up the brand new Penn Circle bike lanes in July. Once a highway through a residential neighborhood, the new two-way configuration with protected bike lanes transformed the area. Again, now that it wasn’t a highway, the trash accumulation along the corridor was ever more noticeable.

The character of streets changes when traffic patterns change – Penn Circle isn't a trash can, it's an important neighborhood connection.

Last week, we picked up the trash.. now let's keep it clean! Huge thanks to everyone who came out to help. pic.twitter.com/2pjo4cbn5W

— BikePGH (@BikePGH) August 18, 2024

So we did it again and organized a volunteer trash collection in the lead up to the ribbon cutting for the project. We simply wanted to give the bike lanes and the redesign a fresh start for the neighborhood. This time, in about two hours, our 11 volunteers collected a dozen bags of trash.

Not only is a neighborhood cleanup appreciated, it shows that we deeply care about safety transformations that improve our city, and are willing to put in the work to help them succeed. 

How to organize your own clean up, and make friends along the way

We highly encourage advocates to organize their own trash cleanups. It’s a great tool for building good will within the community, as well as recruiting members for your neighborhood’s safe streets efforts. And BikePGH and the City of Pittsburgh’s DPW is here to help!

The City of Pittsburgh has an easy protocol for organizing community trash pickups using their online form. The City will ask you if you need bags, gloves or other materials, as well as coordinating a pickup location for your bags. 

Once you settle on a date, let us know and we can help amplify the event to recruit volunteers. We can also provide safety vests, gloves, and other items, if needed.

It couldn’t be easier!

Whether you get a new bike lane, or simply want to spruce up your favorite walking or biking corridor, consider organizing a trash clean up to beautify your neighborhood and meet some neighbors along the way.