BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I did notice those strips that count traffic in the bike lane on penn. I guess data will show us more facts than people's opinions.

Sounds Awesome! Local reporter hairdo makes attempt to study traffic statistics to catch buzz ratings of 60+ suburbanites who still get their news on the 5PM tube.

Wow, look how crushed the traffic is behind the "reporter" - we certainly need more lanes for cars! /s http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/are-the-downtown-pittsburgh-bike-lanes-benefiting/vDQxFm/

"While you're all upset over Nepal and Baltimore, here's something local you can get pissed off about, too!"

Somebody, seriously, suggest to WPXI that they stick a reporter out in the middle of the $882 MILLION Mon Fayette expressway between Jefferson Hills and I-70 and time how long it takes for a vehicle to go by. In terms of shit-that-no-one-uses, $120k that WASN'T EVEN TAX MONEY, is couch change. WPXI is the National Enquirer of Pittsburgh news, which is not a high bar in the first place. I fully expect a report on an alien baby next.

Channel 11 isn't exactly bike friendly https://twitter.com/htpape/status/581105186732666880

All they are trying to do is to get more people to watch their channel. They don't care, really, about whether people are using the bike lanes or not. What they care about is people getting upset and calling in and telling their friends about their coverage. PS They must really be promoting this. Somebody mentioned it here at work and everybody knows about it.

I think the Mon Fayette is at 1.2 billion now. 1200 million. That is enough money that if you fill stage AE to capacity you could give everybody in attendance 500,000 dollars. Cost of bike lane would give all of them 50 dollars.

I posted in comments: This is a relative steal at $60,000 per mile versus the Mon Fayette Expressway's 17,000,000 / mile (rounded down). Im not a mathematician but I think we could do a protected bike lane ACROSS ALL OF PENNSYLVANIA , for the cost of 1 mile of the Mon Fayette. Extrapolate out and that means they could do one ACROSS ALL OF AMERICA for about 8%of the cost of the Mon Fayette... Or better yet, do 12 of them across america (Or 6 of them out and back if you want to do roundtrip) for the cost of the Mon Fayette.

^Awesome. Kudos.

Like they all have said. However, one thing we should be careful about is that there almost certainly WILL be losers in some of this, and not all losers are automatically troglodytic turds (did troglodytes even *have* turds?). We should always try to "get to yes" and make the pie bigger instead of squabbling over a fixed pie, etc, but we do need to listen to unhappy people too. That is NOT to defend this particular bit of "journalism".

We figured out that it's "sweeps" month. All kinds of tools to get people to tune in, strictly for the ratings. The way I see it, it's good. Their right-wing echo chamber consists mainly of people who are already convinced that bikes are the Agenda 21 commies from the United Nations, and it's a marker for the end of days. Our having bike lanes fits right into that. We apparently matter to them, and that's good. Our job hasn't changed. Call out the bullshit, and take no prisoners. The people whose minds are unchangeable, to hell with them. Those with a scrap of reason, fine, we will get through eventually.

I'd be interested in knowing what percentage of cars that drive on that street shop in the chocolate store too. I'm a fan of chocolate, but I don't think I've been in a chocolate shop in about a decade. Not sure how much overlap there is between boutique chocolate and bike riders. Probably don't have a lot of bike riders going into the social security office either. (Which isn't to say we don't have a lot of 65+ cyclists, because we do.) Just kind of a dumb premise to base a story off of.

@pierce, I suspect that they had interviewed a few restaurant owners but probably got 'sure there are cyclist in here all the time' comments, and that wouldn't be controversial.

I thought it would be more biased. Even the quote from the chocolatier seemed irrelevant since the garage is referenced is fully accessible. Think about the counters. I cannot stress to you how important those numbers can be. The old way of thinking is to provide more facilities for traffic that is there, ignoring latent demand. This is a way to use the older argument in favor of better accommodation - and it's critics are then the supporters of throwing it out - ie not waiting for injury statistics and ridership overall to pile up before making improvements. We can easily defend new policy with new data. We could use some help getting the word out about the counters, and making sure we catch vandalism quickly - lest we get gaps in the data that could have made a difference.

Aurora Sharrard is trying to arrange a comprehensive survey of Pittsburgh commuters as part of the Pittsburgh 2030 district planning. The target is something like 23,000 surveys, and there is a very definite interest of getting cyclists. I assume that is related to this but I don't know for sure.

I need to start taking some lunch-time toodles up and down the Penn lanes and hit those counting strips.

The counting strips are located by Heinz Hall, between 9th and 10th streets (in front of Sienna Mercatto, I think) and between 12th and 14th streets. I may have gone out of my way a few times to make sure I hit them all. Hey, it's more miles!

"Aurora Sharrard is trying to arrange a comprehensive survey of Pittsburgh commuters as part of the Pittsburgh 2030 district planning. The target is something like 23,000 surveys, and there is a very definite interest of getting cyclists. I assume that is related to this but I don’t know for sure." Actually, they are independent. Aurora is heading the 2030 Districts Transportation Baseline which focuses on commuters to Downtown and Oakland. That will be an extremely important survey in the Fall. There are plenty of policy implications. Understand that the surveys being done now are mandated as part of introducing the next phase of bike infrastructure, and the counts on protected bike lanes are what we are using as a baseline moving forward.

What are considered to be the next phases of bicycling infrastructure in Pittsburgh? Maybe Oakland to downtown protected biking lanes?

You mean the Mon Fayette expressway that has taken them 70+ years to build now? LOL Any time the government spends money on something that someone else doesn't use — the people who don't use it will scream and yell. How many people are upset about all the railroad bridges being fixed for the GAP trail, the Pinkerton Tunnel getting refurbished, etc.? The same people will ask you cyclists why you spend over $1,000 on a bike — when we all know a $1,000 bike will last you the rest of your life if you want it to, sans parts replacements here and there. How long would a $1,000 car last? A month? 3 weeks?

I’d be interested in knowing what percentage of cars that drive on that street shop in the chocolate store too. I’m a fan of chocolate, but I don’t think I’ve been in a chocolate shop in about a decade.

in the span of four days, i rode past that chocolate shop at least three times, if not more. it wasn't open once. i had a friend in from out of town, a milkshake fiend who would've loved to stop, and at least one more friend on another occasion, but....closed.

Oh my. I would have fallen out of my chair laughing about the "National Enquiror" comments about Chopper er... Channel 11 If I weren't laying in bed hahaha. It's bad enough on TV but I can tell you I'VE been "yelled at" by co workers for being responsible somehow for Penn Ave being closed now. I'm the only one in a group of 30 who rides at all, so I hear the anger all the time. The funny thing is most of these people take the T, or drive routes where this loss of Penn Ave doesn't matter to them, and never come to the city for reasons other than work. I'll admit at first I thought the idea was dumb and still kinda believe unnecessary since I never felt "unsafe" riding down Penn Ave ever in the 20+ years I've lived and biked here. But at the same time when you see the numbers of cyclists that have increased dramatically since I moved here in 94, I won't argue that it's making the city a better place to bike. When I first moved here, all anyone would tell me about cycling is that "you're fucking crazy to bike in this city" and now all I hear from people who don't cycle are "so you're one of the assholes getting in my way and getting all my streets closed" And I'll take that to mean there's been significant progress!!!