BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I would just follow 2nd Ave to Greenfield, then take the Eliza Furnace Trail the rest of the way.

Easy-peasy,  here's a map thingy https://goo.gl/maps/kgys7geKT6S2 Welcome to town!

+1 to jonawebb's idea and marko82s map.

BTW, does anyone know when Signature Blvd. will open? That will make things a lot easier.

I miss when they had construction on bridges for 837 / glenwood bridge interchange, the protected path they had for a detour was much more bike friendly than a second set of steep stairs to carry your bike down. I wish they would have just made that permanent (in addition to reopening stairs for pedestrians).

Signature Blvd, which is now called Blair St, is planned to open by the fall, assuming everything goes right. More info on their site: https://www.hazelwoodgreen.com/trail/

This is all great info, thanks a ton! Can't wait to ride!

Reusing this post for last night's meeting on the improvements planned for the Second Avenue corridor to accommodate the Hazelwood Green development. My notes from last night's meeting: Public meeting / Hazelwood Green Phase I Transportation Mitigation SR 0376, Sec A 60; SR 0885, Sec A 42. www.hazelwoodgreen.com Plan for up to 7K trip-generation on the Hazelwood Green site. Over 20 years as much as 8 M sq ft mixed-use development. Bates St interchange w/Parkway East Replace stop sign at Bates St exit from Parkway with acceleration lane. Widening uphill. Glenwood offramp will have signalized intersection, not stop sign. Parkway East at Bates St Widen Parkway East at Bates St exit to have full deceleration lane. Second Ave at Technology Drive 4 lanes on Second Ave heading east — additional lane for exit to Technology Drive. New markings for pedestrian crossings. Second Ave at Hot Metal St Additional lane heading east on Second Ave. Additional lane on Hot Metal St heading north. Two lanes for left turn, one lane for right turn. Won’t affect Hazelwood Trail during construction. New crosswalks. Second Ave at Irvine, Greenfield, Saline Two lanes downhill on Greenfield. Greenfield slightly wider. No change to “chute”, intersection, etc. They claim an additional study is underway that will address Second Avenue issues. They are in the consultant selection phase. There was one more intersection they were going to discuss, but I left the meeting at this point -- I had to get home. The meeting was *not happy* about the minimal change at the Second Ave/Greenfield/Saline/etc intersection (one more downhill lane on Greenfield) or the absence of any response to the desire for Hazelwood residents for pedestrian access to the rest of the city. The response from the consultants was, basically, we only have $5 million and have a lot to do. There's another study coming to address the Second Ave issues. Listen to the rest of the presentation and we can discuss. But, after thinking about it, I think that what they're doing is spending the $5 million on stuff they want to fix (like the Bates Ave exits from the Parkway East) that have little to do with Hazelwood Green, while not addressing at all the major choke point for access to the site (the above intersection). They have a list of projects they want to get to, here's $5 million, anything that falls into this area gets funded. What I propose instead: build a full separated pedestrian walkway / bikeway from Hazelwood along Second Avenue to the Second Ave/Greenfield/etc intersection. Connect it safely to the Eliza Furnace Trail. Spend any of the $5 million left over on further improvements to that intersection. That might not accommodate the target 7K trips from Hazelwood Green, but not changing the intersection at all heading west won't accommodate any of them. It will accommodate some of the trips. And it will make people in Hazelwood happy, compensating them somewhat for the problems associated with the new development. Here's the address to submit comments on this development: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Engineering District 11-0 45 Thoms Run Road Bridgetville, PA 15017 Attn: John Zelesnak

from what I can tell, bates street uphill after the parkway exit won't have a stopsign. How are peds/bikes supposed to get through this without getting creamed?

from what I can tell, bates street uphill after the parkway exit won’t have a stopsign. How are peds/bikes supposed to get through this without getting creamed?

Dangerous for bikes, yes. Pedestrians likely shouldn't be crossing the oakland offramp where it intersects bates since it connects to no other sidewalks on that side of bates street, there is a marked crossing at Frazier St Stairs though. The sidewalk on the uphill side of bates doesn't start till after all the highway on/offramps end. One question, was there any mention of adding handicap ramps on bates street sidewalk at the glenwood offramp? They plan on putting a traffic signal here as well, correct?

I agree there's no plan for a stopsign at the Parkway exit heading uphill. I prefer to use the sidewalk uphill on Bates. It's one of the few places where I do. The plan will put a stoplight at the Glenwood exit from the Parkway, which is better than the stopsign that's there now, for anyone using the sidewalk. I don't remember anything about a handicap ramp but I expect they'll be ADA-compliant.

Is the Parkway interchange onto Bates St. called Glenwood? I think a traffic light with pedestrian crossing there is a great idea.

@zzwergel - It is the Glenwood exit that crosses the sidewalk on the west side of bates and sends traffic southbound towards Second Ave, also where they want to install a new traffic light. The Oakland exit dumps traffic northbound on bates towards Blvd of the Allies.

Isn't the "Death Trap" exit onto Forbes Ave. the Oakland exit? Why don't they just get rid of this death trap for good by closine that exit and force Oakland bound traffic onto Blvd. of the Allies, Bigelow Blvd., Centre Ave, or Forbes Ave. after exiting Downtown.

Isn’t the “Death Trap” exit onto Forbes Ave. the Oakland exit?

Yeah, but that's eastbound (Outbound away from downtown). Both exits that terminate at bates stare both the westbound (inbound towards downtown) ones.

Holy hell. I can’t even. I will attempt a response you can repeat at a public meeting later.

@Stu, What are you talking about?

@jonawebb post above, 9/27@9:35

Why can't the ramp onto Forbes Ave. just be permanently closed? Riding on the 5th Ave sidewalk moonscape is not very pleasant. Here is video of the exit that should be closed. motorists should take Blvd. of the Allies, 2nd Ave., or Parkway to Bates St. to get to Oakland from points west. https://youtu.be/N6izjcJdyLQ?t=586

Because it’s a heavily used artery. It can be made safer for all involved, but no need to close it. I’ve had similar thoughts about the Squirrel Hill onramp to the outbound Parkway East.

Let's start a new thread about South Oakland access. accessing Hazelwood from the Birmingham Bridge is nearly impossible since going to Brady St. would be against one-way traffic. However, Hazelwood can be accessed from the Glenwood Bridge as well as the Homestead Grays Bridge via Imogene Rd./Desdemona Ave./Johnston St. (Why does the name of this street change so many times?)