BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I have no idea, but the stretch from the West End Circle to Station Square is the empty hole in my ride from areas west of the city to Downtown. It's like a .25-mile stretch that is borderline suicidal for a single rider in rush hour traffic. Instead of attempting it, I have to cross an extra bridge (the West End Bridge) and add about a mile to my ride. It's really unfortunate that there is basically no safe entry to the city on the west.

This has some info on it. I think you're talking about the Ohio River Greenway Trail, maybe. There are people here involved with the ORTC, and there's also a website (http://membership.ohiorivertrail.org/). It's really hard to figure out anything from the ORTC web site, BTW. Here's some info about useless share-the-road and shared-lane-markings in Monaca and Coraopolis

Some folks tried to get the West Carson Street project between McKees Rocks and WEC to include room for bike lanes or even an off-street path. Denied. I've ridden between McKR and Neville a couple times. I don't know that I'd want to do it frequently, but it's so narrow speeds actually aren't too bad, and despite feeling a certain dread every time I hit Island Ave I haven't actually had any problem. There are long-term plans to build a park (primarily soccer fields, IIRC) at the mouth of Montour Run, which I believe include extending the Montour Trail up to the river and then into Coraopolis proper. Not sure how close that is to actually happening, however.

(See also: this thread from about three years ago starts with a presentation of a feasibility study of a GAP extension from Downtown past Neville to the state line, and ends up talking about the West Carson rebuild: http://localhost/mb/topic/westward-trail-connections-feas-study-presentation/ )

This summer there's going to be bike lanes installed on Neville Island. I'm not sure that they travel the entire length of Neville Island, or just from McKees Rocks to the fire station.

The application of a tremendous bomb on 1600 West Carson, or alternatively, an army of bulldozers and wrecking balls, would help move things along enormously. That building is no less a blight on the landscape than the now demolished pigeon roosts that were across the street from it. I don't have much love for the strip club building across the street and its neighbors, either, but at least they aren't blocking a bikeway. Were it mine to do, I'd level everything from the WEC on down on both sides and make it a linear park. Junkyards and everything. Maybe relocate the stained glass and statuary from that one place, but that entire half mile is ghastly, gawdawful.

The gas station and junkyard are... yeesh. It's not exactly a pretty approach to the city, and that real estate is incredibly valuable from a bikeway standpoint. I wish I could eminent domain the whole enterprise. I'd at least appreciate if the sidewalk in front of the blighted areas was passable so I could stay out of the way of the 50 MPH traffic bombing out from the underpass, but it's crumbled, overgrown with weeds and brush, and littered with debris, car parts, construction junk, and, my favorite, an impossible number of detour signs.

I don't get the distributed animus to 1600 W.Carson. It's private property. It's not vulgar. It's not architecture but it's work and jobs. I think it's much better, to give an example, than a string of nuisance bars. The appearance is not aesthetically different from the US Steel building, which Pgh seems fond of. I do not like the sidewalk and the street design that runs on W.Carson, but that has nothing to do with the 1600 building. My .02 - hey, how come my keyboard doesn't have a "cents" symbol? Hell in a hand-basket.

¢   →   ¢ http://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_html_entities_4.asp and neighboring pages have useful html entities. ☺

That building is an eyesore, but I agree that it serves various useful purposes. Jobs, for instance. And it's Pittsburgh: Ugly industrial is part of our heritage. I would be agreeable to getting that sidewalk widened and its surface improved (and maintained). A transition for east-bound cyclists coming from the circle should be possible to figure out. We pay taxes, after all.

thanks Ahlir! I wasn't sure if HTML special characters would work. I agree that the streets outside of 1600 W.Carson are the problem. As former-Mayor Murphy suggested 18 months ago: there are 2 pedestrian walkways on the West End Bridge. Why isn't one of them a bikelane, and why doesn't it have ramps rather than staircases down to river/trail level? The whole Station Square- West End Circle access question deserves more attention.

There is a proposal / study done of the connection from station square to montour trail @ coraopolis... http://membership.ohiorivertrail.org/attachments/article/196/04.%20TRHT_Pittsburgh_to_Coraopolis_Feasibility_Study_Description_of_Route_Segements_06_10_2013.pdf Has lots of interesting info.