BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Nice little video. Show it to John McCain who thinks such projects are a waste of money!

i really like how they talk about the revival of these small towns. that's such a striking thing when you ride this

and i was really hoping that USA Today was going to trash talk Sandcastle

and i was really hoping that USA Today was going to trash talk Sandcastle

haha

i like how they started by profiling people who thought it was insane and would be difficult, but who ended up loving it and vowing to do it again right away!

so far the comments have been all good. can't wait for the tea-baggers to weigh in.

Only 65 permanent residents of Ohio Pyle?

e-Rock:i really like how they talk about the revival of these small towns. that's such a striking thing when you ride this

Decades ago, when I was young and dumb and drove a car, I drove down into some little village in the Yough Valley. Not sure which one it was, but it was upsteam from Boston. There was only one road into the place. The people stared at me - an outsider driving down the road and turning around and driving out - with undisguised hostility.

That has really changed.

The only problem I've had recently was with some Jr High kids - who had no weapons that could match my biting adult sarcasm.

That encounter led me to think about how life is different for those pre-driving-age kids. Now instead of having the rather limited metropoles of Buena Vista or Smithton, they have easy, safe bike access to much wider area. I'm not sure that is a comfort to the mothers of, say, 15 year olds, but it strikes me as a good thing.

I semi-agree with the conservatives about long-distance trails like the GAP - they are primarily recreational, similar in many ways to golf courses or artificial lakes. I'm glad we have them, but they mostly aren't infrastructure.

The trails in the city - including the potential trail from Pgh to the Yough - are different. They are not recreation for me, nor for most other users.

Ee-RAWK! i was really hoping that USA Today was going to trash talk Sandcastle

and i was really hoping that USA Today was going to trash talk Sandcastle

Really, really hoping?

Some things we just have to do for ourselves!

(I'm thinking amusement parks are potential advertisers. Bike advocates are not.)

So, when will be be appropriate to hang out in West Homestead with large signs and do critical masses through a certain parking lot?

Mick

.

Kennywood / Sandcastle suck (but I do like waterslides).

Tell me if I am wrong but couldn't they profit by putting up overpriced snack and drink shops, potato patch fries, and maybe even some bike parking and an entrance to entice bikers to stop by and cool off a little?

I am not a big fan of amusement parks anymore in my old age, but I have always hated Kennywood owned parks... I just think they are the "douchey-est" run parks I've ever been to... And sadly I have to say that includes Disney! And I am no fan of Disney anything...

Tell me if I am wrong but couldn't they profit by putting up overpriced snack and drink shops, potato patch fries, and maybe even some bike parking and an entrance to entice bikers to stop by and cool off a little?

That's a good idea, but probably offset by the fact that Sandcastle is so close to the city. Folks on the trail would likely just want to push on to the end at that point (or, they would just be getting started).

That said, offering bike parking might not be a bad idea, and would allow to, say, park at the trailhead and avoid traffic around Sandcastle itself.

I know there are pros/cons to things like that, but just letting a glorified sidewalk run past the place is inherently going to get more people to stop. And I was talking about the mom/dad/kids/yuppies/weekenders who only take short trips along the trail.

Hell I would make a point to stop for some Dippin' Dots along the trail if there was a stand... In fact I could see myself going out of my way to do it... But sadly that could reduce the number of bikers who go through the gate and cross the tracks to get ice cream at that cool place on the corner of Beck's Run and Carson LOL...

yeah. one thing to remember is that they make a ton of moolah off of car parking. so if you ride there, you only pay entry fee

"moo-lah"

Oops, wrong thread.

I don't think there is anything stopping people from riding there now LOL, but yeah... One of the reasons I think they are douchey. I know several other amusement parks charge for parking but I know there are several large ones that don't and still make a killing on overpriced admission and concessions alone.

I personally like the Las Vegas concept myself, not charge anyone for parking and crap like that and then rape them AFTER they have walked in the door.

The whole money argument sounds like a word problem from a Business Calculus text. The point is to maximize profit from people driving there, parking, and using the waterpark -- at least that's the plan they're comfortable with.

Now we come along, wanting to yank a pile of their precious parking spaces. Messes with their math. They're (1) scared of losing parking revenue, (2) scared of losing real revenue from running out of parking spaces w/o first filling the park, and (3) unconvinced of getting any kind of revenue from the constant stream of cyclists.

I personally think if they made it positively pleasant to tie up a bunch of bikes there, they might actually attract more customers than they're getting now with cars alone. It'd be great if someone could supply real numbers from someplace similar that's done this already.

I personally think that they are afraid of people coming there with the family to spend a few hundred bucks seeing other families having fun while dropping fewer dimes.

Of course, they could get a few people coming there by bike. They might think that is negligable -and I'm guessing they're right.

They might also not want to get groups of pre-teens to 15 year-olds coming there unsupervised. I coudl relate to that.

Mick

i don't know if yinz have seen the sandcastle parking lot lately... they have a lot of work to do (ie filling giant sinkholes?) before they can start complaining about a trail taking 20 parking spots... literally half of the parking is blocked off, and has been for quite a few years

Maybe they're trying to create an artificial supply shortage so that they can charge more for parking, all other things held constant.

that's a collapsed culvert the city and dep are attempting to address. the county brought up the item at an SPC meeting about a year ago.

I believe the county has conceptual designs for a link between the southside trail and the homestead works, but there is no right-of-way easements or agreements - and then there's the big hole that no one wants to deal with.

Let's put the trail on the northern end of the Hot Metal Bridge going thru Duck Hollow towards Rankin/Braddock.It would still be our gain,(cyclists/joggers) and Sandcastles loss.I know I,my children, and many others would frequent it much more if a trail went next to Sandcastle.Personally, I have to laugh and honestly believe they are really stupid from a buisness point of view. Seriously,why beg them when we have another alternative.It's our gain and their loss.

We need trail passage on both sides of the Mon. Get a safe, legal way from the east end of the Jail Trail to the north end of the Glenwood Bridge, then somehow cross the railroad tracks to connect to the Duck Hollow trail. Then make legal the already traversible path from Duck Hollow to Braddock.

Separately, we need a functional way to bike across the Glenwood Bridge. I haven't tried this, but I gather it isn't pleasant.

Lastly but by no means least, get That Last Mile Thru Sandcastle.

Do them, and we will really have a set of connected paths near and along our rivers.

+1

I just went down to Homestead again today. I went there via the railroad tracks next to Sandcastle and back via 837 & the Glenwood Bridge. Neither way was very pleasant. The most grating part was seeing a nice sidewalk-trail thing starting immediately at the Waterfront's property line.