BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Sadly there are no “plans” for this segment yet, only dreams. On the South Shore of the river, PennDOT chose not to include bike infrastructure when they redid State Route 51 several years ago between the West End Bridge and McKees Rocks. Due to space constraints, this was really our only option on that side of the river. A basic sidewalk does exist, and also note that a cyclist was actually killed riding this stretch of road AFTER the project to fix it, so be careful if attempting this route. On the opposite shore, we are blocked by the Alcosan water treatment plant. Alternate routes all divert significantly from the riverfront and involve hills. SR’s 51 and 65 on each side of the river would require PennDOT approval for any modification to add bike lanes, and so far there does not seem to be any motivation to do so. If we must leave the riverfront, I prefer using the old trolley line into Crafton (long gentle grade) and then using the Chartiers Creek Greenway to get back down to The Rocks. But no plans to develop those yet either.

If we must leave the riverfront, I prefer using the old trolley line into Crafton (long gentle grade) and then using the Chartiers Creek Greenway to get back down to The Rocks. But no plans to develop those yet either. I'm really glad to hear such a route.   When they redid Rt 51, I was crushed at the lack of crucial bike infrasctructure.   It's good to hear there might be a viable alternative. Old trolly tracks and creek greenways sound OK to me.   Is there some kind of ugly downside to this?  Is there any way we can encourage this development?   It's critical if we want Pittsburgh to be on a coast-to-coast trail,  which I surely want.

First we bulldoze 1600 West Carson Street. Second, we return West Carson St to two, 11-foot-wide lanes, posted 25 mph, shoved up against the cliff, from the West End Circle to McKees Rocks. There's still space for a LTO lane for outbound buses. Third, we change the signal at the West Busway to favor bus traffic over car traffic. Fourth, we add two five-foot-wide bike lanes on the river side of the space. That still leaves six horizontal feet of space to do anything for jersey barriers or whatever. There's 38 feet of available cartway. The functional difference between an 11-foot lane and a 14-foot lane is that the latter encourages speed. Unresolved is how best to get bikes from the dogleg turn by the Duq Incline to just downstream of the WEC. I forget what-all's there, maybe some scrapyards, but that seems to be the lesser of the difficulties. We need a 21st century Robert Moses to make it all happen. Stomp on all the toes, make the toenails bleed. Your opposition is meaningless. We're making it happen.  

The west end of the northside trail ends about a half a mile away from the McKees Rocks Bridge.  The bridge has a decent enough sidewalk on both sides.  In my opinion, this half-mile connection should be considered the "missing link".  I don't know how they could easily connect--I know the north side of the bridge is way up high on a cliff--but it is such a short distance.  I wonder how feasible it would be to put a trail alongside route 65 that would connect down to Eckert Street to connect to the existing trail.

This is how you do that. Gets you from the Beaver/Chateau/Island corner up to Calif Ave near Marshall. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4612051,-80.0309075,3a,75y,284.46h,88.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1szr_DL9cWSwZ3aPeRKhp95A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Dzr_DL9cWSwZ3aPeRKhp95A%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D356.2539%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192