BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Further, [Kail-Smith] said, council would be briefed in detail on bike lane designs. Guidance from the advisory group would be delivered to the mayor's office "subject to council approval," she added. Board members would include city public-works, parking and planning representatives, along with people from the local business and bicycling communities. Mayor Bill Peduto supports the effort, said Kevin Acklin, his chief of staff. “We thought it was a good way to formalize a process that we think is already underway,” Mr. Acklin said. He said the Department of City Planning, which handles bike lanes, already undertakes a “robust community discussion” before any new ones take shape.

Here is a worst case: Council refuses to approve some bike-related measure. It's waiting for the Board to submit its recommendation. Months pass. The Board is still "working" on it. As a courtesy to Council, the mayor and the City wait. Nothing happens. Finally, the mayor says screw it and goes ahead. The P-G letters column erupts in outrage. Block's minions pen editorials attacking Peduto's attempted power-grab. To the barricades! (Yes, I'm exaggerating. Just humor me.)

• Bike lanes are bad for car traffic
• Bike lanes are bad for businesses - taking away parking spaces and all
• We have enough bike lanes; too many, in fact!
• Cyclists are entitled, spandex-wearing scofflaws
• It's too dangerous to bike on roads; cyclists should stick to the trails
• Pittsburgh streets are too narrow for bicycles
• Pittsburgh weather is too cold for bicycles
• Pittsburgh is too hilly for bicycles
• waah!

The proposed bike-lane advisory committee will be discussed at 10 a.m. Wed., Jan 11, in the city council chambers, located on the fifth floor of the City-County Building at 414 Grant St., Downtown.

• Enforcing speed limits, particularly on streets cyclists should be able to use
• Prosecuting drivers who endanger cyclists
• Assisting cyclists with the knowledge necessary to video and report dangerous drivers
• Establishing laws, at the state level if necessary, for a bounty system to reward cyclists for bringing dangerous drivers to justice
• Educating law enforcement, magistrates, and others relevant to the justice system, to what the law truly means concerning best-practices cycling (so cyclists don't get pulled over for taking the lane, as one example)
• Forcing state, county, and city planning and engineering entities to design streets that make it less possible for drivers to have a chance to mow down cyclists and pedestrians
• Getting road maintenance departments at municipal, county and state levels to address road surface hazards that endanger cyclists, such as diagonal rail crossings, longitudinal drain grates, unswept shoulders which cyclists are expected to use, etc.

1. Enforcing speed limits, particularly on streets cyclists should be able to use.
2. Getting road maintenance departments at municipal, county and state levels to address road surface hazards that endanger cyclists, such as diagonal rail crossings, longitudinal drain grates, unswept shoulders which cyclists are expected to use, etc.
3. ...

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith said the proposal she introduced was not meant to be “adversarial.” “We are getting a lot of complaints regarding bike infrastructure,” she said. “If we were doing such a fantastic job, we wouldn’t have the volume of complaints that we are receiving across the city of Pittsburgh.”

Some feedback on the recent tabling of a bike infrastructure advisory board and in regard to this statement of yours. “We are getting a lot of complaints regarding bike infrastructure,” she said. “If we were doing such a fantastic job, we wouldn’t have the volume of complaints that we are receiving across the city of Pittsburgh.” Please consider what motivates those complaints. People can be selfish and will complain about things merely because they don't benefit from them. A massive percentage of white Americans were outraged when civil rights laws were enacted. They didn't want minorities to have equal rights. This is a perfect analogy. Bike infrastructure isn't special treatment and it isn't a mere convenience. This is literally a life and death matter. I personally have been hit by cars 5 times while biking, 3 of those in Pittsburgh. Nearly every biker who rides on Pittsburgh roads has bean threatened or assaulted. I know cyclists who have ended up in a coma or hospitalized for months. One even had his throat slit by a driver. Currently 2% of commuting in Pittsburgh is done by bike and yet we don't have anywhere close to that percentage of the infrastructure budget. The percentage of bike commuters would be even higher if riding in the city didn't require risking serious injury. That means we should be spending more than 2% of the infrastructure on cycling, not less. On top of that, cyclists are subsidizing drivers because most cyclists are also drivers. Cyclists pay all the same taxes while doing less damage and despite not receiving adequate infrastructure. Put simply, bike infrastructure is drastically underfunded. We are merely asking for proportionate accommodation, funding and protection from being killed by speeding drivers. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated even though I it will be unpopular by those who only care about themselves. I know it's a tough job and I appreciate your attention. Good luck!

There are many roundabout designs, including ones with traffic lights (at high-volume intersections, and which would incorporate crossing opportunities for peds). Past that, they just make sense in that they allow vehicles to continue moving when there’s little traffic and have clear rules for precedence. As a cyclist I’ve found them generally easy to deal with, even in contrast with traffic lights (consider right hooks, for example).

1. Aspinwall is (much) higher SES than sharpsburg. So the cachet factor.  And I do think some people won't look at the facility to live, or to shop, if the only way in is through Sharpsburg.  Just the reality of the situation...
2. For the traffic coming off the HPB... I'm sure the vast majority of those cars that don't get onto 28 go toward Aspinwall, not Sharpsburg.  so just for the visibility reason (they're going to have shops there too), the Aspinwall entrance makes sense.
3. As long as the riverfront park has been in development there has been talk about getting a better entrance for it.  The original plan was to move the driveway to the intersection with Brillant.  However, when the new parcel was bought, I think they figured they could solve the riverfront park entrance problem by using Eastern.  Kills 2 birds with one stone.

Evidently the railroad has been actively helping get this done and came up with the flyover ramp idea to get it done.

that might be one way of spinning it. another is the railroad suggested that — or at least is allowing — the borough spend a boatload of money building a bridge, to railroad specifications, so that the railroad doesn’t have to allow a crossing.

Highway-railroad grade crossings are intersections where a highway crosses a railroad at-grade. They are also called level crossings in other countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. To avoid collisions, warning/control devices are required at grade crossings just like intersecting roads need stop signs or traffic signals. Active Grade Crossings have active warning and control devices such as bells, flashing lights, and gates, in addition to passive warning devices such as crossbucks (the familiar x-shaped signs that mean yield to the train), yield or stop signs and pavement markings.  While passive Grade Crossings have only passive warning devices. These warning/control devices are specified in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices  (MUTCD). Grade crossings may be public or private. Public grade crossings are roadways that are under the jurisdiction of, and maintained by, a public authority. Private grade crossings are on privately owned roadways, such as on a farm or industrial area, and are intended for use by the owner or by the owner's licensees and invitees. A private crossing is not intended for public use and is not maintained by a public highway authority. In 2015, there were 129,582 public crossings and 80,073 private crossings.

Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and the Port Authority announced Thursday morning they will be filing an application with the Federal Transit Administration in the next six months to build a street-level system of electric vehicles that would, at a minimum, run on dedicated lanes between Downtown and Oakland. The system also could be extended using regular traffic lanes and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway to Highland Park, Squirrel Hill and Wilkinsburg.

• More Strategic Bicycle and Pedestrian Connections
• "Park and Bike" Trail Lots
• Completed Trail Network

“This route was chosen to minimize trail users' interaction with vehicles so they can pass safely through town,” she said.

For the study area along PA Route 6 and Route 6N, over 20% of the corridor functions at a BLOS grade of “D” or lower. Using 2011-2015 PennDOT crash data, it was determined that 22 recorded crashes involving bicyclists (9) or pedestrians (13) occurred along PA Route 6 during the 5 year period.

There also will be several direct connections to the riverfront trail, which will be rebuilt as part of the project. ... During the construction, the existing trail will be closed, with users rerouted through the east side of Station Square.

[Project developer] High Street Residential hopes to get started this summer on the project, which will take 18 months to complete.

“It's a flat, small town where you can get places quickly,” [Officer Brett] Carb said. “It's much easier to talk to people and say hello when you don't have to roll the car window down and stop traffic. It gets us face-to-face with the community.” “I think it's a great way to get their faces out there and develop relationships with kids especially,” Councilwoman Brittany Reno said. “This is a very pedestrian-heavy community and I think it's a fabulous idea.”

My argument for it is to provide missing and badly needed highway access between Pittsburgh’s eastern and southern suburban communities. We all know that Pittsburgh’s three rivers pose their own notorious difficulties getting around Pittsburgh. Yes, we have plenty of bridges in the area, but few are highway crossings outside of the Downtown area. For example, the east and the north are efficiently connected by the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which crosses the Allegheny). The north, west and south are well connected by I-79 (which crosses the Ohio). But there is no equivalent highway crossing the Mon. Other than the Fort Pitt Bridge, in the middle of Downtown congestion, the next highway crossing upstream isn’t until I-70 way out near Belle Vernon!

Putting them in First Avenue, a glorified back alley, would essentially say “You’re not welcome on our main roads”.

If my machine would let me log in, I’d post this:

Noting the specialized nature of the building, with its refrigeration units, high ceilings and dock bays, Brad Totten, the managing director of the Pittsburgh office of Avison Young… [said], “They made a big investment to build that…I don’t see somebody buying that at that kind of price [more than $8.2 million] and doing apartments.” What’s happening around the Consumer Fresh Produce site makes it hard not to wonder if the property could be in for future redevelopment.…[in addition to the Cork Factory and Buncher site apartment complexes,] Rugby Realty Company Inc. and Al. Neyer are formulating plans for a new office project on nearly 4 acres at 21st and Smallman. Chuck Hammel, principal of Strip District-based Pitt Ohio Express who helped spearhead the Cork Factory Lofts redevelopment as well as others in the Strip, said he thinks a diversity of of businesses and uses are good for the neighborhood. He added he hopes to see Consumer Fresh Produce to continue to operate there. “You wonder how difficult it will be for them to operate there once the Buncher [Co.] property and the Rugby property are developed,” he said.

Cyclist, 17, dies after being hit by SUV in Big Beaver Police are investigating after a teenage bicyclist was killed Monday in a collision with a car along a borough street. According to state police, the 17-year old male cyclist, whose name was not released, was struck by a vehicle as he tried to cross State Route 18 near the intersection with Old Wampum Drive in Big Beaver. He was first taken to Ellwood City Hospital and then flown to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, where he later died. Emergency responders were called to the scene at about 4:45 p.m. Monday for a report of a child struck by a car. ... A state police accident reconstruction team was called to the area at about 7 p.m. and began to assist in the investigation. A red sport utility vehicle at the scene had front end damage as well as a shattered front windshield. The driver of that vehicle was also not identified. It’s common to see people walking in that area along Route 18, Hamilton said. Occasionally she notices people riding bikes. "Cars drive very fast on this street," she said.

The Allegheny County Health Department has reached a settlement with a steel company over emissions violations at its Harrison Township processing facility. The department ordered Allegheny Technologies Inc., to pay a $50,000 fine to the county’s Clean Air Fund and allow some of its property to be used as a bike lane along the Allegheny River.

It appears the 16-year-old male was traveling down a hill and struck the truck.  The teen was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital with a leg injury, but it is not believed to be life-threatening. No other information has been released at this time.

A history of sharing the road

At a time when lots of companies are moving into the Strip District, one is moving out. After 30 years in the Strip, West Penn Finance Service Center Inc. has traded the grit and the parking hassles for brand new digs in the suburbs of Ross.

"Pittsburgh's Penn Avenue isn't the only major street scheduled for a face-lift in 2019. "The city is planning to reduce four-lane Liberty Avenue from 12th Street to 34th Street in the Strip District to three lanes with a turning lane in the middle, plus make improvements to traffic signals, crosswalks and sidewalks….City officials said that section of street is too narrow for four lanes and unsafe for pedestrians to cross. The city has no plans for a bike lane on the street."

It would be cool if it could be turn into a premier bike racing course better than the Washington Blvd Oval/Bud Harris Cycling Track.