BikePGH Message Board Archive

New Crossing Risk at Highmark Stadium / Station Square

Why did the bicyclist cross the road?

To not get killed!

I'd like to call attention to a new risk for trail users riding (for instance) across the Ft. Pitt bridge and joining the Station Square Trail. (which, btw, a lot more people will be doing when the GAP is completed)

This is the existing configuration, please note specifically where the green trail crosses the blue road:

There's been a major project building the Highmark? Stadium and I'd like to say, they've done a great job of keeping this trail open and safe during the project, I really appreciate that.

They're moving the road and excavating the old road, and that presents a real change to the line-of-sight for a bicyclist trying to cross the road.

This presents a definite increase in risk and a decrease in safety for trail users. I think it must be unintentional, they probably never thought about it - but it is not safe.

Proposed solutions:

Option A is practical, costs are short-term (pavement)

Option B may not be practical because the new trail alignment cuts across the land they're presumably trying to develop, that's why they're moving the road

Option C works; at the PIT airport, the trail crosses a 4-lane road with cars doing 55mph. The developers may not like the "red light" because it shifts some onus onto the automobilists; they can pursue Option A, then.

How do I raise the visibility on this? How do I get this changed? I'd appreciate your advice.

vannever

2012-08-19 17:21:30

Maybe contact Steve Patchan and perhaps your city council member too?

Option A might be a problem if there's insufficient clearance with the RR tracks. I think that's why the trail crosses the road at that point. But they could move the road south and the trail north in that little segment (swapping them) if necessary.

Push-button pedestrian stop signals would be OK, but that's not exactly what the airport crossing has, as I recall. They're merely advisory "maybe try not to hit the cyclist" lights that don't require cars to stop or yield.

steven

2012-08-19 18:32:16

Is this the initial construction for the new stadium for the Riverhounds?

jamesk

2012-08-20 01:24:37

Yes it is.

vannever

2012-08-20 02:50:10

That's significant in & of itself. Certainly they should be considering the likelihood of substantive numbers of people getting to their games by bike. Shouldn't they?

stuinmccandless

2012-08-20 09:34:01

With the joggle in there, the cars would need to slow down to ~5 mph to not crash, rendering the need for extra seeing distance unnecessary?

rice-rocket

2012-08-20 12:32:51

@ricerocket, actually the cars come through there very fast. They have a long straightaway from StationSquare, then the curve is a bit of a chicane - fun to drive, no real need to slow down. Coming from Carson Street, they're on a descending tightening curve.

vannever

2012-08-20 12:53:12

I almost always ride the road through there anyway. It's one of those situations where I would most object to the type of law requiring "bikes to ride on a path where available".

For one thing, the trail leads you through the touristy pedestrian place between the "dancing waters" and the railroad tracks, which I think is highly questionable. Bikes should just be on the road through Sta square there.

Don't mean to take the discussion OT, but my 2 cents.

edmonds59

2012-08-20 13:07:53

@edmonds I agree totally about the "trail" near the Station Square fountains being unsafe for cyclists (and unsafe for pedestrians who have to share the "trail" with cyclists).

jamesk

2012-08-20 13:44:02

@ricerocket, actually the cars come through there very fast. They have a long straightaway from StationSquare, then the curve is a bit of a chicane - fun to drive, no real need to slow down. Coming from Carson Street, they're on a descending tightening curve.

You think a car could carry the same amount of speed through that chicane? I don't think so personally.

rice-rocket

2012-08-20 14:27:51

@Stephen: Maybe contact Steve Patchan and perhaps your city council member too?

Thank you, I've emailed SP. I don't have a city council member, though. Cheers, V.

vannever

2012-08-20 16:18:10

I have to agree with Vannevar & Edmonds. I also ride through there on my commute, and a) cars do, in fact, fly through that curve and 2) the road is much safer for cyclists than the trail.

People at Station Square assume that the trail behind the fountains is just an extension of the "patio" on the back of the restaurants there. I stopped going through there when I got cussed out by an older lady who meandered in front of me and got scared by my bell.

ajbooth

2012-08-20 17:04:33

Although I'd like to say the original thread is about the established crossing and the new road and not the patio,

it is an interesting thought to wonder about marking a bike lane with sharrows through the patio to make it obvious to transient first-timers - that's mostly who is on the patio, and there is no way for them to discern that it's a bike trail - no signage, no markings, nothing. Can we be surprised that it goes awry?

Because in March when the GAP is complete, the pure-trail way to get from DC to the Point is going to run through that patio, mixing first-time-in-Pgh bikers with first-time-in-Pgh tourists (which, fairness demands I say, was also not the original thread)

Paddy O'Sharrows - you heard it here first!

vannever

2012-08-20 17:48:24