This may have been addressed in early threads but I could not find anything. But I moved up here a few months ago from Nashville and not reside in East Liberty. I noticed they replaved part of highland ave by home depot and I was hoping for new bike lanes there but no luck.
I understand Pen. Circle north and the west (?) by McDonald's are going to be changed to two lanes next year. Is there any plans to have bike lanes on any of these roads? Recently I have seen more and more cyclists in the area and with more places to go around the area some new lanes may encourage more people to ride. But anyone know about future plans??
Thanks,
Z
Okay, so, this should win me an award for least helpful reply ever, but I just saw that you moved from Nashville a few months ago and had to say: ME TOO. Let's be friends, yay Tennessee, yay Pittsburgh, yay bikes, etc.
I have no idea what plans are in that area, but I go through that area a fair amount, so I'm curious too. Hmm.
my vague recollection is that they hope to make he whole thing two-way. I wouldn't count on bike lanes but traffic is slow enough that it shouldn't be much of an issue. Although Penn circle west is wide enough that it would make a great spot for a bike lane for the many people that use it and N Euclid ave to cut North/South.
Given the bangup job they've done accomodating pedestrians and bikes so far I'm not holding my breath.
I swear I'm going to hack into the traffic lights and make it so peds always get walk signals and people in cars have to get out and press a button if they want a green light.
@ Salty I'm going to hack into the traffic lights and make it so peds always get walk signals and people in cars have to get out and press a button if they want a green light.
SALTY FOR PRESIDENT!
This article gives some idea of what will be happening, in theory (one way traffic to two-way, etc)
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_653712.html
As you can see, it took two years to do two blocks -- this is a pain in the butt project. BUT what I've seen from walking and/or this two-way corridor every day is that the more that gets done, the better it will be for cyclists. 10 years ago, riding around Penn Circle would have been insane. Now it's only mildly eccentric.
yeah penn circle in the 90s was a fun time.
Vote for Salty.
The 2-way bits are so slow, and the lights are actually anti vehicle travel (in any direction), so if they keep it up the whole way around, it will only be fit for bikes (which, in case there's any confusion, I like). Pedestrians, I don't know. Is it really any worse there than anywhere else for Peds?
I'm a little put off by a lot of the trendy restaurants going in... Expensive doesn't make it tasty, and pretension is an appetite suppressant. blech.
Penn Circle was possibly worse, it's hard for me to say, I usually stick to Penn and Highland on my bike. But, I walk from my office over there fairly regularly and it's just stupid how many buttons you have to push. The locations of them, especially around Shady (which requires *two* button pushes to cross, BTW) aren't even in the path you'd otherwise walk.
I wouldn't mind the buttons so much if they had any benefit for pedestrians, like reducing the cycle time to give you a walk signal. But, they're strictly for the benefit of the cars as far as I can tell. i.e. the cycle timer is not affected (aside from possibly altering turn arrows) it's just that if no one has pushed the "Walk" button, then the walk signal doesn't come on. So, if you get to the intersection one second too late, instead of just being able to legally cross like you would if the buttons weren't there, you have to stand there and wait through an entire cycle in both directions. And the light signals all along Penn are pretty ridiculously long. So you can be standing there for a minute while traffic in the direction you're going has a green light, yet you have no walk signal and no amount of pushing the button is going to make it come on.
Don't get me started on the sign along the bike path at Putnam that says "bikes must use pedestrian signal" or similar (but only in one direction!).
I know these are all little things but they add up to the depressing conclusion that even in "redevelopment", cars are still #1 and bikes/peds are a fleeting afterthought at best.
@salty I don't know that I've ever seen a crosswalk where you had to push the button to get a walk signal like you explained it.
They are growing in implementation because traffic experts keep having new studies showing improved vehicle patterns. When they redid doughboy square, they went this way. It's infuriating because you have to wait for both cycles to complete before the walk triggers
Wait. So traffic improves when your adjacent walk signals don't turn white even when there aren't any pedestrians around? confused.
dmtroyer, I don't think YOU are the confused one here. I think the people prioritizing improved vehicle patterns over all other traffic modes are the confused ones.
Studies also show that passive traffic calming makes for fewer accidents, but I don't see developers clamoring over themselves to put in speed humps and narrower lanes.
traffic experts are jagoffs sometimes.
@dmtroyer - pretty much every intersection between Bakery Square and Whole Foods on Penn/Penn Circle works that way.
I'm guessing the thought is that pesky pedestrians might get in the way of a car turning left or right and slow the other cars down. As if the cars were going to yield even if they didn't have the right of way. It's stupidity.
Dmtroyer: the walk cycle usually lengthens that light time based on the distance one must cover walking. Doughboy square goes from 6 seconds of green to 15 seconds of walk (and flashing hand) signal, for example. This is 'wasted time' when no one is there from traffic eng POV. Then they wonder why people jaywalk and risk getting hit after they spend hundreds of thousands on ped improvements. Sigh.
interesting. in the case of Target, I don't see what the big deal is to shorten the light cycle 10 seconds if the traffic is just going to stop at another unsynchronized light within 20 yards or less.
Did you ever try to cross the newly rebuilt West End Circle while doing everything all legal and proper and waiting for the ped-xing signals? Just to get from the West End to the staircase down to West Carson can take easily 10 minutes. Waiting for a break and making a dash? 30 seconds. I haven't tried every signal in town, but this is a recent model, done with cyclists in mind, NOT to copy.
^+1
Also, the brandy new signalling at Stanwix & Forbes. Fail. If you're the only person paying any attention to the walk signal, you look like you just got into town on the turnip truck. Current traffic signal engineering theory must be, to be kind, a very odd thing. And must not involve any actual pedestrian-ing.
Anyone ever see the walk signals at the Homestead Brige-On/Off Ramp Intersection? I've been there several times, each time I hit the button and wait through one more light cycle than the last. I think I'm up to about three or four now and of course, I've yet to see a walk signal in ANY direction...
Do I have to wait through TEN light cycles or something?
A year ago, I reported that both walk buttons at the south corner of that intersection had been broken for months. I've been that way a few times since then, and they're never been functional. I guess the buttons give you something to do while you wait for the traffic to clear enough that you can dash across.
