BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Nice, another PH resident, welcome to the board

Depends what part of Penn Hills you are in. I'm in Rosedale, which is just north-east of Crescent Hills, very close to ARB. I've seen a bunch of people bike towards town on ARB in the mornings (during bike count I think around 6 or 7). When I head downtown, if I'm in a big hurry, I go down ARB->Butler->Penn->downtown. Lawrenceville can invovle a sneak over to some clearer streets, but they're narrow and full of stop signs.

I've also crossed the Allegheny at the 40th and taken the trail, but wasn't in a rush. Just prettier. Crossing up in Oakmont puts Cabbage Hill (Etna) in the way, though Freeport road is easy and you could take the train tracks to the trail, all flat. Not so sure about it on a regular basis, though.

If you're not headed all the way to town, Saltzburg->Verona->Frankstown works nicely, then there's any manner of ways to get closer to down town from East End.

If you're from closer to 380, just cruise Frankstown all the way to East End, then any manner of way to get closer in.

If you're starting closer to Chalfont or Churchill, I have no idea. I'd try Old Wm Penn to Penn, but Penn gets squirrely. There's others on here who can talk about the southerly routes better. Maybe through Braddock and taking advantage of some of those trails down there.

Best of luck!! (and let me know what you figure out, I'm always looking for better routes)

Thanks the welcome and the info. I live just off of Frankstown so I figured that would be the easiest route, but I wanted to see if other people were taking the route and it sounds like it.

As someone with a PhD (Penn Hills Diploma), I've gotta say that I always found (and still do, I guess) ARB a tough road to ride on. The traffic just cooks along at 50 mph+ for the most part, and there's not much room. I've always opted for the Frankstown-Bennett-Frankstown-5th route to civilization. I'd rather ride through the urban stuff than along the river...

Rocco - I used to eschew that route for the hills... But now that I've got better gearing, I'm using it more often. In off times (weekend mornings), ARB is very pretty. The rest of the time, I agree, it's pretty harrowing.

I tried my commute from Penn Hills for the first time this morning. I rode Frankstown to Laketon made a left on Montier and then a right on Penn and took that the whole way to town. There were a few parts that were brick, but they were in much better contition than I would have expected. Overall it was a 12 mile ride and took me 1:09 which isn't all that much worse than my car commute and walk from my parking spot would be. We'll see what the ride back is like since its mostly uphill. Thanks for all of the advice.

personally i like lincoln for heading out of town in that direction. i guess some would find it a bit hilly for their tastes (indeed, even i did, riding to verona the other day), but it's quite wide with relatively little parking and pretty low traffic. and riding it a few times will put you in good enough shape, i'm sure.

plus, it's not like there's a flat route into penn hills.

coming home I wouldn't have a problem with ARB it is just the inbound right by the highland park bridge which scares the ever living daylights out of me.

Im gonna try a multi modal ride part bus part bike as soon as i get my back tire fixed (needs trued badly) until I build up the wind to ride the whole way. im just to out of shape.

Using an East Busway route to get you to Wilkinsburg might be worth the cost if weather is unpleasant. You would still have the climb, but would not have to deal with a lot of unpleasantness on Penn or its alternatives. Facing the hill fresh would be very different from having already biked several city miles, too.

Eventually (supposedly, this summer) all the buses will have racks. I am well aware that a lot of the P1/EBA articulateds are missing racks.

@dvilliotti -- The upside to the bricks and cobbles you hit through Wilkinsburg is that you can always feel the kinship with the guys who do Paris–Roubaix.

Congrats on making such a challenging commute. That up-and-over on Laketon Road onto the bricks and down the hill is Rockin'.