BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

IF YOU MTB AT FRICK AND OTHER CITY PARKS, YOU MUST READ THIS, REGARDING THE MYSTERIOUS "OBATACLES" PLACED AT SINGLE TRAIL TRACKS -From @Greta Daniels: Headsup to all my MTB riding friends: I attended a public meeting to review and comment on the OpenSpace plan for all of Pittsburgh's parks and green spaces last night. I attended primarily to learn more about how this plan will impact our trail system and its usage. I asked specifically if the plan would formalize the policy regarding multi-usage of city park trails (ie. allowing MTB, hiking, horseback-riding in some cases) so as to mitigate some of the confusion/conflict that springs up about "who is allowed to be there." Their response began with, "well technically, it's illegal to ride bikes in any park in Pittsburgh." They agreed that rules needed to be updated to reflect current usage, but were not really upfront about how those rules might change. Later, I tried to impress upon one city gentleman how important these changes to policy are to the safety of MTB riders in city parks and cited the recent incidents in Frick where "vigilante" park users were placing obstacles on single track and creating dangerous situations for riders. He responded by saying that these obstacles were not placed by random park users, but were put there intentionally by CITY PUBLIC WORKS employees in order to dissuade MTBers from using the trails. I was floored. How can the city use such dangerous tactics? I won't go into any more detail about our conversation. The plan has not been adopted just yet, so I hope all my MTB enthusiast friends and other avid city parks users will send in their comments and make our collective voice heard. http://exchange.planpgh.com/portal/openspace/openspacepgh

According to the Citiparks page: Ride bicycles on a paved vehicular road, or path designated for that purpose. A bicyclist is permitted to wheel or push a bicycle by hand over any grassy area or wooded trail or on any paved area reserved for pedestrian use. There doesn't seem to be an explicit statement of "no bikes on the trails." You could argue that since the signs inside the park explicitly list what is forbidden, unless that list includes bikes, they can be reasonably interpreted as not forbidding bikes. Of course, it sounds like the ass-hat in the aforementioned conversation is taking the view of "if they are not explicitly listed as allowed, then they are forbidden." This definitely needs to be clarified, especially since many people see the parks as the only place safe enough to ride.

For tomorrow, Tuesday, May 14th, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Schenley Ice Rink Overlook Drive, off of Greenfield Road (15213) Nearby Transit: Bus Routes 52L, 53L, 58 I 311'ed the concerns about people placing the "obstacles" on singletrack in Frick and received a call from Dick Wolford from the city indicating it wasn't City employees doing it, and that he had heard that some park users were saying that riders were "being more aggressive and riding fast down trails" and had taken it upon themselves to put up barriers. Anyway, if so inclined, attending one of these meetings to ensure trail access is protected would be a good idea. I'm going to try to make it to tomorrow's meeting.

The Pgh MTB Working Group is working together to support mountain bike access on single track. Please take a moment to fill out our mountain bike trail user survey, the results of which will be shared with planners, council people and other trail groups in upcoming meetings --like the Community Forum for PLANPGH Open Space planning, happening today and tomorrow. BUT if you can attend the meetings as well, please do! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hAY1sXnbF2O-Bf9xAauDwBzAIRbOMq5Y-X_TDW8Mq38/viewform

I filled out the survey, leaving off my address because I don't live in the city. Hope it helps.