BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

The one day all week it will be raining. It figures. I plan to be there, I think more to listen than talk. I am up and down both East and Perrysville all the time, though, so I am making no guarantees that I will remain silent. In general, I like the East St bike lane, and look forward to having actual real pavement again on the northern end of East. The real problem, as always, is speeding drivers, or drivers that would speed. Before the bike lane went in, following drivers on motorcycle, I routinely clocked motorists on the high side of 50 (posted 35). It's not quite so bad now, more like 45, but still, there is No. Speed. Enforcement. At. All. in the city of Pittsburgh.

I've never really had a problem going on East St. but that's likely because I rarely go on it during heavy rush hour. I did go uphill on it at 5 pm a couple of weeks ago and noticed the obvious increase in traffic. While it wasn't too bad, I can see how a novice rider might feel very intimidated riding on it between 5 and 6, what with the aforementioned speeding issue. The bike lanes will help calm traffic down. Also, sweet new pavement :-) I'm interested in what plans they have for Federal St. An uphill bike lane from North to Henderson is reasonable, though it gets narrow between Hemlock and Henderson, with on-street parking on one side and the median on the other. I wonder what other plans they have for the North Side. If I recall correctly, PennDOT is gonna put bike lanes on East Ohio St. The City might be looking at the Allegheny Commons circle and maybe North Ave?

Just get rid of on-street parking, and we'll be much further ahead.

*Bump* This is tonight. Be there if you can.

The gist: Bike lanes coming on both directions to Federal St between North Ave and Hemlock St. These will be relatively wide door zone bike lanes. Street parking will be maintained for the most part, with a few spots eliminated in the first block of Federal going up from North. The turning lane in the middle will be eliminated. In a future phase, there will be a climbing lane starting at Hemlock, though I wasn't clear if it ended at Henderson or if it would continue past there. Also, buffered bike lanes with bollards extended on East St., from Suffolk to Mt. Pleasant Rd., to coincide with the paving of this stretch of road. Future bike infrastructure is planned to go from there all the way to Perrysville Ave. Regarding comments from attendees, well, it was your typically divided meeting, with supporting statements from cyclists and some non-cyclists, as well as complaints about parking loss (of particular concern was the impact on the once-a-year St. Boniface Bazaar for which, it was said repeatedly, they would allow the church to remove the bike lane bollards so people could park on the bike lane) and "why can't you just send the cyclists through some of the side streets?" comments. Really, just the typical stuff that makes you shake your head or laugh at the incredulity. Except for this comment, which crossed the line: Man: "I've almost gotten killed riding on Perrysville" Woman (unprovoked): "well, you're a terrible rider" *sigh* Overall, I like the plans, though I really think we could do without the door zone bike lane going downhill on Federal

I asked; no plans to drop the posted speed limit from 25 on the lower bit of Federal. I requested on one of the comment slips provided that a two-foot buffer zone be painted between the parking lane and the bike lane, even if they have to narrow both by a foot. Aside: One of the more incredulous comments was, "Do they really need six feet? How wide is a bicycle, anyway?"

Email from Stephanie Joy Everett and Kristen Saunders in City Planning: Thank you for coming to the public meeting at the Federal Street Library on April 21st. There aren't any changes to the proposed bicycle infrastructure as a result of the meeting. The bike lanes on Federal Street and East Street presented at the public meetingwill be installed ahead of schedule due to funding opportunities. Weather permitting, both streets will be repaved over the next two weeks and the new lane striping, including a bicycle lane, will be installed following the new pavement. Thank them for your participation and feedback! Please feel free to contact Kristin or myself with any questions.

So I rode down East St yesterday... the road hasn't been repaved (surprise), and I bet they haven't touched Federal St., either. Per @Stu's post above, this was already supposed to be done back in May/June. Anyone know what's up with these projects?

A portion of the Northside's yearly paving budget comes from CDBD funds, which apparently aren't released until late summer.  Unfortunately, both East and Federal are being paved with those funds which we're being told will push construction back until October.

Thanks, @NMR. Can't wait for that sweet new pavement on East St.!

I really can't wait for new East St pavement, so have been avoiding the road altogether, inbound. Federal is a known devil. I can live with its rotten pavement only because I've memorized where the big(ger) holes are. But damn, hurry up already. I only have three ways into town -- Federal, East, and down through Millvale -- and they all suck for one reason or another.

Email today on the Northside Bike-Pedestrian Committee listserv:

The East Street bike lane project started today. Milling of the street is occurring. East Street between Venture Street and Hazlett Street was closed this morning. It shouldn't be long now until we have the second phase of the East Street bike lane completed.

Thanks for the update @buffalo buffalo. Excited to ride this more once the 2nd phase is finished.

We now have a double yellow line on East Street. Problem is, it provides a huge 20+ foot lane inbound, but only a single 11-foot lane outbound, beyond Suffolk, out to the 279 bridge. This is seriously going to suck.

@stu, no bike lanes yet?

@chrishent as of last weekend the centerline was temporary waterborne, presumably to delineate opposing traffic while we wait on the thermo crew to show up and lay down the permanent configuration, which will match the section down last year.   Such is life for bike projects.

I took another look. The yellow line is a little wider than 11 feet outbound. I haven't tried riding it outbound yet. But where I was used to claiming the right lane, now I will have to negotiate (not the right word) what the proper place would be. Cars will have to do a straddle pass. Ambient speeds are still in the 45-50 range, peaking 60. Width encourages speed.

The East Street stripes are in place all the way out to Mount Pleasant St, just before the bridge over I-279. I take back my earlier objections, above. It looks like this extension is no worse than the first stretch. Same design; even I didn't notice the transition from new to prior, when I passed Suffolk Street. I only rode it inbound so far. I do have video, but it might take the rest of the weekend to process it and have it posted. When I do, I will link it here. A couple of provisos: * Watch it at corners -- Hazlett and Milroy, inbound, at least -- for the ever-present possibility of right hooks. Hazlett, in particular, is an I-279 on-ramp, so there will be a lot of right turns and left-crosses here. * Also at Hazlett, inbound, is a diagonal drain grate in the lane. Not a problem if going straight, but if you have to stop, it would be easy to end up cocking your front wheel and drop into it. * There is already broken glass in the lane at a point where you might be moving quickly. I'd have to look at the video to tell exactly where, but it doesn't matter.

Saw them working on the East Street lanes on Saturday, they were measuring them out (or verifying) using a tape measure.

The fine folks at @pgh2o got back to me about the Hazlett drain grate.

silver Silverado pickup truck parked illegally in the new bike lane on southbound Federal St near North Ave https://flic.kr/p/PgvAyq

What's the red sticker say?  Too many letters on there to say "jagoff"

Oh, got it. "I parked in a bike lane." The photo within the message thread is lower res than the original on Flickr. Fun fact.

Ugh.  Really wish this was designed as a through-lane to reduce right-hook conflicts and better connect to Allegheny Circle.  Also, that vehicle shown would be taking up space in the right-turn car lane and not forcing cyclists into mixed traffic.   Oh well.  It's a nice example of re-purposing underutilized turn lanes in conjunction with an already-planned paving project.  This is the Complete Streets Policy in action.  Kudos to City Planning and DPW!