BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Good!  Have they talked about anything else other than a cross walk, like the on-demand lights that they have at Biddle and Braddock up the street?

First, link to the background info: http://localhost/message-board/topic/no-pedestrians-signs-planned-for-a-regent-square-intersection/ This is an update on what happened at the Thursday 2/23 meeting in Swissvale regarding traffic and pedestrians on Braddock Ave. The good news is that indeed, WE’RE GETTING A CROSSWALK AT SANDERS! At Sanders, in addition to a crosswalk in ornamental, stamped, red concrete, Swissvale and Edgewood boroughs are planning curb extensions that shorten the distance pedestrians must walk. And also rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs). They will start to flash yellow immediately when a pedestrian pushes the button, for a set period of time. See all photos from the meeting at https://goo.gl/photos/zzsvtqfPmb8HGcjT9 and an RRFB video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQlaFJy-nY0 . The Sanders work will cost about $90,000. The meeting discussed other intersections along Braddock Ave. At Hutchinson, the traffic signal will be reprogrammed to eliminate the all-walk phase and replace it with leading pedestrian interval (LPI), meaning the walk light comes on several seconds before the green for cars traveling the same direction. I agree with the opinion of many at the meeting that elimination of the all-walk phase is a step backward. My opinion is that the LPI interval needs to be long to be safe (8 seconds would be good). The crosswalk at Charleston will be moved down the hill a bit, and will also be ornamental concrete. Two electronic speedometers that display passing car speeds will be set up. Don’t expect these changes until 2018, however, because of PennDOT bureaucracy. I’m grateful to the boroughs for their plans, which are mostly improvements, but I suspect that these changes aren’t enough; that we will continue to have too many cars backed up illegally through the Sanders intersection, making it unsafe for pedestrians, too many drivers breaking the law failing to stop for pedestrians, too many drivers breaking the law speeding near Charleston. Without better enforcement, pedestrians will continue to get hurt. There is a feedback form that you could fill out, to comment on the plans (which are not yet finalized). See the last two pictures at the first link. CEC, the traffic engineering company, wants comments mailed in by March 9. You could also probably email them to bmoldovan@cecinc.com . https://flic.kr/p/Rb5PBY

Great news about Sanders! Thanks to everyone who worked on this. As to Hutchinson, I generally agree that four-way walks are better, but at that intersection a very large percent of pedestrians are already crossing Braddock when Hutchinson traffic has a green light, rather than waiting for the pedestrian signal that follows it. (And people mostly seem to cross Hutchinson when Braddock has a green light, since relatively few cars turn off Braddock there.) So the LPI should improve safety a bit for those pedestrians who currently don't wait, even if the change makes things a bit worse for the smaller (?) number of people who wait for a walk signal. Seems like a wash to me.

Maybe they can stripe the box at sanders so that reminds drivers that they shouldn't block the box, along with ample warning signs.

This is awesome. Thanks, Paul.

Any thought about metered parking on that section of Braddock?  Not sure if that would help or hurt. They're leaving a lot of money on the table that could be used for improvements for peds.

The ped x-walk at Sanders is a significant victory for the neighborhood. The proposed plan is better than the one I had imagined would be approved. Congrats to Paul and others! Metered parking might cause drivers to not park on Braddock (since there's lots of parking on adjacent streets) but I think it would be better to have Braddock all parked up, for the traffic calming effects. In any case the jurisdictions are different on the two sides of the street (Pittsburgh/Edgewood).

Along Braddock Ave, north of Overton is Pittsburgh. At Overton and south, it's Swissvale Borough on the west side of Braddock. At Overton, it's Wilkinsburg on the east. South of Overton, it's Edgewood on the east side of Braddock Ave. Simple, right? Maybe all these silly little municipalities should merge into one or two? During the day, there are always lots of cars parked on both sides of Braddock between Hutchinson and Sanders, but if we could induce cars to park on the west side of Braddock between Sanders and Charleston (below McBroom's Beer Store), where it's currently legal to park but almost nobody does (for fear that they'd lose their side mirror), that would slow cars that race down the hill, probably reducing both car-pedestrian crashes along there and car-car crashes at Sanders. The boroughs could paint a line marking the parking zone. But that's not in their current plans.

I dunno. It's kind of fun to walk down a few blocks and visit 4 different towns... Braddock below Sanders could definitely use some traffic calming. A bike lane on the downhill would be nice.

I would think you'd need a bike lane on the uphill. Look at what they just did with Federal Street. That downhill bike lane is worse than useless, it's dangerous. A cyclist can easily hit 30 mph (in a 25 zone that should be 20 or 15), so why they're directing them right down the door zone is nuts. OTOH, they really need a buffer zone AND a bike lane for the uphill side of Federal. A DZBL is just as bad at 5 mph as it is at 25 mph.