During Fall and Spring, the loop of Schenley Dr. -> Frew St. -> Tech St. is often closed weekend mornings from 5-9AM by CMU (with a permit from the city).
This is for a unique sport called "Buggy."
( http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/buggy/Sweepstakes/Welcome.html ) It's a mix between a relay race and soapbox derby that takes place on these roads.
As a participant in this sport I've noticed a tendency for some cyclists to come onto the closed streets while buggies are rolling on them, despite barriers and people telling them to stop. There are 2 layers of barricades at each entrance to the closed roads. An outer one manned by pittsburgh police, and an inner one manned by students. The fact that some cyclists disregard these is absurdly OBNOXIOUS and DANGEROUS. It's extremely frustrating to see the lives of my friends and other participants in this sport endangered by some inconsiderate individuals. At several times during the event, buggies must cross over the center line and drive in the "wrong lane", often times hugging the curb.
Having designed and built a buggy as a head mechanic, I can assure you that a collision with a buggy is a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. These things generally reach speeds over 30 MPH, are built from reinforced carbon fiber and other composite materials, not to mention are carrying a live PERSON.
I realize most of the folks on this forum are very mature and respectful riders. In fact I've seen many cyclists and runners stop at the barricades and continue on the sidewalk when nicely asked to leave the road.
I'm posting this in hopes that at least a few people learn from it. If someone during buggy yells at you to "Get off the road!", they're not trying to be a jerk and ignore your right to the road, they're trying to let you know you're on a closed road and are endangering yourself and others.
Do any of you folks have suggestions for better ways to communicate these closures with cyclists?
Thanks for reading.
Are there clearly marked detours for cyclists? (eg, detour signs with bicycles on them).
Do you have similar issues with pedestrians? Maybe more cops & student marshals to keep an eye out. Or impenetrable barriers... There are always going to be a few people who ignore the rules no matter what you do, unfortunately.
From my days walking around campus, I recall there being very little signage indicating the road was closed, and why. I got yelled at once or twice crossing tech and frew early on, before I had any idea what this whole thing was.
This may have changed, I don't know, but I think well designed, large, signs, different from the 'no parking these dates, buggy' ones would make a world of difference. It's a huge course in terms of man-power to marshal, since bikes and peds can 'enter' at so many non-intersection spots. I think the element needs to be stressed that it isn't just a regular road closure to motorized traffic. It's closed to ALL traffic.
pseudocris has a point. some people plan on riding in the park on the weekends, some travel to the city to do it, and then they show up and the road is closed. creating a clearly marked detour for people, esp those who may not know the area very well, may help mitigate this.
An outer one manned by pittsburgh police, and an inner one manned by students.
I suggest you figure out why this is being ignored and fix the problem there. This doesn't happen during the grand prix.
Barricades that actually impede passage, along with large clear signage that indicates DANGER, communicating that it is beyond a simple convenience issue. And manning streets with enough personnel to actually stop people so the thing can be run safely. Apparently whatever is being done is not enough. Seems like with the entire Greek system there ought to be enough personnel willing to step up. If there aren't, maybe the event needs to be re-examined. With an event where danger is involved, the burden is still on the event organizers to provide safety for the participants and public, in spite of however uncooperative the public may be.
And I do agree that people on this board are probably people who would follow directions, but this group represents a small slice of people who bike around here, and you are probably not going to reach the people who are the problem through here.
AHHHH...... Buggy!!! I drove a buggy at CMU for Fringe for 3 years.... always fun 
That was back in the day, and I never saw any cyclists. It always felt safe to me.
@Pseudacris We don't have detour signs as far as I'm aware. I'll make sure to suggest that to the safety chair.
@wojty I think some caution signs have been made and will become part of the morning "barricading" chore, so hopefully that will help.
@rsprake I think they use jersey barriers for the grand prix, but we've just got wooden DPW-esque barriers. Some people were talking about stretching caution tape across the road.
@bikeygirl Way cool! I'm former chair and head mechanic of KapSig. Bikes on the course aren't necessarily a daily occurrence, but in my experience it happens a non-trivial amount. I've personally seen a cyclist almost get hit while crossing the chute in front of a buggy, one dive out of the path of a buggy by westinghouse pond, not to mention a cyclist following a buggy in the middle of CIA's rolls this past Saturday.
Thanks everyone for the responses. There are a couple of ideas here I can pass on to the organizers and hopefully make things safer for everyone.
@bikeygirl: Really? What years were you active? I was a Fringe PUSHER for Carnival 2007. Granted, I was C team, but it was still a fun experience.
I actually do recall one instance of a cyclist interrupting a midnight push practice on Frew Street. I kind of agree though, that there should be some sort of posted detour at least indicating that you cannot be on the road AT ALL along Schenley Drive from the intersection with Tech Street all the way down to the one with Frew Street at the far end of the Schenley Bridge.
One thing you could do would be to put up caution tape with stanchions. Establish a clear intersection that is marshalled. Direct peds and cyclists to the intersection, and have an event organizer usher them across during breaks in buggy traffic.
A variation on this worked pretty well during the try a bike event at the oval. The speeds were much lower of course, but we made an impromptu crosswalk out of pylons. peds and cyclists could penetrate it easily, but it did help everyone know what the main 'danger zone' was. You'll probably encounter the most cooperation if it is very clear where to go to cross the street, then just have a nice person with a hi-viz vest let groups go thru the official crosswalk when it is safe.
Kooptheandroid, your frustration is misplaced. I've come through there a number of times while there was supposedly a buggy race (I never saw a buggy). Your description of the barricade system is totally off. I always came from the Greenfield side. I took the "exit" off Panther Hollow Rd towards Phipps. There was always a single white DPW wooden barrier in the middle of the road at the bridge where Schenley drive starts. Not a sign anywhere, no people in sight, no students, no cops, no tape, no fence, nothing. Just a white barrier in the middle of the road. Maybe there was a cop drinking coffee parked in a personal vehicle somewhere, but nobody made any attempt to stop me. I've seen more done to block a pothole. First couple of times I had no idea what was going on. I remember stopping, looking around for someone to talk to, and not finding anyone, continued on. I figured it was some sort of street festival, parade, or road construction. Since I didn't know it was any sort of buggy race, I didn't see much of a problem riding my bike through on an apparently empty street early in the morning. The first time I ever came upon a single person or was told to leave the road was as I approached Frew street. At that point I suspect it is too late. It was a bunch of college students screaming "GET OFF THE ROAD!" I am pretty sure every single cyclist has heard this before, and I'd be shocked if any actually got off the road. Think about it. Please don't expect anyone to react any differently when you yell at them to "GET OFF THE ROAD!". I'm sure if they knew there was a buggy race, they wouldn't be there in the first place.
Few suggestions:
- Chiding cyclists on the Internet probably wont keep cyclists out of your event. Most people with a bike don't read a message board.
- Put up a real barricade, fence, tape, something to physically keep people, motorcycles, bikes, skate boarders, etc out of the roadway. A little white DPW barricade usually used to direct vehicles for road construction, farmers' markets, or block parties probably won't keep cyclists out. Cyclists are used to going around them.
- Put up a detour signs. The park, and specifically Schenley drive is an important connection for cyclists. Sure, a car can turn around a blast down Blvd of the Allies, but most cyclists do not feel comfortable doing so (or would even know where to go) and it is several miles out of the way if you are headed towards North Oakland and beyond. Some detour/road closure signs BEFORE the closure would be helpful too. Stick a notice up a week before, and day of, put some signs at major intersections before you enter the park so a cyclist would never even enter the closed area (most just biked up a big ass hill, and back down the other side... nobody wants to backtrack).
- Put a sign up to tell people about your event. Tell people what is going on and why they actually can't bike/drive in the roadway. "Hey we're racing buggies, walk your bike on the sidewalk and come watch, but please stay off the road!" or whatever. Nothing I ever saw, at Frew or any other place, told me what the fuck was going on. Nor did any of the people yelling at me.
Good points, dwillen. I was afraid I was the only one who was rubbed the wrong way by the OP.
Man, I want to crash the buggy race in this:
[ETA:] By "crash", I meant "show up unannounced." I'm not advocated violence, especially against students at a school that develops military robots.
greatest recumbent ever?!?!
@dwillen Good point about yelling at people on the course. "Get off the road" definitely is the wrong thing to say in that case. Hopefully that won't even be an issue with increased signage though.
@reddan That's pretty spectacular. I kind of want to build a viper from BSG. I'm not sure how our drivers would feel about that though.
@Impala: I drove buggy a decade earlier than that, haha. My buggies were Scimetar and Brooklyn. It was a lot of fun! Fringe at the time was going through some growing-pains and the club was rather small, BUT, people still gave it its all!
Worst thing ever happened to me? On my last race-day, at Hill #2, the freaking pusher forgot to shove me down schenley and thus did not have enough speed to palce for second day. On precious practice days, I was getting all windows, and since I was one of the lightest buggies on the course, pushing up hill was a dream. Ugh -freaking pusher #2!!!! hahah
@kooptheandroid: If you built a buggy and need test-riders, let me know! I know I still fit on one! SO much fun
and really, if a buggy does hit someone, with poor signage, no marshaling, lack of proper barriers, etc, you'd have a tough time convincing a judge or insurance company that it wasn't your fault.
reddan, I'm pretty sure if you showed up to ANYTHING involving CMUtians with that, they would stop everything and bow to it.
@edmonds: I'd really love to show up in one of these, but I'd likely kill myself on the first curve at speed.
