BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

It's a little longer, but try: golf course to Aylesboro to Beechwood to Blue Slide. Aylesboro is wide, with not a lot of traffic.

sucks crossing forbes twice to get somewhere that shouldn't even involve it once, but you've got a point. Right now I'm willing to consider adding some length to make my ride a little more peaceful. Crossing Shady is the only hard part because aylesboro doesn't connect directly on the other side and traffic is so steady there.

I usually take Darlington from the golf course all the way to Beechwood, but I don't mind the hill. (Aylesboro is a little flatter.) Waiting at Wightman for an opening through the traffic usually isn't too long, and you can always test the effectiveness of the crosswalk concept by walking your bike across.

I live next to Schenley and go through this regularly. Paths in Schenley-> Bartlett (one block is one-way the wrong way, but it is the steepest uphill, so , for me, the sidewalk is OK) -> L on Wightman -> R on Darlington -> Beechwood.

I would try Darlington all the way from Schenley Drive to Beechwood. But if you want the *perfect* ride, try it during a Steelers Superbowl, or on Christmas morning.

I ride with the kids from the Schenley side to Community Day School (Forward and just shy of Beechwood) and back most mornings and occasionally do similar, albeit usually not to exactly the same endpoint, in the evening. Beacon->Wightman->Pocusset->Forward is not wonderful, but it is manageable. The stack up approaching the 5-way intersection has me filtering the stopped traffic on the right between Tilbury and Shady, then I often use a tiny bit of sidewalk to get past whatever parked cars are between there and Eldridge, then usually have zero trouble merging back into lane. I'm scanning ahead on the light timing and prefer direct reversal of the route, but if the timing looks bad I'll sometimes hang a right through the gas station up a little sidewalk on Murray, cutting over at the latest at Nicholson (often sooner depending on traffic thickness, car vs ped), make a left on Phillips (which is quiet in that block and not ~quite~ as much of a horrid moonscape as on other blocks) on to Wightman and turn right north to Beacon. The post greenfield bridge outage traffic situation going the other way is kinda heinous. Esp since you're not going as far south, I'd be more inclined to cut north, use Darlington to Murray, left and then right on Forbes, probably cutting back to Darlington at Shady, and taking that to Beechwood blvd. Still bad, but traffic is slow enough for safe-ish filtering, and you can use the pedestrian phase to advantage.

Once upon a time I heard about the possibility of bike lanes being a possibility on Beacon street east of Wightman across squirrel hill. The three lane arrangements don't work there well, and after Shady the road is unreasonably wide so from my standpoint, you may as well... and of course make Darlington bidirectional for bikes between Beacon and Beechwood Blvd so you have that shortcut. If you want to agitate for that, I'd love to have some company. And just maybe get out of this traffic! At the very least with the crossing safety issues around the Hillel school and the senior housing at Beacon place, there's a case to be made beyond bikes from Wightman for Murray. That connects the dots somewhat in Squirrel Hill, but beyond... ok, so here goes me getting on my soapbox even more. What they did to the field above bartlett playground is a bit of an atrocity, but they could turn the grass path which they dared call a transportation amenity into a real one if they grade it side to side, pave it, and put in a pedestrian activited signal to allow cross over to the other side of Beacon (which otherwise doesn't have a safe crossing until Wightman), which also would let cyclists get to their proper bike lane. Then intersection treatments and curb cuts are needed where crossing Bartlett and off course the %^&*ing interchange next to the playground, and widening where possible of the sidewalk along Panther Hollow Rd. and speed limit reduction and sharrows on the right hand lane going downhill, but when you're done you actually have a transportation amenity all the way from Squirrel Hill's heart to Oakland and the shiny new cycletrack that right now ends basically nowhere and is of only marginal usefulness. And you're starting to get close to connecting soufoakland, Bates, a vital access to trail, future BRT bike lanes etc. etc.

Start on Bayard, jog on Neville (or Devonshire) to Ellsworth. L on Amberson, R on Pembroke to Aiken. Jog to Walnut, L, proceed to the end. Jog R-L-R to the path through BSq2. Jog R-L-R(-L) to get to 5th Ave. Cross onto Beechwood, continue to Blue Slide. Comments: - Bayard has bike lane to Neville. Neville is moderate/low-traffic. - Ellsworth is wide and stays light/moderate to Morewood. - Amberson is wide with car gaps; Pembroke is low-traffic. - (or stay on Ellsworth for as long as you want, then cut R) - Walnut is slow traffic. - Beechwood is wide, mostly with lanes to destination. No, this is not direct. But it does minimise the nastier traffic.

Cross the tracks by the schenly park pond, take EFT to the hazelwood trail, ride a short section of 2nd ave / irvine st to glenwood bridge, cross the tracks to duck hollow trail to the 9 mile run trail in to frick. Mostly on trails, mostly flat. Oh wait, you're not allowed to cross at the pond anymore, there is no hazelwood trail and they fenced off the entrance to the duck hollow trail and installed cameras to deter people from crossing. I can only wish we could do this safely and legally. Maybe someday.

thanks all. i tried aylesboro and it was nice. crossing shady was no fun as predicted since traffic was gridlocked, but getting 4-way stop signs to cross wightman and murray was nice. i think i'll add that to my repertoire when i have time for the detour.

> crossing shady was no fun as predicted since traffic was gridlocked, but getting 4-way stop signs to cross wightman and murray was nice. I'd suggest maybe Northumberland, which is another block further north but has lights at Murray and Shady. You can even go all the way down Aylesboro to Asbury Place, from which you should be able to see the traffic on Shady, then cut up to Northumberland just long enough to get across Shady if necessary, cutting back down Deniston or Beechwood. (As an aside, I know Kristen Saunders is interested in introducing the 'neighborhood greenway'/'bike boulevard' concept to Pittsburgh. Perhaps the Squirrel Hill bike/ped committee can suggest one or more of the east/west roads to her as a pilot...)