BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

here's two low hill routes from wilkinsburg to downtown that avoids going over squirell hill.

this one you could take the jail trail to town instead of fifth.

7.7 miles: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Wilkinsburg-to-Downtown-Avoiding-Big-Bad-Fifth-mostly-and-Penn

This one goes through homewood, east lib, bloomfield, lawrenceville and also avoids penn and fifth

8.1 miles: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Wilkinsburg-to-Downtown-alternate-to-avoid-big-bad-fifth-and-pen

your route will depend on if you want to avoid going over squirell hill or going around it. i recommend staying off of penn ave through

check out bikely.com there are a bunch of routes on there for swissvale.

The first route can also be shortened by taking the gravel path from Kensington to Reynolds through Frick.

Erok: Why avoid Penn and Fifth? I guess keeping a safe pace (i.e. not dangerously slower than cars) can be a bit of a challenge on Fifth if you're feeling tired, but with the exception of a couple blocks here and there between braddock st. and Shady, I've always considered Penn a fairly low stress route.

really? i can't stand penn/fifth in the east end. why bother when you have some great sidestreets?

when i made these routes, i had people in mind that didn't ride much and would most likely be scared to on those roads

Sometimes side streets are the way to go, particularly if you're feeling kind of lousy, but most of the time they strike me as a way to add 5 minutes and an inconvenient, pot-holed, out-of-the-way detour with a stop sign every 500 feet to my commute. Dodging the potholes and spotting the half-obscured stop signs on, say, Reynolds St. at night requires nearly as much vigilance as just taking Penn. That said, when I was less familiar with pgh or less comfortable riding in traffic I probably would have preferred a side street, even if it did add some travel time.

Do most regular pgh cyclists avoid these streets? I do encounter other bikes on them from time to time.

really it depends on the time of day. if i'm going from pt breeze to oakland at night, i'll just take penn to fifth, cause there are barely any cars at all on them. but during the day, especially at any rush hours, i avoid them like the plague cause traffic is too high. before i knew how to use the side streets, i commuted on penn and fifth, and frankly it sucked, and i don't think if i was as vigilant or dedicated to riding at the time, i probably would have quit riding. then i discovered reynolds, and it was like, oh, this is fun i don't feel like im going to get run over, and no one honks at me.

Yeah, I used to commute from Shadyside to Wilkinsburg, working from 3:00PM to 11:00PM. You couldn't pay me to take Penn between Fifth and Braddock.

I'll generally avoid much of Fifth, too, though I typically ride it everyday from Neville to the Birmingham Bridge to get to the office.

I would definitely avoid penn and fifth as much as possible, especially through point breeze/shadyside area. reynolds and thomas are great for riding. use them!