BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Per Friends of the Riverfront: "A portion of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail between 11th and 22nd Street in the Strip District will be closed for underground utility work and has been extended through Fall 2014. Trail users should detour to Smallman Street during this time. Cyclists may use the sidewalk on 11th Street." This sucks.

It's been what, over a year now? Craziness.

I don't know what's so difficult about Smallman. Inbound, I prefer it over the alternatives. Outbound, I actually prefer Liberty. Faster, fewer stops. Right lane, left tire track, without apology. The couple of times I took the trail outbound, before it was closed, I had run-ins with wildlife and/or encountered too much other traffic.

Smallman would be nice if they'd pave it. For me, Smallman in the morning IS inbound; I work at 24th and Railroad, and my morning commute took me to the Point, then up the trail to my office. Now I have to deal with Smallman, the narrowing into one lane by the new hotel construction, and all of the drivers who don't stop coming out of the side streets until they are almost into the lane. I also take the lane, without apology, but that doesn't help much with people coming from the right. Since they opened the trail, I have never encountered a single issue between my office and the convention center, inbound or outbound. Can't say the same about Smallman St.

Not at all a fan of the closed in feel created by the right side wall and the speed traffic moves in the left hand lane to pass on Liberty outbound. It's not claustrophobic inbound, but Penn is a better option. Outbound, Smallman is a little annoying/slow but it never felt particularly dangerous to me. But it's always sad to loose trail space for so long. Trails are nice.

It is absolutely absurd that they can close a trail like this with no warning, then continue to extend the closing arbitrarily. If the City and BikePGH want to claim these trails as part of the commuter network, rather than merely as recreational funzones, this has got to end.

(PS. With all due respect to Stu, et al., it's one thing for a 50-year-old white man with thick skin to say he doesn't mind playing in traffic; for those who are less tolerant of being screamed at or buzzed while dodging potholes---especially those who are more prone to being targeted by more-vile-than-average verbal and physical assaults---or would simply prefer to be navigating geese and pedestrians rather than parking and unparking cars, Smallman Street can be a shitshow.)

@buffalo buffalo, What do age, race, or gender have to do with this thread?

It doesn't, but thick-skinned-ness has everything to do with it. I can understand not liking Liberty. I just didn't understand the problem with Smallman, and why that was less preferable. I'm so used to dealing with Perry Hwy and McKnight that I don't find Liberty all that difficult, and Smallman to me is a picnic, either direction. I do understand that most people's tolerance for difficult traffic is less than mine, and why they'd prefer the trail be open.

Why don't I like smallman? Lack of predictability mostly at the terminal building area. It's very wide with only a single line to deliniate the center, and then perpendicular parking to flow of traffic. People randomly pulling in / pulling out with bad sight lines. Lots of pedestrians with no defined crossings. People just hanging out to the right of the main traffic flow, waiting for a parking space, being confused, or idling while a passenger goes in to a store. Also, the pinch point at 21st st where the street narrows. I rarely have problems, but If there is a nice trail with no stop signs, and no traffic, that is being blocked off with no work being done to it, then I'm a bit peeved about why this is the case. The trail is a much better connector to the freshly paved railroad street from the point. It makes little sense to use railroad when you've just got to get back on to smallman when railroad ends, but it's great to use railroad if you're coming from the trail and headed from the point to lawrenceville. I understand they had to delay work, but the trail should be kept open so long as there are no hazards on the trail. They should close it when work actually begins and reopen it when the work is done, that's all most people want. It seems like a waste to keep this trail closed while no work was being done.

Benzo, great points. I am planning this afternoon or tomorrow to walk the trail between my office and the convention center. I suspect that the issue is access to trail, less so than work close to the trail. Maybe they can open it at 24th and 11th, but like an express trail with no other entry/exit in between?

@ajbooth - I'd be very interested to hear what you see. Others who have looked have told me that there has been machinery on the trail itself. I keep meaning to check it out myself, but it's actually pretty hard to get to right now if you have a bike with you. As someone said before, if this were a road, this kind of closure would not fly.