BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Interesting... Route 30 doesn't have much room to expand. Should be interesting to see how this will work out. It's a wild road just for driving (so many businesses on both sides of the road). Truck traffic, lights, small lanes (which actually keeps the speed down when there's traffic, no traffic ~ 60-70 mph). I'm assuming it'll be more like Rt 22 in Murrysville. When I ride Pgh to Ligonier I usually take Rt 130 out. There's almost no traffic and plenty of space.

I bike McKnight Rd regularly, which has traffic counts in the 30K range, and Perry Highway, in the 16K range, so I have some idea what biking on a road like this would be like. The main difference is that, AFAICT, the typical driver along here so seldom sees a bicycle that s/he has no idea what to do. What we as the biking community need to do is to impress on PennDOT that we cyclists really would ride out here if we could. Myself, I don't give a rat's ass about traffic counts or throughput. That seems to be their big concern, and I think that's crap. If they ever considered anything other than throughput -- like, for example, the ability to do anything other than drive a car down the street, e.g., walk along it, ride a bike on it, provide bus service on it, or cross it on foot -- that would be soooo much different from trying to jam as many Greensburg residents into the Forest Hills fustercluck in as little time as possible. Anyway, I heard a brief radio interview this morning about it, so thought I should give it a mention on the board.

There are infinite combinations of really great places to ride around Westmoreland county. US 30 isn't one of them and doesn't need to be one of them because it's exurban enough that the distances required for transportation riding (where it's really nice to go in a straight line) are prohibitive.

The story finally makes the newspaper. P-G

@andyc - So, what's the best way to ride from the city to these great places to ride? I've been having a hard time mapping out a good eastward route.

I work right near the nearest point of Westmoreland County to Pittsburgh, i.e., Trafford. There are two relatively easy ways to get there: 1. Out the GAP, take River Road to the Rankin Bridge (or follow the goat trail connection from the GAP to the bridge), cross the bridge, turn right and connect to Braddock Ave, follow Braddock through to Airbrake Ave and then Broadway Blvd. 2. Out through Wilkinsburg, follow Penn up the hill to Greensburg Ave, right on Greensburg, all the way down the hill to Turtle Creek, follow Airbrake and Broadway likewise. This will get you to the edge of Westmoreland with minimal hills and some traffic. Not sure what to do from there.

Broadway becomes 993 in Trafford and you take that to Irwin. It's a nice ride on 993. I'm not a fan of 130 near the Triboro. That has to be ridden a piece. I often will go through Wall to 48 and ride 48 back to 130 (It's not far). Most take 993 to 130 East outside of Manor (Penn Trafford High School) through Jeannette to Greensburg.

I usually go (actually went since I moved this fall) turtle creek to trafford and then take 993 to Irwin. Past Irwin I would usually head south or southwest and loop towards the GAP but I've also gone out past Claridge by Bushy Run Battlefield and over to Latrobe. I usually just zoom all the way in and cross reference back roads with the strava heat map and topographic map. I've driven 130 past Greensburg but never ridden it.

Rt 130 from 993 to Jeannette and just past is sketchy. Once through Jeannette, 130 has a very wide berm. I've ridden that many times. 130 towards Ligonier is beautiful and of course many climbs. 130 eventually will take you near Donegal. There's traffic, but it's country traffic The cars move fast, but there aren't many.

There used to be bumper stickers that said "PRAY FOR ME. I DRIVE ROUTE 30." I've ridden the Blvd of the Allies into town and have ridden Bigelow out of town. I have not ridden much of Route 30 - and, without drastic changes, I don't intend to.