BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Penn Avenue in front of Kelly's was almost impassible yesterday. The street was so riddled with potholes that it reminded me more of Kosovo than of Pittsburgh.

Morewood by Winchester Thurston was really bad today--I usually don't go that way and but saw it just now. Fifth between Bellefield and Craig is a nightmare. Negley Avenue near Friendship Avenue could use a good pave over. There are others, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

Actually, Negley between Centre and Baum, especially when northbound, is darn near impassable.

Baker Street is also in horrible condition, as it needed a new coat of tarmac well before we got all this snow.

Just rode Beechwood Blvd today, and most of everything between 5th and Forbes has crazy potholes.

I've mentioned it before, but California between Marshall and the post office has some nasty spots.

I called 311 on the California section referenced by Reddan sometime last summer. They did go out and patch. I didn't report the entire stretch out to Marshall though -- just the really bad inbound stretch 3-4 blocks north of the post office. It's still bad, but they did do some patching last summer in response to my call.

"Fifth between Bellefield and Craig is a nightmare."

+1. there is a pothole in front of St paul's so big that I could lay down in it and not get hit by a car...in fact, I think I might.

The entire Fifth/Craig intersection is a mess.

Took Beaver this morning. Yeesh...it looks like someone was skipping stones on a pond, but with snowplows on asphalt...

My steet first!

Mine!

Mine!

I don't know about first, but pleeeease do Perrysville between Federal and Federal sometime in 2010? I haven't been on it since the storms, but it was a nut buster back in November.

Penn Avenue has needed a good paving since before the storm... Especially in Garfield/East Liberty.

And yes I agree with the Centre/Baum/Negley as well as Fifth/Craig intersections. Hard enough to pass by car, it will totally swallow a bike!

Potholes are everywhere and it is really horrible.

They patched the penn circle west holes before feb but i am sure that isn't going to last

They may not pave over by kellys due the two-way traffic plan? I assume paving is part of that?

45th st is terrible. I probably wont ride down it again until it is repaved and each time a UPMC shuttle goes down it (dozens of times a day) it gets worse.

I'm personally wondering if they will just focus on 'neighborhoods of choice' and forget say, parts of homewood that havent been paved in 5-10 years.

Is it worthwhile to show the city how bike trails don't need paving because we don't make the impact cars do? I have been trying to convince my coworker that we should bring up that having trees shade asphalt helps it stay whole longer because it sheilds it from the heat in summer... but nothing helps the salt-freeze-thaw problem....

They patched the penn circle west holes before feb but i am sure that isn't going to last

You're right they did, but the snow plows totally dug them back up, so it seems.

By the way, this is all about safety. Which streets, most heavily used by cyclists, are currently the most dangerous due to potholes. This is not about just asking for a pet project to serve a handful of folk's needs -- Mick! . It's all about keeping cyclists safe.

Caitlin, I'm guessing that if some of the trails got regular maintenance, like the streets do, we'd see potholes. Certainly, bikes are significantly easier on the roads, but salt, combined with the plow and a few freeze-thaw cycles will muck up any stretch of asphalt. I think many folks will need new sidewalks after this winter because of that....

Also, agreed about the whole neighborhoods of choice thing.

Liberty Ave is a mess in the Bloomfield business district. I have seen worse, but this is the worst street on my commute and it gets a lot of bike traffic. Where a bike is supposed to be, out of the door zone is all pot holes.

Rev Burgess is introducing a bill to make sure that streets in our poorer neighborhoods get more money for paving. The Dir of DPW is against this saying that the money should be split up equally amongst all six DPW districts.

I'll 2nd Liberty Ave. Inbound cement surface for the block after the bridge is particularly dangerous.

"Fifth between Bellefield and Craig is a nightmare."

+1. there is a pothole in front of St paul's so big that I could lay down in it and not get hit by a car...in fact, I think I might.

They patched this last night.

nothing helps the salt-freeze-thaw problem.... proper drainage, and a well-sealed surface, would do a great deal. But you'd have to tear the streets up and rebuild them to modern standards, instead of just buttering on a layer of asphalt over a 19th century cobble street with steel rails on it.

Someone please check on this, but the last I rode on it (November), Brighton Rd inbound between Oliver HS and California Avenue was another nut buster. This is a fairly bicycle-busy street, on one preferred path into/outa town from Brighton Hts and Shadeland Ave, that hasn't been paved in decades. Old concrete. Downhill, you have to take the lane, and always have a car on your butt. One big hole and you're history.

Many of the potholes on the Fifth Avenue moonscape of death were filled in, but there are a few remaining as of 30 minutes ago. The monsters are mostly taken care of--I read somewhere that the "cold patch" works best/only on potholes over two inches deep (or something along those lines) and a "hot patch" (maybe requiring warm weather? I don't exactly remember) has to be applied to the shallower potholes. In any case, it's a great improvement but hardly perfect.

Scott-- I think it would be interesting to overlay your map of Bike Pittsburgh members over the city council district lines. I suspect (from briefly seeing it at the members' meeting) that there would be not that many members in Councilman Burgess's district, though I obviously don't know for sure. Just one brief meditation here, that the most under-served communities (who would benefit with more money) generally would not necessarily line up with the areas that would benefit most (from a safety or just smooth riding perspective) from re-paving oriented towards principal bike routes. Does Bike Pittsburgh want to take a stand on "equity" so that people living on pothole-heavy streets in Homewood (and elsewhere) would be inclined to try riding a bike, or should we focus on maintaining and supporting good levels of infrastructure in those areas where people ride bikes already? The discussion on sexism in the bike scene a few weeks back may have some parallels with respect to race--I'm just going with my gut here, without any real numbers, but in a city that is 25-30 percent African American, but I don't see anything like that proportion of bikers who are black--maybe someone else on the board does. I'll stop here before hijacking the thread further--but it's an interesting (to me at least) dimension to the debate.

@ieverhart, the Beaver / California / Brighton / NCharles / Perrysville (i.e. North Side) areas mentioned in my/swalfoort/reddan's posts are very skewed African-American. So, you're not really all that off-thread.

Oh right, North Charles. Meant to mention that with my Brighton post. Nicest slope to Observatory Hill on a public street.

Tying all that together, there might just BE more of an African-American commuter cycling scene if the major streets had half-decent pavement.

@ieverhart - too late, you just hijacked the thread.

I think you're just not seeing them because they're not riding like you do. Different places, different times of day, different purposes. There are a LOT of black kids on bikes, lots of utility cycling, somewhat less recreational cycling - but those guys are out there too.

Friendship ave around the park has some bad spots. Especially on the East Side of Friendship Park up til about Winebiddle or so. There were cracks there before this winter and they have expanded into so wheel-eating holes.

Liberty Ave is a mess in the Bloomfield business district. I have seen worse, but this is the worst street on my commute and it gets a lot of bike traffic. Where a bike is supposed to be, out of the door zone is all pot holes.

+1

The scary part is that the cars have to swerve constantly to avoid the holes themselves. I can deal with rough roads on a bike but not getting clipped by a truck that's avoiding them too.

The scary part is that the cars have to swerve constantly to avoid the holes themselves.

http://www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/

(March 1, 2010 cartoon)

@Stu and @Lyle, I'm glad to be corrected. Lyle's probably right about different times and places.

Friendship just east of the park (houses with fancy

lights for holidays.)... looks like Dresden

Northbound Negley between Ellsworth and Friendship got incredibly worse over the the weekend. I would not want to drive a car between Baum and Centre, as it is absolutely riddled with girnormous potholes.

I think the most pressing issue is that this thread should have been called, in true pittsburghese, "What streets need repaved first"

Liberty was getting it's holes patched this morning. Not that it helps those of us on bikes much.

Morewood between center and ellesworth is a nightmare. there is a hole that stretches the entire width of the road.

The monsters on Ellsworth between Ivy and Negley have been patched. Negley betwixt Baum and Centre is still horrible. Between the lack of tarmac and very large pile of snow blocking part of one lane, it's kinda nutty at rush hour.

The monsters on Ellsworth between Ivy and Negley have been patched. Negley betwixt Baum and Centre is still horrible. Between the lack of tarmac and very large pile of snow blocking part of one lane, it's kinda nutty at rush hour.

Don't forget about centre ave within the same radius. That whole intersection was a cluster* before the winter and now look at it.

Centre Avenue is a very dangerous road to ride on right now. Centre between Shadyside hospital and the intersection with Penn has inches-deep ruts every few feet. Has to be the worst bicycle-traveled road in town.

Worst road I have biked in the East End. Road that endangers my life on a daily basis. Repave plz ._.

A separate letter that mentions which streets need to be De-paved would be nice too.

I'm kinda curious how that wooden street in the East End has fared in all this snow. We took a little side trip on it when Caitlin gave us the FPUF tour back in October-ish. Not that bikes are going to be a big factor on a 200-foot street, but getting and keeping it clear must be different, and so must its bike-ability in wet and snowy conditions. Sure wouldn't have to worry about potholes, anyway.

@Stu Roslyn Pl = the wooden street.

In teh 1980's, there was some kind of gas leak upnder it and the gas compay had to replace the entire street.

For 4 or 5 years after that, the surface was smooth and good to dance on while coming back from punk rock bars at 3 am. I could tell a tale or two about that street between 3 and 4 am on a typical saturday.

Then the street got gnarly again, just from winters and use and such.

I'm guessing it's much worse after this winter - water gets between the wood grains. The street is "parkay" with the grain going up and down, not along the surface.

Bunnyhopping is a skill I'm glad I retained from BMX in the 80's. Saved my wheels at least adozen times over the last few days, mainly around Garfield, Friendship, Sliberty, & Bloomfield.

Until we get the streets repaved, maybe folks should just do something like this:

http://www.good.is/post/pothole-onomatopoeia-in-toronto/

Cool.

1) "Onomatopoeia" is a great word. You can scare undergraduates with it and everything. It's such a shame that I never will be able to spell it.

2) It's a great idea. We could do this here. Prolly same folks that shoveled snow.

3) It's legally questionable. The political ramifications of trying to prosecute such criminality would likely protect the perpetrators.

"Whatcha in for?"

"Making the streets safer."

4) There might need to be a cleanup - you don't want the "THUNK!" to stay there after the pothole is fixed.

Could you use spray chalk? Or just find out what they use to paint bike lanes, that stuff washes off no problem.

Ha ha

Holey pavement, Batman! *cue obligatory fight scene*

Resurrecting this old thread. Perrysville between Federal and Federal got some hole patching this morning, Mar 20 2012. They were *just* getting done as I went by, and I got some small patch spatter on my pants. No serious reconstruction, just patching the holes, so the surface is still sucky, but at least it's hole-free.

Here's hoping friendship gets some much needed tlc this year.

friendship is so terrible between gross and evaline.

also penn through garfield.

neither do I feel extremely safe on with the proximity of parked cars, terrible surface, and race car drivers riding my ass.

and maybe, just maybe, this will be the year that liberty, morewood, and negley get properly paved.

but then again, maybe not.

The rest of Liberty until Baum and the rest of Reynolds. Hopefully the good news is that because of the easy winter there is more money to spend.

Negley run and really the entire East End.

The entire length of Atwood Street in South/Central Oakland. I'd be happy to wait until summer when all the college bros and brolinas are out of town. Some sharrows finally between Dowtown and Oakland along Forbes and Fifth would be nice, though something still would need to be done about the stretch of Forbes between the Birmingham Bridge and Craft Avenue. That parkway off-ramp is crazy unsafe for a "typical" person on a bike. Heck, for pedestrians even.

Atwood does suck, but there's plenty of parallel streets to use that don't suck as much. RE: Forbes, I doubt you'll get any response other than "don't ride it". Unless you live in the Hill District, the Eliza Furnace Trail pretty much covers that need in my opinion.

There's a few craters on Beacon St in the bike lane that aren't so fun to navigate.

Warrington. Please. Some of the other streets being mentioned are pretty bad but Warrington in Allentown is so bad that in many places the rebar in the curb is completely exposed.

Penn Ave in east side is horrible. If they pave that have them put in some bike lanes why they at it. It has significant bike traffic. Also highland ave from penn until penn circle.

Negley Avenue is atrocious through most of East Liberty. I always feel that having the sharrows/bike lane right over the potholes on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield is adding insult to injury.

Penn Avenue is pretty bad, too.

The part of Warrington that has trolley tracks is due for a complete rebuild in the next couple of years.

In the meantime, I'd 311 it, at least for hole patching.

(OT) but, has anyone else noticed the phone pole makeover in Shadyside? Totlly new, much taller poles.

Stu, do you know if they'll be pulling up or paving over the trolley tracks? Or is PAT still maintaining that the Brown Line closure is temporary?

why yes I have, Pseuda. would be cool if anyone knows why they went with taller poles.

to accomodate more utilities?

I doubt the Brown Line is coming back, but Warrington is a standard detour whenever there's a problem in the Mt Wash Transit Tunnel. As to the Warrington rebuild, it's a city project, but Port Authority actually owns the part of the street where the tracks are, so it's a joint project, I think for FY2014, pending $ in the capital budget. I'll ask at tomorrow night's ACTC meeting.

My guess is with all of the development going on (Target, trader Joes, etc.) they need to bring more juice into the neighborhood which means running additional lines, or upping the voltage of the existing lines. The higher the voltage, the higher the wires need to be – literally.

http://www.annsgarden.com/poles/poles.htm

Thanks, Stu.

Marko, thanks for the interesting link. I particularly like the last photo there.

Likely a case of distracted driving. Skywriting is just an early form of texting.

I'd like to see Beechwood repaved. It is a signature bike route in Pgh and it's trashed. I rode it yesterday (3/21) from Forbes to Homestead Grays Bridge and it's in bad shape.

How about center ave by whole foods, it's like the surface of the moon over there.

Maybe we could get a steamroller to flatten out the 'wave' on the inbound side of butler street over by 44th street.

Also, I'm partial to fixing the patchwork mess that is Neville ave between center and bayard.

Or a grinder to flatten out those waves. They sometimes form at traffic lights which get a lot more than the usual number of people stopping. Highland at Perry in West View is one.

btw, this would be a great one to catch and put up on the Wheelset of Fortune tag (tag #2), if you know of one.

Pittsburgh to pave 60 miles of street this year

paving plan 2012 PDF

there are some real goodies here for me and some fellow eastenders:

Friendship from Edmond to S. Atlantic

Negley from Stanton to ELB

Stanton from Negley to Highland

Hamilton from 5th to ELB

Ellsworth from Aiken to Spahr

Looks pretty well distributed over all with squirrel hill possibly getting the most love.

Spring way is on the list but not Liberty. Not sure when they plan to start but they've already paved Beechwood and Forbes partially. See photo below.

They were doing Murray Ave last night, as I was on the way home from FreeRide.

Seems to me Wilkins between Beeler and Fifth should be a pretty high priority... I'm dodging potholes every time I have to go that way.

Does anyone know if these are getting any new bike lanes?

there were rumors of friendship getting some sort of treatment

So, when friendship gets repaved, are they going to immediately repaint the sharrows and finish the bike lanes that should be by the park?

No-parking signs getting stapled up on the ratty part of Perrysville (Marshall to North Charles) this morning, May 2 2012, for paving work. Hooray and hallelujah!

BTW, Ellsworth was closed this morning. Looks like they were getting started with the milling.

Main between Penn and Butler just got milled too. And just a few days before that, they patched all the potholes. Great planning work Pittsburgh!

i ride main every day now (well, fisk and 42nd the past day and a half), and i can't tell you how excited i am for this! i felt like i was taking my life into my hands going down main, especially if a car was stupid enough to try to pass me on the way down.

as for the patching, yeah it's funny, but there was a hole that was at least a foot across and a good two inches deep (or more). i'm not entirely against patching that sucker for three or four days.

So, when friendship gets repaved, are they going to immediately repaint the sharrows and finish the bike lanes that should be by the park?

very good question.

Main between Penn and Butler just got milled too. And just a few days before that, they patched all the potholes.

maybe this will answer it.

Dear city,

It would be super cool to get a heads up for when you're gonna mill a road.

Sincerely,

My taint after riding through friendship park on my way home from work.

Ellsworth was closed at evening rush hour, too. It appears the road was completely milled, so maybe they were getting a jump on a layer of tarmac?

Also, Hamilton has an initial layer of tarmac as well, but I believe the road is not finished yet.

Hm... I might have bypassed something this morning since I was riding down Ellsworth east of Maryland and it was already milled. It was an improvement.

The funny thing about Friendship is that the milled road is indistinguishable from the way it normally is, so its hard to see.

It would be super cool to get a heads up for when you're gonna mill a road.

The city's way ahead of you (sorta). As the mayor's 2012 paving announcement says, they're posting paving announcements to Twitter. Though it seems like they're only announcing a fraction of the paving they're doing, and the rest is slipping through the cracks (so to speak).

Maybe they need encouragement to tweet more.

Cool! So now instead of one guy working and 4 guys watching, the road crews will have 1 guy working and 4 guys tweeting. Or maybe they'll add a designated tweeter to the crew.

Maybe an employment program for 15 yr old grls! "pching llswrth, suky rd! lol! <3"

what a great idea to make a twitter account for this!!!! thanks, PGH!

hmph. too bad their 'twitter announcements' are obfuscated links to PDFs...

Nooooooo, not PDFs. I don't know why anyone creates PDF pages when HTML usually is sufficient. Text, logos, photos. What do PDFs have that HTML lacks, that makes them so popular? Putting it in a PDF is a guarantee that I am not going to read it, not even going to try to read it.

pdf can be printed from a word document by someone who doesn't know how to create an htms thingie. Besides, pdfs are somehow less editable in many people's minds.

so in order to know what they're going to pave and when, one must be a Twit? I don't tweet, as there's very little I feel the need to be updated via text by so constantly that I'm not married to. But SOME up to date information on road work SHOULD be available online, no? Or are we bypassing 2000-2009 technology completely the way we bypassed 1990-1999?

I started following them and sent them a nice tweet thanking them for attending to Perrysville at long last.

If they have the text, they can do a simple "Save As" from Word and save it in HTML format, and upload that to their website. 1998 technology at its finest, and works just fine in 2012.

On PDFs: On my ancient machine at home, firing up a PDF means I have time to go make myself a sandwich while it loads.

All that just to have a virtual photocopy of Luke's signature? Overkill, IMHO.

Stu, that's assuming the person making the document is functional in 1998 technology. Chances are they missed that bit. I suppose we should be glad they're making ANYTHING available, even if it's cumbersome or presumptuous technologically.

Their web site uses a content management system, so they probably can't just upload a new file. I imagine they'd have to send it over to the office in charge of updating the web site.

I think the idea of using a public site like Twitter instead makes sense, but the choice of Twitter in particular is not the best match. They're announcing things week by week, not minute by minute, and the 140-character limit is pushing them toward linking PDFs.

I suspect a blogging site would be a better match, ideally one that lets them paste formatted text copied directly from their press release. (They could paste this stuff on their existing Facebook account, but it doesn't handle formatting, so they'd need to edit it first.)

Port Authority has been doing an awesome job with @PghTransit for almost three years now. They post a short pithy summary, with details on an HTML page. Example:

Temp stop changes: 71B, 71D, 75, P3, for work near 5th/Neville approx 9a-3p today. Details: http://ow.ly/aCOJd

Hey, they just started. But they have a great in-town example to (um) follow.

EDIT: Looks like old detours expire, so the example I showed you doesn't work. But when current, they do.

I think the milled version of Ellsworth is better than what it was before.

> so in order to know what they're going to pave and when, one must be a Twit?

Not necessarily. You can go to the account page and read the posts without being logged in or even having an account. Here's this week's, posted last Friday:

"Next week, DPW crews will be paving in Homewood: http://goo.gl/MVOz1"

Note that they've posted a shortened link--no longer necessary since they're using the web interface, which does that automatically, then unpacks them for display so that people can see where you're sending them--which, in turn, using your own preshortened links defeats. This one goes to http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/mayor/Paving4.30-5.4.pdf

Beyond the letterhead top & bottom, the entire content of that document is

Attention neighbors:

From April 30 to May 4, 2012, the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works

projects to pave the following streets in Homewood:

Hamilton Avenue From N. Murtland Street to Collier Street

From 5th Avenue to East Liberty Blvd

Kelly Street From Oakwood Street to 5th Avenue

Lincoln Avenue From Verona Road to Atwell Street at the bridge

Paving work is subject to weather conditions.

Expect possible traffic delays, be cautious of Public Works crews, and please drive

carefully!

Sincerely,

[image of mayor's signature]

Luke Ravenstahl

Mayor, City of Pittsburgh

It would take about five minutes to write that in html, and maybe another five to get it standards-compliant.

As for the PGHTransit feed, here's one that posted yesterday:

Detour w/o stop changes: 14 OV, for approx 1 month starting tomorrow for Beaver Ave ramp work. No stops affected. Info: http://ow.ly/aF31b

There, that wasn't so hard, was it?

I'll vouch for Hamilton being a VAST improvement, even in it's not quite finished state. Definitely was the worst stretch of my commute before this week.

Also, as of about 7:30ish tonight Friendship was milled at least from Winebiddle to the end of the parklet. Progress!

Confirmed, Perrysville milled from Marshall to North Charles. Kinda weird on the motorcycle, similar to riding in snow. Haven't tried it on the bicycle yet.

This evening they're milling Forbes from Murray to Beechwood. The stretch of Forbes through Frick Park, from S Dallas to S Braddock, is also on the list for some time this year.

I think my prayers are being answered... looks like they're doing Greenfield Ave today

Perrysville *south* of North Charles was getting milled when I went through, at least as far as the upper Federal St corner. Here's hoping they continue down to the lower Federal St corner, as that pavement sucks big-time.

Looks like they're planning on doing a lot of roads that cross Braddock, but not Braddock itself. Poo.

Perrysville below the Presbyterian Home is mostly concrete, isn't it? Don't know if they /can/ mill-&-pave it like they do asphalt streets.

(Sure would be nice if they'd patch some of the gaps, tho.)

Looks like Main, Friendship, and Ellsworth are set to be paved this week.

Just curious as to why a road would be milled but then there is a delay of a week before its paved if the weather isn't bad? It just seems like it would make sense to do it quickly. I am sure there's good reason. I feel like someone had ADD and kinda left in the middle of doing Ellsworth

Contractors rent the milling machine for some time period, like a week or 2, so they do as much milling as they can for the time period. Then they rent the paver that puts down the asphalt for a similar time, and do that in a continuous run. It's all just scheduling.

I saw Friendship was milled, taking the sharrows with it. Will those be re-applied?

The positive cynic in me says that they will be thermoplastic, but not until October.

Port Authority posted some useful details on the Ellsworth paving situation. http://www.portauthority.org/paac/apps/DetoursDNN/pgDetours.asp?mode=1&MemoID=7548

Also Murray Ave: http://www.portauthority.org/paac/apps/DetoursDNN/pgDetours.asp?mode=1&MemoID=7549

Ellsworth is paved! it is really nice. However, there are a few manhole covers that stick up a bit. I hope that they are going to smooth it out around them. there was still heavy machinery parked on the side of the road for the night, so maybe they aren't done. There is one manhole cover in particular that is on the far right side (outbound) and if there is shade from the tree it is next to, it may be hard to see.

yeah, rode on ellsworth a bit today, it is not at all finished. it's got a nice layer of asphalt down, but they will but at least another layer, probably mixed with something harder.

it is nice, though! it was nice when it was tore up, cuz it was still better to bike on than it had been, and cars avoided the hell out of it. but riding on the new, soft, smooth blacktop, you feel like a pioneer. on a bike!

The road surface is finished now, but lines have yet to be painted.

Interestingly, the troublesome utility hole covers between Copeland and Ivy are still recessed quite a bit, so you'll still need to be mindful of your line.

I've never been so happy to take friendship before. Oh man. So nice/

Greenfield Ave is done, with lines painted

Now how do we get sharrows on the down hill?

There's been a bunch of work in the Bayard/Craig area--Monday morning Bayard was entirely closed west of Craig, and Dithridge north of Fifth, while they milled it; this morning Craig was closed SB from Centre to Bayard while they repaired the collapsed sewer vault at the Bayard intersection. (Both were open by the time I was heading home, but that was 7ish.)

Also, Kirkpatrick has been milled from Bentley (about halfway up the hill) to Centre.

^^ what pierce said

the uphill (aka sidewalk) needs some love too

@rob +1

Not quite paved, but....ARB and Sandy Creek have a fresh layer of tar and chips.

Brian, you beat me to it. Lime Hollow is fresh too, but I'm not sure anybody bikes that. I think Saltzburg is in line, as well as most other Penn Hills thoroughfares. If only they'd do Lincoln Rd between... Verona Rd and Verona Blvd. Lincoln before Verona Blvd is so pretty now!

Perrysville's 1960s concrete from Federal to Federal is now history. Yay! Upper Federal to NCharles was being paved as I went by. I'm sure the part up to Marshall will be done by day's end or at worst tomorrow.

Oh wow. That makes that section of Perrysville actually rideable.

I almost crashed trying to bunnyhop a huge gap in that concrete last year (unclipped and smashed my taint on the top tube, I got better pedals since).

@ricerocket: T... M... I...

(I'm still wincing at the thought of it... ouch!)

Stu, that is great news!

Ejwme, I considered riding to work in Monroeville this week, and had I done it, I sure would have been angry riding on ARB and all of the other roads that have fresh tar and chips. I did see a cyclist on my way home going inbound on ARB. he is the first I have seen since last summer.

Perrymont got tar-and-chipped in June 2011. By February 2012 it had some serious potholes. I really wish they'd stop tar-and-chipping roads. It improves things zero, and makes roads next to unridable for both bicycles and motorcycles for weeks afterward.

Yeah what is the intended purpose of doing the tar and chip thing? I always wonderd.

what is the intended purpose of doing the tar and chip thing?

Same reason they put makeup on a corpse before the viewing.

Is it dangerous to ride on tar and chipped roads? I'm worried about loosing traction.

Yes! Where the "chip" gravel doesn't get stuck to the tar it gets pushed around and gathers in little piles, usually in the worst possible places like at the bottom of turns and at intersections. Those little piles are killers, my guess is that they cause dozens of motorcycle crashes as well, as Stu implied. The wheel tracks from the cars are usually the clearest from loose chips, so ride there and stay away from the edges. The whole procedure is useless and stupid.

If ridden north of the city at all, particularly northeast (out Saxonburg, or any of the fine roads that drop down to Freeport Road past Hamarville), you've ridden on tar and chips.

I agree it's pretty terrible as a road surface, though once things settle (like, in the fall), it is better than riding on potholed concrete.

My biggest beef with fresh tar and chip is that you often can't tell where the hard road surface ends, and the soft shoulder begins. Makes for unpleasant surprises.

You can go in a straight line just fine, provided you are directly in front of someone's headlights. Edge of road, forget it. Center of lane, forget it. Trying to corner or turn, forget it. Same goes for a motorcycle. And if it gets really hot, like about a week after they put it down, the really beaten down part gets the tar bubbling through, so you get tar specks all over the part of you that normally gets wet when it rains. Water evaporates; tar does not.

ARB was tar and chipped last night, in and outbound. Coal hollow will be done today in some direction (I saw them driving to it this AM).

it's actually called "chip seal". I know wikipedia is not exactly the most reliable of sources, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal seems to indicate it's best for low-volume roads. I'm not kidding when I honestly ask - is ARB a low-volume road?

Interstate 90 in North Dakoda is tar-and-chip the whole way across the state. Surprisingly it is a very smooth ride.

Just to follow up, Perrysville is smooth as silk all the way from the city line to the lower Federal St corner. North of Marshall (where it's US19) got redone in Sept 2011. South of it was completed last week (today is 5/23/2012, for future ref). Sooooo nice.

I hope this lasts a good long time.

Is it a bus route, Stu?

If so, I'm gonna go with not gonna last real long.

Well, that's why I date these posts. The northern piece is altogether different from the southern piece. Different contractor, different type of pavement, and now has one more winter on it than the southern part. But they get identical traffic. Let's see how either one lasts.

Good point, Stu.

On an unrelated note, do you know who to contact regarding the sidewalk on Bates St? Do we need to sue the gas company or something before they redo the concrete on it? It's seriously abysmal coming up from Second Ave, and has been for almost a year now if I'm remembering this right.

I don't mind riding down on street, but coming up, the difference in speed w/ traffic is above what I consider to be my limit, and it's a blind corner w/ no shoulder as well.

Greenfield Ave is so legit now. Also was happy to see Ellsworth paved, though when I rode it on Wednesday they only paved up to College Ave.

an update from PADOT:

The following includes paving schedule details for Oakland

Oakland

Morewood from Ellsworth to Forbes Avenue will be closed for milling on May 31st from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

On Friday June 1st beginning at 7:00 p.m. through Saturday June 2nd at 11:00 a.m. Bigelow from Parkman to Forbes Avenue as well as Craig Street from 5th to Forbes will be closed for milling.

For more information contact the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works (412) 255-2370.

Brighton road is done and smooth with these cool new sharrows.

That looks like a bike lane to me...

Also FINALLY MOREWOOD!!

Yeaa but they have sharrows a bike lane and more sharrows.

Seen tonight on the rare drive home: Friendship Ave around the parklet has de facto bike lanes around both sides of the park.

Parking lanes are still there both ways, but it's definitely an improvement.

interesting, i'll have to check it out... too bad they didn't move parking to the left westbound too.

Good point on moving the parking lane to match the other side. It wouldn't be too hard to dig some holes & switch the meters. Mind the door zone.

sigh. I know they're trying and I appreciate their efforts, but the new lane is just an illustration of precisely where cyclists should NOT be riding, is it not?

DOUBLE POST!

@ejwme, yeah, I agree on that point, you do want to avoid the door zone. I would have loved to see the parking switch sides.

At least it's not as bad as on liberty avenue where there is a lot of people pulling in / out as well as entering and exiting vehicles frequently. Although, this makes it more surprising when they do.

Unfortunately, due to the narrowness of a lot of our streets, most of our bike lanes on streets with parking on the same side as the bike lane have no buffer zone between the bike lane and parked cars.

moving the parking might actually create an extra spot or two since there arent intersecting roads in the way

Craig Street is on the Mill n Pave list for tomorrow (Monday 6/4/12):

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/milling-and-paving-set-for-city-streets-638774/

test

Re: Friendship. It would have been great if they could have moved the parking but that would take more money and staff. Although I would be willing to bet that we could have rounded up enough volunteers to do the work for them.

There are people in Portland who are frustrated because rather than getting dedicated bike infrastructure, people are settling for bike lanes

I wonder if we're going in the same direction?

@pierce Aren't bike lanes a part of dedicated bike infrastructure? Or you mean completely separate as trails and bike lanes separated by barriers?

Unrelated data point: Quite a few streets in West View are getting new pavement recently: West View Park Drive and much of Center, for starters. Which is wonderful, because these were pothole-patch hell for a long time, and both are obvious alternatives to the big hill and horseshoe curve of Perry Hwy south of the boro.

[This is in no way a slight against the bike lane effort and the work bikepgh is doing, I appreciate all of it]

In line with my previous comments about the traffic patterns along the magnate side of the friendship parklet and there not being enough room for bike lanes, I'm giving up on trying to use said bike lane for a while. 4 or 5 close calls in three days is just too much. (side view mirrors, confusion at intersections, entire cars in the lane)

I'm hoping that most of the traffic there is daily drivers and they'll get used to it. Don't feel I need to risk my person as a means of education.

From my G+:

I'm not sure if Second Ave sucks more or less since they repaved. On one hand, the section by Rite Aid is waay less wavy, while on the other hand, it isn't smooth either.

Also, they haven't lined up any of the utility covers or storm drains, so I can definitely seen those causing pinch flats if accidentally run into. Further more, right now there's about a four inch incline between the Glenwood Bridge on ramp and the new pavement, with a little 60 degree piece of pavement that doesn't do much

@Mikhail

Yeah, I meant separated bike lanes. I'm also not too keen on projects like the Friendship Bike lane which puts cyclists in an area where they're not safe.

I'd be inclined to take the lane and now drivers are going to be even more frustrated because there's a "perfectly good" bike lane right next to me. Until somebody opens there door some or somebody walks out in front of a car...

@ Perce Last Friday I've encountered a passenger left side just opened in front of me. But I was in my car. The car in front of me just got to the curb and almost immediately passenger door opened and female talking on the cell just jumped out. I kind of anticipated and was able to stop. But it was close. 2 feet to be exact. And 5 minutes later another car rolls out of side street on my right with stop sign and driver on cell and watching her right side. This time even closer. 1 feet and honk. And she did not even stopped. Just looked at me, mouth wide opened and fear in eyes. She continued to make her left turn. All this happened after Dino ride on my way to Performance Bicycles.

Stanton between Negley and Highland was milled this morning. Pretty jazzed about this, its one of my least favorite stretches on the ol' morning commute.

Negley is being milled right now!!!!!!

One of the side streets off Liberty (Cedarville?) was being milled this morning as well.

Which part of Negley? Between penn and Baum???? Please say yes.

They started on Stanton I don't know how far down they are going. They just started when I passed.

Negley was milled from Stanton to Black this morning.

I hope they extend it. I pick up negley at black to Baum.

It was milled to the intersection with ELB this evening. All of the equipment was further down toward Negley, so they may be stopping there.

Negley from Stanton to ELB is the plan. Sharrows would be nice along Negley in general, but not holding my breath. Friendship Ave sharrows recently re-appeared on the fresh tarmac between the park & S. Atlantic both ways.

There are sharrows on the newly paved Ellsworth. They look like they will extend past Harris grille.

Yay! I figured we were either waiting for the streets to be paved or for one contractor to become available. Maybe they will hit the bike lanes next.

North Negley is getting a fresh coat of tarmac between Black and Stanton as of this morning.