BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Hmm. I wonder where.

Are these new lanes or repaints of existing?

don't you want to be surprised?

erok, now you're just teasing! meanie!

I just don't want to be disappointed when it ends up being sharrows in Schenley Park or something.

I know you're joking, but If they put sharrows in Schenley Park I would be thrilled. There is the Beacon bike lane that dumps you into the traffic lane when you get to the park (who would have thought, a bike lane that ends when you arrive at the park? The one coming up Greenfield Rd does the exact same thing. I hate that intersection. And Panther Hollow is screaming for sharrows, or signage to indicate cyclists may take an entire lane (of the 4 that are there). Drivers treat it like I'm biking on the freeway or something (I can see the confusion, with the cloverleaf in the middle of the park and all).

i love FIND THE NEW BIKE LANES season

dwillen - that is a loathesome intersection indeed.

Bike lanes on Panther Hollow would be fantastic. I do Oakland to Greenfield via Overlook, but it's one-way, so into Oakland it's the lovely Panther Hollow Freeway.

I just wish the sharrows did more good. I swear, drivers seem to think that the sharrows on Penn through the strip mean "try to hit the cyclist here".

that dumps you into the traffic lane when you get to the park (who would have thought, a bike lane that ends when you arrive at the park?

It fits in with the sidewalks that end when you reach the park. When I moved to Pittsburgh 20 years ago I'd take my son for walks in strollers. Coming from the outside world one would think, I know, I'll walk in the park! I eventually found the trails etc. but the lack of sidewalks in the park always puzzled me.

not holding my breath, but how about all of ellsworth?

I don't really care where there are nor how much is there.

As long as they move away from putting bike lanes mid-block, where they aren't needed, then ending them immediately before the perilous intersections, I'll be happy.

I'm not holding my breath.

It fits in with the sidewalks that end when you reach the park.

That is one of my favorites. Beautiful, wide road, sidewalk, bike lanes. Terminates with some flowers and a bench, then you've got a narrow road with no shoulder, no sidewalk, no bike lane, and your only recourse is to try and pick your way down the steep, grassy hill until you get to the next road with no sidewalk on that side of the street. Whatever were they thinking? I do fine hiking down the grassy hill, but I can imagine not everyone is quite as abled bodied, especially if it is snowy or wet. How about someone with a stroller? A cane? Wheelchair? I guess they can always sit at the end of the sidewalk and contemplate how enjoyable the park looks.

dwillen, in Pittsburgh, we keep our thinking seperate from our planning and our money. The three can't comingle, it'd be like a yinzer wearing a Flyers jersey, or booing at Donny Iris - the world would explode. Many times you can't have any of the three, but one is sometimes ok.

I'm sorry I'm so full of hate today, I sat for 20 minutes on 28S while NPR discussed something inane and it bruised my soul something fierce.

ejwme - In the chance you have to use 28 again, don't. Use 8N to 228W to circle-bar-w. Can't help you with the radio, but at least you'll be moving.

ejmwe - tagging onto Stu - you might also try 910 (once that construction is complete) from Harmar west to rt. 8 north to 228 west.

(You'll avoid any backups between HPB and Etna residual from the 40th Street/31st Street Cluster-f further down 28)

ALMKLM - I'd considered that, but thought 28 would be clear at 6AM (I loathe Hulton). I also considered 8N ->910 -> whatever -> (W) (didn't know 228 came over to meet it), but thought the stoplights and traffic would balance it out since 8 is timed for SOUTH bound that time of day. I forgot that 28 starts backing up at 5:15, not 6:15.

This is all just the universe telling me not to come to Cranberry anymore. Eventually I'll listen, but if I do it too soon, they'll notice and stop paying me.

This, boys and girls, is why bicycle commuting is BETTER. And thus we need lanes painted.

So Erok, you gonna tell us where they'll be finally? Or are we really gonna have to play hide and seek?

heehee.

some aint that exciting, like getting the beechwood blvd lanes put back in, and finishing the gap on forbes ave in squirrel hill.

the city is supposed to put stuff on Highland, Hamilton, Dallas. also, they are supposed to complete the gap at the bloomfield bridge (which we've been waiting on for a loooong time) and put something on Brighton.

we shall see.

Maybe an October or November Flock could be a Tour de Neuveau Bike Lanes? The Hamilton one could be helpful for grocery runs for me.

@ejwme - why can't you use Hamilton now? It's relatively low-traffic, nice wide shareable lanes, not too much broken glass and other debris. It's one of my favorite routes. I just hope the plan is not to put a dzbl on it.

right now I usually just use Bennet because it's easier/uses less thought. I could use Hamilton, you're right, but I'm lazy and a creature of habit. Riding between paint lines put there specially for me (as a bike rider in general, I'm not that narcissistic) is enough to break me of my route habits, though

The only thing I bum about Forbes through Squirrel Hill is that Aylesboro and Darlington seem like close and better alternatives.

But yeah, that stretch of Beacon through the park has me a bit perturbed as of late as well. I just can't conceive how a sidewalk was not installed when that road was constructed.

Bennet is a little narrower and has more on-street parking and crossing and turning traffic, I think.

Try riding Hamilton now for a while, so you can get a sense later on of how much improvement the bike lane is.

@Impala - I'm confused. If Aylesboro is a better alternative for you than Forbes, why not just use it? It's not like the sharrows on Forbes mean you can't use Aylesboro... I have used Aylesboro or Northumberland a couple of times this week, when I was out pulling a load during rush hour and wanted to go real slow and not hold everybody up on Forbes. The great thing about roads is there are so many to choose from.

f.y.i.:

There have been multiple incidents recently on Forbes outbound about halfway up to Squill from cmu. Some wierdo is compulsively laying debris in the bike lane and roadway in dark places. Keep an eye out, things like railroad ties and signposts. A buddy almost got him the other day but he's quick.

WTF? In the bike lane or past that?

@spak: what!!?? do you have more details?

Sorry, didn't see the post

That's pretty much all I know. I have 2 friends who live right there and they have found debris on the road and bike lane multiple times on that stretch

Nick happened to be sitting on the porch in the dark waiting for A. to get home when he heard a big thunk, looked out, and saw a guy dragging cinder blocks out into the street in the shadows

He yelled and the guy ran like hell. Must be a sociopath. Probably hides in the bushes waiting for an accident to happen.

I'll update if I hear more

Spak, that is scary

any word on what the dude looks like would be much appreciated

Does having bike lanes on both sides of the street for a one mile stretch count as two miles of bike lane?

good question. i think it does

skinny tall white guy possibly 20ish

It was too dark for him to get a really good look

I've noticed (and 311'd) lots of random debris on that stretch, but I haven't ridden that stretch lately. And nothing like railroad ties. That is unbelievable.

(on orig topic) I just rode between some luxurious new white lines on the side of Beechwood near forbes. Thanks Erok and his minions!

New? Maybe I will take a detour tonight to have a look.

please post pics when you find them. we're in chattanooga until thursday for a conference and can't get photos!

It's been my dream (and it will probably remain a dream, for a long time) to have lanes on smithfield for a very long time. It is a pretty big inconvenience for me to take grant or wood st if I'm catching a bus on smithfield....maybe someday, if the street were wider, it could happen. *sigh*

RF, that's a really good question! Northbound, you're dealing with mixed traffic. Southbound, the big question is getting legal use of the bus-only lane. For that, I'm not sure if it's strictly a PAT question, or whether the city has a say in the matter.

The bus-only lane was implemented around 1980, and the people who implemented it are long gone. The one person I know who was involved who is still alive is in her late 80s, but would know the thinking involved in coming up with the rules.

I'm certain the idea of sharing bicycles was not even on the radar back then. There were streetcar tracks all over Downtown in 1980, some in actual use (Smithfield in particular), some just left over from not having fixed the street since the 1960s. Crossing the Smithfield/FtPittBlvd corner on a bicycle in any direction would have been very difficult. Trolleys used the upstream side of the Smithfield St Bridge, both inbound and outbound, and followed the path of the 41/46-series buses (bridge, FPB, Wood, 6Av, Smfd), so there were rails all over the place.

they're still on arlington, and they sort of scare me to ride with them, heh.

I think the t runs on them, but I've never seen one there.

Northbound on smithfield has very low traffic speeds, and it's dead simple to bike. If you put a bike lane there, you would have cyclists overtaking on the right constantly, which would be dangerous for cyclists and very difficult and frustrating for drivers. It would be nice to be able to get southbound on Smithfield. For one block, I just walk, but for longer distances it is kind of a pain to go so far out of the way. It's still better on a bike than in a car, though.

Actually, I'm glad the downtown streets are narrow. Places with wide downtown streets are: Atlanta, Miami, L.A., ...

Bicycle Box!

I am entirely for mixed bike-and-bus traffic on the southbound Smithfield bus lane ... PROVIDED that bikes do not pass the buses on EITHER side. I think that that would be Port Authority's biggest objection, and it's a valid one. There are *always* people crossing in front of buses on Smithfield, routinely against the lights. No cyclists behind a bus would be able to see that, so if a bus stops in front of a cyclist, the cyclist should wait. Period.

Right now, as I understand it, it is not legal for a bike to even BE in the bus lane. That I do not agree with. I do not, however, see any logistical problem with bikes and buses in the lane, provided neither one passes the other.

@wojty: No. Not unless you can (a) prohibit right turns by motorists at each of those intersections (oh, and left turns, too) and (b) guarantee that motorists won't just ignore the prohibition. I'm not just talking about red lights, I'm talking about green lights too.

@stu: that would be perfect.

What is with that last stretch of Beacon Street in Schenley Park? It goes from a wide street with bike lanes and sidewalks on either side to a narrow road with virtually no shoulder and not even one sidewalk. I just seriously want to know what the civil engineer laying out the park was thinking in this sense.

I still think the best option would be a wide, nicely-graded shared walkway from the traffic light intersection in Schenley Park up to the sidewalk/end of bike lanes on Beacon, probably with a crosswalk there too. This way, you would not have to accommodate for some weird crossing on Hobart going uphill to Beacon across multiple lanes of traffic. I'm just not sure if there's a "safe" way of doing something like that in lieu of a separate path.

RF, there isn't much "Brown line" T service, but if there's a problem in the Transit Tunnel, like there was a couple weeks ago, they send EVERY T vehicle over Arlington.

I dug around for a decent photo of trolley tracks in Downtown intersections. This is the best I could come up with. This is an 82 Ardmore, roughly the equivalent of the former 67F (now 69) Trafford. But just look at the bricks and tracks, and ask, if it was wet or the slightest bit icy, and even if it wasn't, would I want to deal with that at EVERY intersection? And just about every street?

Crap, it's eating images again. OK, try the link to the whole story. [link] Click on the picture to enlarge.

@impala: there is talk/interest city level with improving the Blvd of the Allies into the park. we shall see, and i do have some hope.

took this monday and completely forgot about it. there may be more stuff painted on there by now, but here's what it looked like when I was there:

so that's beechwood, where it tangents off of forbes.

From passing by it appears that the lanes have just been painted in the empty spots. They are nice and bright against the new pavement though. Looks nice.