BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I posted links to the google docs here, should I send you the links as well.

Dback - no, if you posted a link to the more detailed stuff, I can get what I need. Many people posted totals here, then have more detailed information squirreled away. BTW, did you ever do the Ninth Street Bridge? I don't think I saw that data, or if I did, I had forgetten. Thanks!

No I didnt get the chance, life sort of intervened and I have been running to catch up ever since

here is the link

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AlymzMQKbijddFBFa0NWVXdfVnhhckd0a1I5SEQyeGc&hl=en&output=html

I'm surprised by the number of riders without helmets on dbacklover's link.

Will all of the data be available on a single link eventually?

@Team - Yes on the data. I've got someone working on it now. Not all data points will have all the details (such as helmet use) but most will have some observations beyond just the number of bikes. We do counts as time/staff permit, so it's sort of a moving target. By the end of the week we'll have a summary of all counts completed through the end of September (we hope...)

i was hoping this was a thread where people just post the number of bikes they have... currently 2 working, 2 almost working, 3 works in progress.

2 total, one working but broken (i managed to rip the back brakes off complete with horrible snapping sound and everything) one just a frame waiting for parts.

@mark, different thread,

but dback, that your handbag for the dress ride? Goes with anything.

Sara, they are collecting data in Oakland for the PCTI study going on near CMU. The data should be crunched in the next couple of weeks. They took counts by video at all the major intersections along Fifth and Forbes near CMU.

Curious if anyone did a count on Liberty at Millvale? Every time I'm at this intersection it's like critical mass. It's incredible how many bikes use these two streets.

not my purse but you can just make out my giant can of pudding in the back (well i can see it cause I know its there.)

@Scott - no one volunteered to count at that location.

Swalfoort - I have my count, unfortunately I "cleaned" right after taking it and it has taken me until this morning to locate it. I'll send it this evening. Sorry to be so tardy! Also - i've got information compiled from coworkers' observations (none did counts, but did various routes and rack counting), I'll forward those too. Apparently people in Cranberry DO ride bikes during the morning/evening rush. Kind of cool.

Thanks, E! ANd yes, I've been part of the Cranberry bicycle and pedestrian planning effort. It's been interesting. I'd call it a very polarized environment when it comes to biking. You do or you don't. There don't seem to be a lot of folks "on the fence" about it.

@Swalfoort: It's been a couple of years since I commuted to Cranberry, but I'd say the lack of fence sitters is due to the wanton unpleasantness of getting anywhere that is remotely near the 19/79/228 interchange. It's not bad, once you get to know the back ways, but there's a big barrier to entry if one doesn't have A)a native guide and/or a strong willingness to climb hills or ride busy shoulders.

what reddan said.

I don't even like driving out here. I work AT that interchange, and as huge and obnoxious as it is, it is not equipped to handle the huge obnoxious rush of huge obnoxious vehicles that happen twice daily. But that's what happens when you build a giant office building full of 3000 people who work similar hours, and only 10% or so carpool.

Discovering the back roads (woohoo secret unmarked back roads that say "road closed ahead" but lie!) has made portions of that commute by car pleasant, and I literally ache to do a vast swath of it on a bike - beautiful rolling farm land, forest, pasture, quiet developments, decently paved roads with virtually no traffic.

I'm reluctant to encourage publicizing those roads, I don't want them to jam up with people avoiding the two seperate school zones that sit on 228 taking the speed limit from 50 to 15 mph during rush hour (zoning board should be denied decision makins abilities for life in any arena). Then again, that's what I'm doing. But at least I obey posted speed limits.

still working on birmingham. work has been INSANE lately. Anyone in southside who is able is more than welcome to do this count. I'm gonna shoot for friday this week. It seems if it's not raining I'm working, and if I'm not working, it's raining.

@bikelove - life sometimes interferes with counts.....we've all experienced that imbalance that derails the best of intentions. If you can do the count on Friday, or whenever, that's great. If not, we'll get it next time through. Don't let it add stress to an already crazy week/month/whatever.

@ejwme: I highly recommend the "park in North Park, bike to Cranberry Woods" approach. When I worked in the office park (before Westinghouse finished moving in), that was my first step before tackling the full 20-mile commute.

reddan - I'm slowly but surely working on it. My goal is next Bike To Work Day in May, I do the whole thing, there and back, in one day. I may not actually spend much time at work, and I may have to take the next day off from life, but I will do it.

My (not so detailed totals) for ARB/Wash:

<730: 1f + 1m outbound on ARB, 1f inbound (me),

730-800: 2m + 1m pedestrian headed outbound on ARB (I have no idea where or why, total mystery)

800-830: 3m

830-900: 1m + 1m ped (turned corner from butler to Wash, no idea why, carrying bags)

900-930: 2m

All w/helmets, bright colors, blinkies, reflecting stuff.

4 bike racks w/bikes on cars

3 bike racks w/o bikes

VA Healthcare bus blocked traffic to let DPW trucks out, almost caused 3 seperate accidents and fouled up the intersection needlessly for two light cycles (same trucks had dedicated green after).

That particular intersection needs a "no turn on red" for the people coming from the river side. they skid out (dirty drive w/gravel) and risk accidents rather than wait 2 minutes for their very own dedicated greenlight.

I swear three counts were one crazy cyclist doing laps on ARB-Freeport road (I'm pretty sure he went HPB, as he stayed in that lane and traffic didn't slow that much in either lane like a slow vehicle was changing lanes). Fast mofo, same jacket and looked like same helmet/bike but he was way too fast to tell. "He" slowed to make sure I was ok the first time, next two the "same guy" smiled and nodded but didn't stop. Might not have been the same guy, but still. Is that something that people do? Laps on Freeport/ARB taking HPB and Hulton to do it?

Here is my one morning and one evening from the doughboy:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Aq510bP9XYEmdG5qTVB2VGVoWWRVR3VKR3dXVTVEZkE&hl=en&output=html

If you need more data, I can do more this week, just had some of my own life events crop up during the earlier time period.

zoning board should be denied decision makins abilities for life in any arena

I'm not sure about that. The city zoning board stopped that parking lot that was going to go in down in Panther Hollow.

ieverheart - I was referring to the zoning board that allowed Mars to put two schools ON a state highway, lowering the speed limit to 15 (from 50) mph during rush hour. Insisting that they put in a side road and a light (w/turning lane and sensors) could have alleviated virtually ALL stop/go traffic on 228 during rush.

But we have to have a high school with the driveway directly off of 228, buffered by lots of lawn, for children who walk at most from their (parents') cars to the door of their houses or school, but actually walking along the road or crossing a road on foot - never in their lives, let alone before/after school.

The city zoning board... I have no specific gripe, and am pleased with the Panther Hollow parking outcome. But they didn't put a school on 28 between the brewery and 31st st bridge. That's the kind of thing that Mars did.

Maybe they were just trying to encourage more Martians to commute by bike.

@ejwme I remember traveling rt. 228 when there was one stop sign and one blinking yellow light between rt. 19 and rt. 8, so yea it's changed a little over the years. And the developers always get what they want because they are the ones feeding the local politicians campaign coffers. Planning? Yeah sure right after I’m done building this mega strip mall.

I also remember Carson Street on south-side getting backed up when the trolleys couldn’t get past improperly parked cars in front of shops between 18th and 10th streets. If the driver was past a white parking line the trolley operator would jump out of the car and run into the adjacent stores yelling for the driver to move their car. Sometimes this took quite a while to do. Since busses wouldn’t have this problem(they were not on tracks), we would never have traffic tie-ups on Carson ever again! Hey that was the plan…

I suspect that it's not just campaign coffers that get fed.

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