I thought about posting on "dangerous drivers" but this is really more about the intersection(s). I ride in to CMU almost daily and the double turn from Schenley Drive to Tech to Frew can be harrowing. The problem is that the vehicle executing that turn sequence (aka me) legally has the right of way, and one is typically coming down Schenley at a decent clip. I use hand signals and certainly make sure to be in control, but it is incredibly common for a driver coming up Tech St to either run the stop sign at Frew completely, do a rolling stop, or even stop but proceed forward in spite of me with my arm pointing down Frew St. This morning the person in the car did come fairly close to stopping and then moved on in front of me. I yelled "STOP!!" and she looked at me like I was from another planet.
I think it might be a good idea to have a list of especially dangerous intersections, though the real advice is to always assume that any given car may kill you. I have seen plenty of other bicyclists go through this particular intersection, even with cars at that Tech St stop sign, where they would be in serious trouble if the driver pulled out.
A second question is what to do about it. Is one of Peduto's 8 committees addressing multi-modal transportation in any specific way, and is the cycling community engaged in that?
I've attached a map and a street view to illustrate the place.
neilmd
2013-11-14 09:19:03
One other point is that the Tech St sign does not have one of those "opposing traffic does not stop" signs -- you can see from the street view that there is nothing below the actual octagon that I augmented. They have done almost everything that one could do with paint, as you can see. A speed bump is out of the question because of sweepstakes (buggy).
neilmd
2013-11-14 09:24:34
they do make removable speed bumps so that doesnt have to be a barrier
cburch
2013-11-14 09:28:40
I've always thought that Frew street should be made into a one way street, most likely in the uphill direction. With all of the cars pulling in and out of parking spaces & the many delivery trucks that seem to double park wherever they want, that street is a clusterF**k most of the time.
I realize that's not the solution you were asking for, but it would solve many issues .
marko82
2013-11-14 10:13:14
A distinction should probably be made between those within city limits (and thus under the bailiwick of Peduto's committees) and those outside.
It wouldn't take much to go back through either message board posts or our collective memories to come up with a list of places that routinely give us trouble.
I do like the idea of marked-up maps, screen shots of SV, and actual photographs of problem areas, as in the example above, to buttress our case for each one.
stuinmccandless
2013-11-14 10:28:24
It would not be unreasonable to bring this to the attention of the University. It's their people running the risks, and they presumably have enough pull to get things done by the City.
The person I believe is responsible for bike stuffs at CMU is:
Michelle Porter, Director
Parking & Transportation Services
(412) 268.6278
ahlir
2013-11-14 11:58:29
Salty and I had a conversation with Peduto on Twitter about Fifth and Beechwood. Drivers run the shit out of that light and the pedestrian signal leads with just two seconds. They also extended the green for Fifth.
rsprake
2013-11-14 12:51:58
I was thinking the other day that this site should have some sort of member-editable map where we can put in notes about certain intersections, roads, bridges, etc.
Then say you are route planning for a commute or recreational ride, you can use that map and make sure your route avoids any hot spots.
andyc
2013-11-14 13:12:22
stuinmccandless
2013-11-14 13:34:03
I wonder what can be done about the Tech/Frew intersection. As I remember it, the stop sign on Frew is too far back to see anything, so you end up rolling forward, and then you're in this vague area where four or five roads come together, depending on how you count. I don't think a speed bump would help that much, because the problem isn't that the motorists are going too fast, it's that they can't deal with the complexity of bikes coming downhill towards them from the left, maybe pretty fast, while looking for cars in four directions.
jonawebb
2013-11-14 13:45:19
A lot of those intersections are just as dangerous in a car (but only to your paint and bodywork really.)
andyc
2013-11-14 13:48:56
That type of map - user editable (in KML)
andyc
2013-11-14 13:51:10
ka_jun
2013-11-14 14:01:20
StuInMcCandless wrote:Perhaps like this? http://map.bike-pgh.org/#c=note
Cool. Why is there a crash report somewhere to the west of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Gunnea?! That had to hurt.
Seriously,
1. How does one add anything other than a crash report,
2. Is there any way to filter the reports by date?
(there is probably a thread for this -- I'm new)
neilmd
2013-11-14 19:41:48
It seems like the crash entries go directly onto the map with no human validating them, and some spammers regularly make entries, many in the Gulf of Guinea. (I guess their special spam-making software sends latitude 0 longitude 0, and the web site isn't smart enough to filter those out.)
Erok emailed me in July (when I reported similar bad entries) that they're hoping to revisit the crash report/online map system in the future, but they didn't have the resources to devote to it at the time. For now, I think you have to email the staff to add entries other than crash reports.
I don't know of any simple way to filter by date. But you can get the
raw data here.
steven
2013-11-15 00:28:49
