BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

bloomfield is a nice, central location. lots of amenities within the neighborhood. Aside from lawrenceville and squirrel hill, the trips are flat to other areas of the city via liberty, friendship or penn.

I live in friendship and really like cycling here. Its close to a lot of things (grocery stores, the Liberty Ave bars and shops, and most importantly, Kraynick's). The people are super nice and there are lots of cyclists. The streets are lined with big old trees that provide nice shade in the summer months. I think there are a couple houses for sale on my street (south pacific ave).

Happy Hunting!

- Not starting my rides going uphill (ending uphill is ok, actually desired).

Squirrel Hill works well for that one.

don't forget point breeze, wilkinsburg, and east liberty

A lot of city nabes would fit the bill actually. Munhall has got to be one of the hardest places in the area to get out of going toward town on a bike. It's certainly doable, but the traffic and the options for crossing the river aren't great. South Hills ditto--though I'm sure there are those who'd disagree. But between the Mon and the Allegheny lots of places are good--and the North Side neighborhoods too.

The nice thing about Bloomfield is that it's a good starting point for many trips by bike. My commute to the Southside for example is mostly car free. Excellent rides just north of the city are nearby.

Also it's really an excellent location for walking. If that's a priority for you too check out this website http://www.walkscore.com/

+1 for Morningside. Since Chislett and Jancey are (mostly) one way, riding along them is generally pretty mellow. I feel very comfortable with my kids in the trailer or on a trail-a-bike riding through my hood. You can very safely ride to Highland Park, and even East Liberty/Shady Side (via side streets) without a problem.

Morningside represent!

15 minutes to get from my place, which is a block off Baker St, to Frick to ride in the woods.

Central to most everything worth being central to in town.

I have a 2 bedroom house for sale in Regent Square.

I live on the edge or Edgewood just before Forest Hills now and It's on the edge of what I would call cycling friendly.

plus a billion for morningside. its damn near as convenient as sq hill or regent square, but when you get home its a nice, quiet, little neighborhood with lots of young families and professionals along with all the old italian folks (we live right across from st raphs so we see ALL the festivals up close). The loudest thing on my street outside of the festivals and the kids at the catholic school having recess is the bus rolling by.

plus the housing is really reasonably priced.

i'd have to recommend highland park / morningside. great location for getting places, the park has road and some decent mountain bike riding available, and houses seemed affordable when i was looking.

My favorites are Morningside/Highland Park,and Squirrel Hill

Thanks everyone, we've added these neighborhoods to our list under consideration!

Add Brighton Heights to your list. There are no sharrows or bike lanes, but it fits your requirement of starting out going downhill. There are multiple routes in and out (Brighton and California, plus several side roads in between) and has easy access to the Chateau Trail at the Western Penitentiary.

The North Shore and North Ave (once something other than Cafe Mocha goes in...they're making progress, though) are a quick ride, and just about any point in the city is within your 20 mile radius. Bellevue, in the opposite direction, has plenty of businesses worth cycling to, though it does completely lack bike racks.

Riverview Park is easy to get to, though it requires climbing a steep hill until (if!) the Davis Ave bridge is rebuilt.

Traffic into and out of the neighborhood is generally calm...I've not run into a single aggressive driver in six months of commuting.

And, most importantly, the houses here are much cheaper than Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, or even Bloomfield.

one more vote for morningside! it's been summed up already in posts above.

Morningside wins!

Heresy on a Bicycle advocacy board perhaps, but sometimes you want to be able to walk to the following: grocery, movies, restaurants, banks, library, more banks, more restaurants, coffee shops and also have easy access to lots of bus transportation 7 days a week, and still get to ride uphill to your home at the end of a long ride. Winning is all relative to what you want out a place to live, no?

I'm w/ jeffinpgh, I like Squirrel Hill because I can walk to everything. I don't think any of the neighborhoods in Pgh are ideal for cycling, some are just less worse than others . Progress is slowly happening though.

+1 for squirrel hill. I like to be able to walk too, where I live (North part), it's not especially close to anything but a CVS, but everything on Forbes/Murray, Walnut, Ellsworth, and Craig is within a 1 mile walk. Nice for biking especially if you want to end uphill. I think that's a feature too because I can usually get where I'm going quickly and without getting too sweaty.

But, I think riding anywhere in the city is relatively safe, and there's usually no shortage of routes you can take depending on your comfort level with traffic.

Well, we ended up putting in an offer on a house in Edgewood and after some niggling it was accepted. The final kicker for it compared to the others we were considering was a bike ride through the neighborhood. While its not the cycling friendliest area in town it was rather pleasant. Plus it is a short walk to Regent Square and Frick Park.

One thing that I wanted to comment on was that at some point it seems like my statement that I didn't want to start off going uphill became misinterpreted. For me, ending going up a decent hill (like Greenfield Ave up int Sq Hill) is great! I lived near Beechwood And Hazelwood for a year and coming up from downtown was usually the high point of my ride.

I just don't like that living in Munhall, the most efficient route to most of the stuff I *want* to get to involves a climb almost immediately. By the time I get to the other side of the Rankin or Homestead Grays bridge, I'm just not warmed up enough to want to climb those hills. [Although admittedly, the Browns Hill Rd hill is more an issue of traffic and bad road maintainence than being a "climb".]

That lack of climb ended up being a negative for some of the neighborhoods.

That didn't take long at all! Where in Edgewood? I live right off of Maple and Brinton Rd.

Yeah, it was much quicker than either of us figured... but the right houses were available at the right time. There were 3 we really liked this one, 1 in Wilkinsburg, and 1 in Morningside. Apparently this is a really good time to be looking.

I'm about two blocks from the library. Close to the train tracks and busway, but the house is surprisingly quiet, even as trains go by.