Around 5:20pm on Sunday, November 14th, young man was hit from behind at the intersection of Greenfield Ave and Yoder St. while descending the hill. He was found on the sidewalk with a taco'ed rear wheel.. He recalls the car hitting him but then did lose consciousness and sustained possible injuries to his left hip and right arm. He regained consciousness and was able to provide some info to the police, unfortunately no other known witnesses to the event. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for further evaluation.
I live right down the street from there. People always run the stop sign and drive way too fast going down the hill. I saw the cop car there after the accident and someone told me a cyclist was hit and taken to the hospital. I had no idea it was a hit and run. This is horrible.
Hope he's okay. Was he running lights, at the time?
Hope he is ok. Does bike-pgh have any kind of ongoing donation fund for victims like this?
I've always thought of Greenfield as a reasonably safe street. I usually cycle down it two times a week or more and have never had a problem.
Although I have to say, coming up that intersection always makes me nervous. I see lots of cyclists using the sidewalk on the opposing side, and have done so myself, but cycling on the sidewalk against traffic makes me even more nervous!
I have ridden down Greenfield thousands of times with only one incident with a stupid adolescent pedestrian. But rarely after dark.
I wondered the same thing about lights, but the hit and run certainly suggests the driver was guilty of something .. dui, distraction, unlicensed driving, assault, who knows.
The question about lights confused me, and I missed that this accident was after 5pm the first time I read the post. There was another bike vs car accident on Sunday (the same day), maybe around 11 am right in front of St. Rosalia's, just a block or so away from this one, which is the aftermath I witnessed. This person was also apparently taken to the hospital.
The lady I was talking to about the 11 am accident said there was another bike vs auto last week down by the car wash on Greenfield Ave.
Does Bike Pittsburgh have any way to keep track of bike accidents besides self reporting? Maybe via police reports? Seems like a lot of us are getting run over lately.
Does Bike Pittsburgh have any way to keep track of bike accidents besides self reporting? Maybe via police reports? Seems like a lot of us are getting run over lately.
well, that is something that the city said they would do a better job at, but hasn't happened. we do what we can with the self-reporting. it's really something on the police end, and you can imagine how problematic that is. first, we're considered vehicles, and they don't really make a separate category for "bike." second, we've all seen the problems associated with the police even taking a report for us. third, police aren't even called for many of our crashes. fourth, i don't think the police reports are computerized, so going back in time to find all of the crashes involving a bicycle is next to impossible. if a report is even filled out, that means (i believe) that PennDOT also gets word of the crash for their data, but they are pretty protective of it for their own reasons.
i don't mean this to be a list of excuses, just a list of hurdles. and the bureaucratic machine moves slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
this problem is also not unique to here, every city has it.
First of all I hope these cyclists are o.k. and wish them a speedy recovery and I hope they are back in the saddle again real soon. That being said...
Since I don't know any of the specifics behind the accidents mentioned in this thread I don't want to comment on what may have caused them or what the cyclists may have done to avoid them. But i do want to say Greenfeild ave is part of my standard east end loop that I've been doing a few times a month for the past 12 years or so. In my experience riding downhill towards the jail trail YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE LANE. There is no other choice. Besides the pot holes, cracks in the road, and sewer caps, the drivers at the two or three intersections downhill from St. Rosalias will not see you if you are too far to the right. Also with the steepness of that hill it should be no problem for even a novice rider to travel at or above the speed of traffic so no worries about the cars behind you. Not trying to be preachy, just hope my post helps to keep my fellow riders safe.
do you think greenfield Ave, downhill, could benefit with some sharrows?
yes erok, most of the traffic on g-field seems to be people who are using it as a shortcut aka driving like maniacs. Glad I live in the run
I ride down Greenfield for my commute in the winter- sharrows would be great there. I agree that taking the lane is important- and if a car wants to pass, they will be speeding so too bad.
I often feel if I'm gonna get nailed it will be on that street.
Sharrows up and down, or sharrows down and a "climbing lane" on the up side, as on Forbes Avenue.
Agreed. The few times I've biked up and down that hill, I haven't exactly felt safe. I generally avoid it. I don't even like walking across Greenfield Ave at a stop sign, because hardly anybody stops (even for pedestrians).
There are plenty of cars parked half up on the sidewalk towards the bottom of the hill that pose a hazard if the cyclist hasn't claimed the lane (or if he/she is being forced out of the lane!), and of course, there is an entire thread devoted to the clusterfuck that is the Greenfield Ave/2nd Ave intersection (between the Panther Hollow and Jail Trails).
Sounds like someone should just set up a couple of video cameras at the stop sign(s) and send the tapes to the police. With all the accidents in the area, you'd think they'd already be patrolling around there.
Sharrows would be appropriate if
(a) a substantial number of cyclists are riding in the gutter and the door zone
-and-
(b) the sharrows are effective at convincing them to move out into the lane as chefjohn and all the experienced city riders recommend.
I was liking the buffered bike lane design on Beacon and Wightman. Then I saw a cyclist riding in the buffer, instead of in the bike lane. Seems like some people will do anything to get doored. Which makes me wonder whether the sharrows really would do what we hope.
Y'know, we have a lot of these questions, and debates, and everybody throws around their opinions, but there's a real lack of actual DATA. I'd love to see a well-constructed survey of cyclist and motorist behavior on Greenfield Ave before and after sharrow placement...
Would there be room on the lower part of Greenfield Ave - from Lydia to Saline - for an uphill climbing lane and downhill sharrows, like Forbes Ave between Margaret Morrison and Schenley Drive?
No one parks on that stretch until you get down to the swinburne bridge, that's where the sight distances are all messed up for bikers and speeders.
I rode up through there last night around 6:30, and it was quite well lit then. The cyclist would have to have been wearing something darker than black to be invisible in that lighting.
That reminds me. If your shadow is long and straight out in front of you, be extra careful about oncoming crossing and turning traffic -- they can't see anything. And if it's long and straight out behind you, get off the road for an hour. Sometimes, it's safer to ride after dark.
Sharrows or something would be great on this street. I use it every day to get to work in the morning, and this is where my frightening encounter with road rage happened, thanks to a crazy red pick-up truck driving like a maniac when I had already taken the lane in a responsible manner. I mean, I don't know if sharrows would have deterred him, but maybe they could help with others less insanely inclined.
Uphill, they could help, too.
