BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I'd recommend one of the racks in the grant street portico of the City County Building. I think Stu uses it pretty often, and can tell you how full it might be on a daily basis.

There are also three rivers racks on the courthouse side of the corner of Fifth and Grant if you're not worried about precip.

(FWIW, there are three court houses in Downtown; the above refer to the County Courthouse on Grant. There's also a Federal Courthouse on Grant & Liberty, and the City Courts building on the Jail Trail; I'm not certain what the parking situations near either of those is like, though the Muni Courts building is across the street from the First Ave Garage.)

The Courthouse itself has a tiny rack in the inner area. Holds maybe four bikes. City-County: There are two, one on each side of the portico facing Grant Street. Neither is particularly large, and one is an old toaster that really only holds about six bikes. You may have to drag it away from the wall to fit your bike on the wall side. The fact alone of a single non-large person being able to drag a rack with four bikes attached, six feet so as to be able to lock a bike to it, does not warm one's heart. There is one Three Rivers rack on the corner of Forbes at Grant, on the sidewalk on the side of the Frick Building. That's about it. Please complain loudly and often and to as many people as possible that this part of town has a dearth of bike capacity. I think you could add 500 racks somewhere within 200 yards of Forbes and Grant, and they'd be gobbled up on a warm day. Frick Building, Allegheny Building, Lawyers Building, City-County, County Courthouse, Union Trust, BNY Mellon, County Office Building -- the whole lot of them -- must have 5,000 people working in them, and maybe a capacity of 25 bikes for the lot.

StuInMcCandless wrote:Please complain loudly and often and to as many people as possible that this part of town has a dearth of bike capacity. I think you could add 500 racks somewhere within 200 yards of Forbes and Grant, and they’d be gobbled up on a warm day. Frick Building, Allegheny Building, Lawyers Building, City-County, County Courthouse, Union Trust, BNY Mellon, County Office Building — the whole lot of them — must have 5,000 people working in them, and maybe a capacity of 25 bikes for the lot.

This is something that needs to be put squarely in front of Peduto's face. Over the last few days, his "Pothole drive" has been all over the news, as was his public acknowledgement of snow removal crews. That's all well and good for automobile users. A new major public bike rack on the Forbes beside the City county building would be a single easy, cheap, and very specific thing he could put on his done list.

Time to drag out this blog post from just about a year ago. http://bus15237.blogspot.com/2013/04/towards-another-bicycle-parking.html

buffalo buffalo wrote:(FWIW, there are three court houses in Downtown; the above refer to the County Courthouse on Grant. There’s also a Federal Courthouse on Grant & Liberty, and the City Courts building on the Jail Trail; I’m not certain what the parking situations near either of those is like, though the Muni Courts building is across the street from the First Ave Garage.)

Following up on my earlier post for those interested, I rode around Downtown this weekend: Next to the Municipal Courts Building, there's a sizable bike rack under the Liberty Bridge at the Trail. There's also a 2 or 4-bike rack at the far corner of the First Ave Garage, near the bike rental shed. There's nothing particularly close to the actual front door of the building, however. The Federal Courthouse is actually integrated with the Post Office building at Grant and Seventh; the building I was thinking of across the street at Grant and Liberty is actually the Federal (Office) Building. Between the three federal buildings downtown on Grant (the Federal Reserve, between the Federal Bldg and Gulf Tower, is the other), I was able to identify one (1) lonely bike rack, at the front entrance of the PO on Seventh. There are, however, an array of railings and other objects to lock to, especially inside the triangle at Grant and Liberty.

Take a closer look at the federal office building. The liberty avenue entrance has a rack or two right up tight to the door. It is separated from the street by a low wall or plantings, and is in a little mini courtyard like area.

Also, aren't there a few racks along Grant? There definitely are some on the south side of 7th, near US steel plaza. I thought there were a couple on the same side of grant, north of 7th as well.

Swalfoort wrote:Also, aren’t there a few racks along Grant? There definitely are some on the south side of 7th, near US steel plaza. I thought there were a couple on the same side of grant, north of 7th as well.

I noticed a couple handrails near the door midway between 7th & Liberty on the court building, but didn't see any actual racks. I was riding and in traffic, though, so they may have been hiding behind the giant bollards that barricade all the federal buildings...

You are right. Google Streetview shows Three Rivers Racks on Grant, but only up to Seventh Avenue. Nothing between Seventh and Liberty. I was wrong. Sorry! But, there is parking in that Federal Building Plaza that fronts on Liberty - Photo link: http://goo.gl/maps/RNIYg Main entrance on Liberty Avenue. Bike racks to left of door, partially occupied. Maybe they take them down in the winter? Unlikely, but possible.

yeah, i wouldn't have been able to see that from the road. Too high up, too much in the way.

There is one Three Rivers rack on the corner of Forbes at Grant, on the sidewalk on the side of the Frick Building.That’s about it.....Frick Building, Allegheny Building, Lawyers Building, City-County, County Courthouse, Union Trust, BNY Mellon, County Office Building Did something happen to the racks on the Forbes side of the City County bldg? http://goo.gl/VdI65X There are/were about 4 of them - been there for years. Also, FYI: Lawyers bldg just got a rack Allegheny Bldg just got one County Courthouse got one City County got one on the Ross side a lot more could def go in

Good to know about those. Gonnahafta check those out. I know about the Allegheny Bldg one. It gets a lot of use during the day. I don't like to lock up all day at that one, though, or the one alongside the Frick Bldg.

Wow, had to use those City-County Bldg racks this morning in the portico, those suck bad.

I've become a regular user of the set on the Forbes side of City-County.