BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

where are you heading? from where do you need to connect to the trail?

in general, traffic downtown is low enough and slow enough that it's pretty comfortable riding whichever street you choose. the thing to watch out for, i guess, is that some of the roads get pretty nuts a short ways away from downtown.

that early in the morning, you'll miss a lot of traffic. especially pedestrian traffic, which i find to be much less predictable downtown than automobile traffic.

i bet you'll be fine, but which routes are you looking at?

Downtown can be intimidating but if take it slow and act like you should be there you will be fine.

As for your route where are you going / coming from? As HiddenVariable some of the roads leaving downtown can get crazy but there are plenty of ways to avoid it depending on where you are going.

After my wife was hit by a car on liberty, we take the Neville -> Boundary road access to the panther hollow trail and from there to the Eliza Furnace Trail.

Although the direct route from our place in Friendship is 4 miles down Liberty, our Eliza Furnace route is 7 miles. That being said, the direct route would take us about 20-25 minutes and the Eliza Furnace route only take 30-35 since you don't deal with stoplights nearly as much.

In general I have very little trouble with traffic Downtown. Basic rules of thumb: Be very visible, be very predictable, obey all the rules, stay LEFT and take the lane, i.e. be right in front of drivers' direct line of vision.

The streets I'm usually on: Fourth Avenue, Grant Street, Smithfield, Sixth Avenue, Stanwix, Liberty, 6th/7th/9th St. So, yeah, I'm right in the thick of it.

I tend to accelerate hard; actually, pulling away from a light alongside someone in a car, for the first 50 to 100 feet, I am always ahead. But their top speed, legally, is the same as my top speed, physically, so even if I don't pull over, as I often do not, it should not be a problem for them, except in their minds.

Bottom line, don't let the bastards get into your mind. Just get right out there and ride.

Well I'm coming from near Duquesne University and last time I went down to Grant St, hopped on the trail and rode it to the end where I rode up into and around Schenely Park and then back down Fifth to Duquesne.

I guess in addition to tips for downtown morning riding, what about going to the Strip? I'll probably be going around 8:30 AM. Any roads to look out for?

Avoid Liberty. Coming into town Use Penn or Smallman. Leaving town, Obviously don't use Penn since its one way, Use Smallman Instead.

I meant to say don't use Liberty between around 12th st and 30th st. Liberty through Bloomfield has sharrows and a bike lane. At the bottom of the hill though, use 31st or 32nd st to jump over to Penn or Smallman.

If you're leaving town I would take Smallman or the trail behind the convention center until you can get to Railroad street. Much more calm and easier to dodge the potholes than Smallman or Spring Way.

I took Smallman and it wasn't too bad. I'll check out the trail next time. Thanks for all the help!

I commute Friendship-> Downtown and highly recommend Railroad Street outbound.

Smallman between 21st and 29th is Uber crappy and I'm somewhat surprised it is listed as a bike route. The rightmost 2 feet of each side of the road are a terrible surface and pretty much not bikeable. That coupled with multiple 4 way stops and the fact that you can bike *almost* with traffic, makes it hard for cars to pass. You can take the trail from the convention center to 21st and then take Railroad, but honestly smallman isn't that bad up to 21st. You can take Railroad all the way to the 31st street bridge.

Inbound I actually feel safest taking Penn ave the whole way. You can stay with traffic coming down the hill. I tend to avoid Liberty ave inbound, I've had a couple buses turn left in front of me as I blitzed down the hill @ 35-40 mph and think it is very dangerous despite the bike lanes. Although I do prefer Liberty on my ride home.

I completely agree with dmtroyer about Smallman. It's pretty clear that the bike route designation wasn't made by someone who actually commutes there. I think it was made by looking at numbers in a spreadsheet.

I'm happy riding Penn inbound from Butler onward, but the hill down from 40th St is always a bit scary. It's too narrow to share safely with autos, so you have to take the lane. Once having taken the lane, you naturally want to ride at 30-40 mph to justify being there and discourage stupid passing. But the road surface is crappy and there are always people trying to edge out from the side streets who can't see out around the parked cars. By the time they can see me, there's definitely no time for them to pull out, but I'm always afraid that someone is going to misjudge my speed and do it anyway, but too late for me to react in time (particularly given the crappy surface -- you just can't brake effectively over bumpy pavement). So I'm always muttering "don't you do that, don't you dare pull out". The hill down Liberty is wide open and has better surface, so I'm happier with that. Well, I was happier still before the downhill bike lane was striped. The uphill one is fine for fat slow me in my lowest gear but the downhill one is too narrow and too close to the cars for riding at the kind of speeds that you reach just by coasting. But I feel pressured to be in it even though I know it's unsafe. Which means I am probably now riding farther right than I ought to. I haven't been honked and hollered at there yet, but I also moved out of that neighborhood so I am more likely to take 5th inbound instead of either Liberty or Penn.

You really should avoid the Liberty bike lane if you're doing 35-40 mph -- it's too close to the cars for that speed, on account of (a) doors (b) visual clutter and visibility to crossing traffic (c) making yourself "matter" to that oncoming left-hook bus.

I rode Liberty inbound pretty frequently -- about a hundred times a year, I guess -- for a couple of different years out of the last 5, and I only once had a scary moment, when someone in a van just had to pass me and then turn right in front of me. I didn't have to do anything heroic, just slam on the brakes, but it was a little frightening and maddening for having been so damn pointless. I never got left-crossed by a bus, so maybe that's coincidence, or maybe there is something to be said for different lane positioning.

Bike type, tires, and speed are going to make a lot of difference in where you ride. Some roads that are difficult to ride with a road bike are no trouble with a hybrid, and vice versa. Also, as you learn more about how to be seen by and communicate with the motorists, you will discover that your road preferences will change.

I don't have any problem coasting down Liberty, I ride right around the left bike lane line. It's only when busses get involved that it gets scary. I have resigned to just waiting behind the busses in most cases when the turn into the bike lane to pick up their passengers even though if I could get around them and just stay behind me everything would be OK.