Another cyclist hit on Penn Ave (Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg: construction, price, transportation)

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by mattejb

Since when is an additional 12,000+ educated people "no real difference"?

When it's being used to bolster the claim that Portland has "much higher levels of higher education", that's when. The claim struck me as exaggerated and now that I see the source I know it is.

Other surveys find different results:
The Most and Least Educated Cities | Men's Health

Certainly no clear, "much higher level" type distinctions should be drawn.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I really have no problem with cyclists sneaking through a red light, provided they stop first, and there is no cross traffic. As for pedestrians, they are far worse. At the intersections where there is a four way stop light, they never wait for the walk sign, they just stroll out into the street when they get ready, cell phone glued to their ear. In fact, whenever I see some idiocy on the road, whether it's a driver, or pedestrian, 75% of the time, you will see either an arm, or some wires connected to the ear.

The WORST intersection for this is Forbes & Murray in Squirrel Hill. I routinely have to blare my horn here at pedestrians who casually stroll into the intersection when I'm trying to turn into their paths. People, you have a four-way red-light with all "WALK" signals for a REASON!

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

The WORST intersection for this is Forbes & Murray in Squirrel Hill. I routinely have to blare my horn here at pedestrians who casually stroll into the intersection when I'm trying to turn into their paths. People, you have a four-way red-light with all "WALK" signals for a REASON!

Forbes and Smithfield is another horrible one. These people seem as though they don't know what the red hand means.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I really have no problem with cyclists sneaking through a red light, provided they stop first, and there is no cross traffic. As for pedestrians, they are far worse. At the intersections where there is a four way stop light, they never wait for the walk sign, they just stroll out into the street when they get ready, cell phone glued to their ear. In fact, whenever I see some idiocy on the road, whether it's a driver, or pedestrian, 75% of the time, you will see either an arm, or some wires connected to the ear.

As a frequent pedestrian and runner, "they never wait for the walk sign" is a truly ignorant statement.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

As a frequent pedestrian and runner, "they never wait for the walk sign" is a truly ignorant statement.

BULL! I see it every single day. The pedestrians in this city are awful, and would be road kill in NYC.

[groar]

there's a difference between saying "lots of people do x" and "everyone does x", you know.

i see pedestrians jaywalking all the time. hell, i do it all the time crossing penn and 44th cause you know what? the light cycle for cars is exactly the same whether there's a walk sign for pedestrians or not. if i get to that intersection and i wasn't in time to hit the button, i am still walking when the light is green in my direction cause nothing is different for the cars. well after i wait for the 1-2 cars that run the red light every single time.

which reminds me, i see cars running red lights all the time. i just drove through penn & 5th and i saw 10 cars doing illegal/stupid things just in 1 light cycle and just on penn. that was after i watched some douche on a cell phone creep all the way to the intersection on braddock turning left onto penn (when the line to stop is a good 1-2 car lengths back) for NO REASON. he put himself and others in danger and didn't even save himself 5 seconds.

i see people on bikes doing dumb things all the time. then again this guy biking behind me on penn was riding perfectly. lots of cars were not breaking the law, although pretty much all of them were speeding. lots of pedestrians were waiting their turn to cross.

it's human nature to notice people doing things that are out of the ordinary, that make you mad, that interfere with your driving or walking or riding. it takes much more concentration to notice all the people who are following the law.

[Herodotus]

People read way too much into various statements. Nowhere did I say ALL pedestrians, but it's surely way too many.

[groar]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

People read way too much into various statements. Nowhere did I say ALL pedestrians, but it's surely way too many.

"As for pedestrians, they are far worse. At the intersections where there is a four way stop light, they never wait for the walk sign"

hm i must have a pretty wild imagination to interpret your use of "never" as meaning "never".

[tclifton]

There's an interesting article in The Atlantic today called "Why Cyclists Run Red Lights" Why Cyclists Run Red Lights - Commute - The Atlantic Cities


Their survey of 2000 cyclists indicated ;

A little more than 25% ran reds because nobody else was around.
17% said that they keep going through a signal when there weren't any cars on the road,
11% said that they do the same in a crosswalk if there aren't any pedestrians.
Only a few (4%) said they did it because they thought it was safe , and very few (< 1%) said they always ran reds regardless of the situation.

[FreightTrainRunning]

Ditching the Car for the Bike in Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh's shift away from driving is in large part due to a big spike in our cyclist population. Since the 2000 Census, the number of Pittsburgh adults who commute by bike increased by 269%, the second biggest jump in bike commuting among the largest U.S. cities.

"Back in 2000, about 0.4% of Pittsburghers chose the bicycle as their primary way to get to work. Today, we’re up to about 1.6% – about the level that Portland, Oregon was 10 years ago. This ranks us as the 13th highest bicycle commuter rate in the nation," report the folks at Bike Pittsburgh on their website.