Will more people each year commute on bicycles? (Pittsburgh, Liberty: to live, gym)

[ferraris]

The roughly 1.5 miles of lanes, which will cost $188,000 in money Mr. Peduto said was budgeted by former Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration, will feature independent lane markings and bollards to separate cyclists and motorists.

That's much cheaper than I was expecting. It gives me a lot of optimism that Peduto will be able to continue to lead the charge for more bike infrastructure.

[norcider]

Brighton to Marshall is much better now with the bike lanes, and it's super wide. Check it out on the weekend!

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Yeah, that part of Brighton is super wide and has a bike lane. I use it all the time, and it's actually pretty stress free.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I don't know the future, but whatever happens, I think it will be VERY slow and I will be dead before there is any real huge changes. I do hope people get more healthy and ride more. It is all positive and really nothing negative about it, other than some folks whining about cyclists on the roads.

There is a general trend toward biking to work, but most Pittsburghers live sufficiently far, and over busy enough highways from their homes to their place of employment, it will never be predominant.

Riding out to Robinson from Ross on a bicycle is pretty impossible.

Even riding from the close south hills in the city to town is insane.


Years ago, the P-G had an annual story about biking to work. They always had a junior staff member who lived somewhere like Dormont bike into work one day and write a story about the ordeal.

From some locations it might be practical, for most, not really.

[BarqCider]

so which will people adopt first? riding the PAT or biking into the city? since clearly most don't care for either.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by norcider

Brighton to Marshall is much better now with the bike lanes, and it's super wide. Check it out on the weekend!

Originally Posted by CaptainPittsburgh

Yeah, that part of Brighton is super wide and has a bike lane. I use it all the time, and it's actually pretty stress free.

I gave this route a shot yesterday on my way back from the vintage grand prix. It wasn't too bad! Granted it was a Sunday, but I was pretty impressed with the cars giving me plenty of room; I expected them to cut it closer since there is a bike lane. I do have a question though, when heading North on Brighton and trying to turn left to Woodland, what do you do? Signal and take the car lane then turn when it's safe (trusting cars behind you to wait for that moment)? Or just stop in the bike lane and wait for it to be safe to cross both lanes of traffic?

Also I made the mistake of choosing to get there via the North Shore right after the Pirates game got out . Not only that, but I didn't know the Open Streets event was going, so I missed out on some easy car free downtown riding

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by TechCom

I was building an electric bike because of this, but unfortunately I lost my job before completing it. It could go like 20 to 30mph up the steepest of hills.

Shoot, a moped will perform well on hills and they get around 100 mpg.

[norcider]

Ferraris, I'll usually wait until both lanes are clear. The speed is something like 35mph there, people do close to 50mph on that stretch.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

In general, I tend to take the lane a bit before the turn I want to make and put my hand out a few times to signal as I approach.

But in this case, I agree with norcider. People really fly on that section of the road, so it's certainly safer to just stop and wait.

[ferraris]

Thanks for the tips norcider and CaptainPittsburgh. There's usually not much bike traffic in that lane, so stopping and waiting in the bike lane itself sounds like the safest and easiest option.

The other thing that stuck out to me was Allegheny Center. Not so much from a safety standpoint, but just a "What am I expected to do here?" standpoint. I just rode on the sidewalk ultimately. I hope the Peduto administration does something with that soon -- it seems like it would be a a non-controversial no-brainer to add some (protected) bike lanes around the loop.