What do you think of Pittsburgh's plan to make the city more bicycle-friendly?

The city of Pittsburgh has hired a bike-pedestrian coordinator to make pedaling or walking through city neighborhoods safer, easier and more enjoyable [ read Post-Gazette story ]. What do you think of the plan?

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 This is the first progressive thing I've seen Pittsburgh do in 20 years.  It's long overdue! 

This is a step in the right direction for the city and its cyclists. A bike-friendly downtown area could promote non-business hour cyclist traffic and commerce. Unless there is a sporting or special event, the downtown region is a ghost town these days after 6 pm. I would love to see the city expand upon its exiting trail system. It’s a great feeling to zoom past the daily Parkway East evening gridlock while cycling the Eliza Furnace Trail.

 It's long over due. But in order to have any meaningful impact, this needs to be a regional effort to improve access for cyclists.  We need to develop bike lanes, starting in the suburbs, that will allow safe access to downtown, Oakland and other high traffic areas.

This is great!  I retire in about four years and will be able to move to a bike friendly city!  I'd be glad to volunteer to maintain the trails, routes, lanes, or whatever they get named.

This sounds like a great idea and I hope it works out!  Cycling on the streets in Pittsburgh is a big challenge.  I've been hit, brushed and run off the road by urban drivers who either weren't paying attention or didn't care about the guy on the bike who was going fast enough for them.

As a driver, I'm always careful of cyclists, but I think that many cyclists give us a bad name...take a ride through Oakland, South Side, or downtown on any sunny afternoon and you'll see dozens (if not hundreds) of people on bikes running red lights, weaving through stopped traffic, and failing to halt at stop signs or to yield when appropriate.  (I know it really stinks to have to stop at a stop sign and lose your momentum climbing any one of Pittsburgh's endless hills, but come on folks!  If you want to share the road, you have to understand that the laws are there for everyone!)

Anyway, like I said, nice article and I certainly hope this works out for us.  Anything we can to like this is a step in the right direction.

:-)

 Does this mean there will be a chance of getting the bike racks re-installed at the busway stops?

this is a great direction for pgh.  especially with the high gas prices, pending transit strike, and ever increasing bus fares, its good to know that it may be easier for pittsburghers to make the choice to ride a bike to get around.  i know alot of people that want to ride, but can't make that a viable choice because they are too scared of the roads and the aggressive drivers.

Years ago, when I started graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, I planned to bicycle every clear day from the East End to the Oakland campus.  That plan lasted exactly one day.  Pedaling along Penn and Fifth avenues was hair-raising.  Cars and trucks gave no leeway to the poor bicyclist and the fumes they poured into the air made me lightheaded.  Worst of all were truckers who honked at me just because I was female.

I arrived at Pitt exhausted, sweating and shaky.  For the ride home I used as many side streets as possible.  I never biked to Oakland--or anywhere else in the city--again. 

To put it mildly, I think the city's plan to make Pittsburgh bicycle-friendly is an excellent one.  The fumes, heavy traffic and honking motorists will make it a real challenge for the new coordinator.  If the city succeeds, maybe I'll broach the urban roads again.    

i used to ride fifth and penn every day from oakland to point breeze.  i still ride to point breeze daily, but i learned better routes that are actually quite enjoyable.  penn and fifth are terrible.  but taking a moment to learn some of the more bike friendly roads like reynolds, wilkins and dallas make cycling in town an amazing experience.  it's just a shame that the most direct and intuitive routes are also the worst for cycling.  the new bike pgh map is a great help for figuring out bike friendly routes.

 Can we make the city of Pittsburgh more driver friendly to cars first?? These roads suck and truly are an embarrassment.

when was the last time you went to a city and came home thinking "man was it nice to drive there!"

you would definately come home from a city and think "the cycling was great!"

I think that every cyclist and motorist should read the Pennsylvania Bicycle Driver's manual which is published by Penn DOT. I think that if both cyclists and cars ride/drive defensively and follow traffic laws then everyone would be safer on the roads (including pedestrians).

http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Internet/Bureaus/pdBikePed.nsf/infoForward?OpenForm

I am surprised that it talks about making one's way forward on a bike in traffic jams, though. This seems dangerous to me...

 There is some logic among planning agencies to entitle such a position as "ped-bike" coordinator.  All cities that are extremely bike friendly also have one prerequisite... they are ped friendly.   If people cannot cross major intersections and get around quite easily downtown, then there is no sense to try and create a bike friendly downtown.  More people are on foot commuting between parking/transit and their work.  Please station cops at major intersections.  Ticket those vehicles turning right on red, going through red lights and not yielding right-of-way to pedestrians with a crossing signal.  Education can surely be obtained by reading a PENNDOT manual on bicycling; it can also be mandatory or forced should the violator not follow rules and obtain a fine as a result.  Where are all the cops in this city during rush hour?

Sure, sounds like a good idea, but in reality it will probably be another city employee sleeping for 8 hours a day.

Downtown is too congested and, after hours, filled with dubious people to ever become a bike friendly place.