Pittsburgh, once pretty inhospitable to cyclists, is now known as a bike-friendly city.
We've got our designated bike lanes, our sharrows, our rivefront trails, our City bike/ped coordinator and advocacy group BikePGH. And we've got Pedal Pittsburgh.
Now in its 17th year, Pedal Pittsburgh is one of the region's largest all-city bike rides, says Jen Fox event organizer with Community Design Center of Pittsburgh. Last year's event celebrated a record turnout of nearly 2,200 riders. For this year's event, which starts and finishes this Sun., May 16 at the SouthSide Works, participants can choose from six courses ranging from six to 60 miles.
Pedal Pittsburgh, says Fox, is not just a fun way to get some exercise -- it's an opportunity to explore the city, to discover Pittsburgh beyond the neighborhoods you already know so well. The event pedals through a wide variety of business districts and residential roads, past some hidden scenic views and into and around some notable green spaces.
Parks and green spaces are actually a focus of this year's Pedal Pittsburgh. To call attention to the City of Pittsburgh's first-ever comprehensive plan -- which is starting by focusing on preservation and on open spaces -- Pedal Pittsburgh will be engaging riders at rest stops to get feedback on what they like about the parks, green spaces and trails, and also what they'd like to see change. But the feedback will be fun, Fox promises. For example, at Highland Park, participants can be filmed talking about the city's parks, and the videos will be shown at the finish area and uploaded to YouTube. And at Schenley Plaza in Oakland, participants can create "worldles" or "word clouds" that visually capture in graphic format what people are saying about the parks.
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Jen Fox, director of administration and events, Community Design Center of Pittsburgh
Photograph courtesy of Pedal Pittsburgh