Pop City Bike Forum: In Sum

A young woman bicycling home from work pedals up Liberty Avenue toward Bloomfield. She's wearing headphones, listening to her iPod,when she's cut off by a man in a Ford Contour, who is talking on his cell phone, and very gradually merging into the right-lane off-ramp. He's oblivious to her presence. She's moving fairly quickly -- maybe 15 miles per hour -- and so when she's forced to the side of the road and toward a parked car, she can't stop in time. She runs into the car -- an old Monte Carlo -- and lands on its trunk. Since she's wearing a helmet -- and since she's in shape and agile -- she's ok, physically unharmed. She sits up, looks toward the Contour and the Bloomfield Bridge, and raises a hand with only one finger strategically aloft. She makes her way to the ground, dusts herself off, picks up her bike, and rides on.

It's situations like these that prompt opinionated comments from just about everyone. Why was she wearing headphones? Why didn't she see him approach? Why was he on his cell phone? Why didn't he see her riding? The most important question of course is: how do we prevent situations like this from occuring?

Here at Pop City -- where we seek to highlight the good in Pittsburgh's growing cultures and work toward solutions for the not so good-- we hear complaints and commentary, in all directions, about the (both literal and figurative) intersection merging bicycles and cars on the same crowded roads in Pittsburgh.

So we decided to do something about it.

The Basics
On Thursday, October 23, Pop City organized the first ever public bicycle forum with the the newly appointed Bicyclist/Pedestrian Coordinator, Stephen Patchan. Before a crowd of around 125 packed tight at AVA Lounge in East Liberty, the event featured three speakers at the forefront of Pittsburgh bicycle advocacy. They sat on stage, talking and fielding questions about issues that affect all commuters, whether they're traveling on two wheels or four:

Stage left was Scott Bricker, whose work with Bike Pittsburgh has attracted thousands of dollars in donations, and created the city's pre-eminent cycling advocacy group. Stage right was Amy Garbark, a USA Cycling official who works on bicycle advocacy issues with the MGR Foundation. And in the middle was Stephen Patchan.

To start, each panelist discussed their organization and their respective goals and priorities for an expanded education program for young people and students. Each panelist believes there should be programs affiliated with public and private schools in the Pittsburgh area -- with the intent of informing children and adolescents how and where to ride safely. Though implementing a unified program is still in planning- and organizing-stages, each panelist showed interest in further discussion about this issue.

Licensing followed. A baited question was directed specifically toward Scott Bricker, regarding whether or not he would support a law requiring cyclists to be licensed in Pennsylvania (he has, on many occasions, come out against bike licensing). He said no, that's a bad idea, because the City -- and bike activists and pretty much everyone -- should do their best to encourage cyclists on the road, not create new barriers against them.

An argument against this was discussed briefly, with regard to an email Pop City received about a reader's car that had been hit by a cyclist. The accident caused significant damage to the reader's car. The letter's author suggested that the cyclist would have been licensed and required to exchange personal identification and insurance information. Instead, the cyclist just rode off. The three panelists seemed to agree that, until there is an overwhelming number of bicyclists on the streets causing untold thousands of dollars worth of damage and generally running amok, licensing shouldn't really be necessary. If a cyclist does thousands of dollars worth of damage to your car, chances are that cyclist is going to be in pretty bad physical shape anyway, so they've probably learned their lesson.

A counter suggestion was discussed briefly: how about a voluntary licensing program to give cyclists the opportunity to register their bikes with the City (so they can have something specific and tactile to report to the police if their bikes should be stolen)? This suggestion receives a general thumbs up from the panelists.

Discussion moved tangentially, mostly focusing on where bike lanes are being placed, where more will eventually be placed, and how the City is working to make more roads safe for cyclists. And of course along the way we noted a few achievements, such as the Hot Metal Bridge bike connection and the success of new bike lanes. At one point a young man urged Patchan and the others on the panel to "think big" in coming up with a bike plan for Pittsburgh. No argument there. They will be looking at successes from other cities' and generating best practice examples.

In addition, we discussed Bike Pittsburgh's new cycling map -- designed by Deep Local and available for free, right here -- and a load of ideas about how to educate more people about cycling, how to promote cycling to more folks, how to encourage riders to "respect the intersection" of automobiles and bicycles on the road, and how to get more funding for bike initiatives like extended bike trails and bike lanes. 

A Good Start
In all, it was a rousing discussion which served to make voices heard  among an impassioned yet polite group about where bike advocacy is going in Pittsburgh, and what issues are important to all—along with who is, at least for now, at the forefront. Tomorrow, it might be you.

And don’t forget it’s not too late to include your comments in the Transportation Wiki which is being shaped into a document and presented to City officials in January. Click here to get going.

Pittsburgh is very fortunate to have this group of individuals working on bike issues. They care, and want to hear from you. Each of the panelists are available for questions, and if you're interested in speaking to any of them, feel free to e-mail them (addresses below).

And we recommend as much -- the more human-powered transportation we can encourage, the better. For all of us. Opening a dialogue is a step in the right direction. Stay tuned for a follow up bike forum by Pop City.

Pop City readers' questions/comments
While we fielded a lot of questions that night, we didn't get to these but thought they would be of interest to bike enthusiasts:

Die hard bikers will always find a way to get on two wheels, it's the rest of the population that needs some encouragement. Infrastructure is the most important thing, followed by awareness: What about creating an elevated bikeway, that is "bolted" to, and adjacent to, and within the ROW of the busway -- so bikes could "express" downtown, avoiding lights, etc.? I am thinking of a 8' wide pathway that is fenced on one side and allows bikers to follow the busway canyon from Shadyside/Point Breeze into downtown.

How about more cool on and off ramps off of our river trails (the Washington's Island bridge, the ramp across the Ft. Duq Bridge - other cool examples) to points of interest and high destination areas?

Can we get the Port Authority to give bikers a break?  Discounted fares?

Can we set aside some streets as "high capacity biking corridors"?  The more motorists become aware of regular bike traffic, the safer both become.

Would love one weekend day, per year for road closure for bikers -- perhaps already well organized Peddle Pittsburgh (may only be able to close some main streets admittedly). Benefits would include raised exposure of bikers and chance for novices to get more comfortable.

When I was biking in Montreal I was very impressed by the continuous circuit of bike lanes around the city, and bike traffic signals.  I’m wondering if our new “bike czar” would be willing to consider a few strategically placed “bike lane turn signals” into his longer term plans for our fair city?

Just had my fave bike stolen from Mellon Square parking garage in broad daylight – would appreciate more VISIBLE placement of bike racks in golden triangle than in dark recesses of parking garage.

To actually access the 31st Street bridge pedestrian way you have to dismount and pick your bike up to the sidewalk. To access 40th Street Bridge you either have to get on Route 28 (dangerous!) or walk/ride a weathered path up to the bridge. Is there any way to safely provide access to this crossing points and create smooth transitions back across the Allegheny? I'm not suggesting full on Hot Metal style additions, just access to pre-existing crossing points.
ps: Pedicabs!

Having bike lanes around the city is great. The East Liberty boulevard addition seems like it is in the wrong place. I use that road regularly, [but] I have never seen anyone riding a bicycle on that road. Seems like a waste of effort.

I don’t suppose that Steve Patchan has thought about reinstituting the Great Ride?

Would love one weekend day, per year for road closure for bikers -- perhaps already well organized Peddle Pittsburgh (may only be able to close some main streets admittedly). Benefits would include raised exposure of bikers and chance for novices to get more comfortable.

Have more questions? Send them to:
info@popcitymedia.com
Scott Bricker: scott@bike-pgh.org
Stephen Patchan: Stephen.Patchan@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Amy Garbark: Amy@mgrf.org

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Photographs copyright Greg Langel