This couldn't be more spot on... continued focus on the riverfronts can be transformative!

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Using former railway grades is a great idea for pedestrians and bicyclists as trains couldn't go up and down steep hills either!

And kind of amazing for micro-mobility. On my ebike I went from my house in SqHill to being parked in the courtyard of the AC Courthouse in 17 minutes. Most of which was just cruising along a rail trail with no cars.

Until the first shooting happens because assholes ruin most things

A fantastic idea! I hope the full project moves quickly so more people can actually get use out of it soon.

It's better than building a prison on the river front for sure lol

Anyone know about plans for spur routes to connect the river trails to nearby areas? I live up a hill from the trail, probably less than a mile for a direct route, but there's no safe way to actually get a bike to it without putting the bike in/on a car first. Otherwise, I'd be able to bike to the waterfront, southside, and downtown without too much trouble in good weather.

The selling point I've given to the whiners who don't want to see anyone getting anything helpful unless it also helps them; is that it also gets a car off the road and reduces traffic (and gasoline demand, and thus cost).

Wish they'd do something similar along Allegheny River Boulevard. Even a basic bike path would be great.

Wat

Is that where they filmed the end of Robocop?

I feel so shitty for the bikers risking their lives trying to ride along ARB lol

What about all that land they bought for a park a few years ago along Carson St? I don’t they’ve even done anything about that yet…

Where along Carson St? I'm having a hard time picturing it.

close, but no. They filmed at the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Mill in Monessen, PA

Seconded, the bridge to the waterfront flies directly above the GAP but it's not actually feasible* to get there with a bike from Sq Hill

*Edit: feasible in this context means comfortable and safe, not just technically possible

I just glanced over my shoulder at it out the window and got angry

I need maps!

West Carson probably??

Sorry east Carson. Across the river from Hazelwood … Hays Woods.

Browns hill road is the absolute worst. Needs to be rethought with a bike connection

> acquisition of the Carrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge over the Mon

Does this mean someone else owns the bridge?

The optimist in me loves this and it just shows you how much good you can do with a relatively small amount of money.

The cynic in me imagines that, considering what these areas had on them once upon a time, it could very well take much, MUCH more money to rehabilitate the soil (think minor SuperFund site), and this is the cheaper option- not to mention the PR benefits.

The bald eagles nest there.

Even Butler Street above 57th is rough to ride on, and there it’s plenty wide enough to have bike lanes. I wish we’d at least connect 57th to the Zoo where there are lanes leading to highland park.

Hays Woods? Not so much a river trail. It’s mostly hills, upland forest, but it will make for a great city park when it’s improved with lots of hiking and biking trails. Pretty large, unbuilt area given its location in a major city.

Well, but can't you get to waterfront from the bridge? You can access the GAP from the Waterfront Mall. Not sure what I'm missing.

And Ohio River Boulevard. I can actually hear a train on it right now through my window? Why can't I take a train to the city? Or ride my bike along a path next to the train tracks?

Sir this is a bike path

Also improves the parking situation! My bike didn't take up an on-street (or garage) space downtown, leaving more available parking for those in cars.

The bridge itself has a small path to walk on but not a very high wall over the river making it feel unsafe on a bike. The path is also not particularly wide, especially compared to the car lanes. At the end of the bridge you can get down to the waterfront area but you still need to cross quite a few blocks of parking lots and roads before actually getting to the GAP.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just very uncomfortable to do on a bike. In general, people will get to places in ways that are comfortable and feel safe to them, and the current layout of the bridge does not really encourage doing that without a car. If we want to be serious about getting people to go places without cars, it needs to be comfortable and easy to do so for more people

Agreed. I went running on it and it felt even narrow as a runner. Also there was a lot of broken glass when I went which was not fun.

The bridge was built by US Steel and was never publicly owned before now. I’d assume the county bought it from US Steel or whoever they sold it to when they closed the Homestead mill.

My mom told us stories of taking the train from Rochester in Beaver County down into Pittsburgh, when she was a child. IIRC it was like 5 cents a ticket (1940-50’s).

there are plans to build a similar park along the riverfront in Sharpsburg and Etna and then connect the allegheny trail up to Aspinwall. I'm not sure if they would take it all the way to the Oakmont bridge but that would be awesome.

It's a great idea but not a new one, there are rails to trails all over pa!

Cool! Thanks for the info!

Thanks. I use the GAP from Southside frequently, but not from Waterfront. That sounds really sucky.

Yeah, I knew that ... my property actually backs up to one, lol ... I was just sayin'!

Yeah having went from Oakmont to the Strip via the ARB I was terrified the entire time. I had to ask my dad to come get me and the bike in his truck and drive me back because I didn't want to ride back on the ARB.

I'm glad to see the investments in dedicated trails as riding on roads is always a terrible experience because most drivers are assholes and feel the need to pass you no matter what.

Case in point, I have three e-bikes one of which is a recumbent trike that I use to go get groceries, this trike is massively kitted out, 1,500 watt front hub, 1000 watt mid drive and two 1,500 watt rear hubs. Have to have 4, 52v, battery packs to run them all at once and a custom controller to sync the motors to a single controller so that I only need a single throttle and peddle assist system.

I normally only run with two battery packs for the mid and front as all 4 packs take up most of my rear cargo basket but sometimes I'll run all 4 for the sheer power of it. Last week I took the trike over the Hulton Bridge and down Freeport Rd to Aspinwall. Normally I ride in the lane that is closed due to rock slides but it's starting to get harder to ride on that side since it's closed to traffic and there are some minor slides on it in parts.

I decided to ride on the actual road as I had all four packs and was going 50mph from the bridge to Powers Run Rd, even with a trike that kind of speed has a massive pucker factor but that still was not good enough for the cars. Now that section of the road has a 55mph speed limit so ok I could see drivers still wanting to pass but past Powers Run road when you start getting into Blawnox the speed limit drops to 40mph so I dropped my speed to 44mph and guess what? The drivers still felt the absolute need to pass me even though I was going over the posted speed limit which was insanely annoying because Freeport is narrow in Blawnox so these cars were passing me with inches in between us.

Living in Oakmont I only have two choices to head towards town, go over the Hulton and down Freeport or do a suicide run down Allegheny River Blvd. I would love to see them convert the rail line that runs through Oakmont and Verona down to the Brilliant Branch Bridge into a trail or just toss a trail next to the existing rail.

Edit:. Just to be clear all the power in my Trike isn't to be an ass and go faster than allowed it's there to help me haul a bunch of groceries up the giant hills leading to my house. The trike is already really heavy and with it loaded with groceries it gets to be too much for me to climb steep hills without a lot of power. I can't stand and pump to increase power so I need the hubs. I'm trying to reduce my impact on the environment so I try to use the trike to get stuff as much as I can.

The road on the north side of the river from the Hulton Bridge to Blawnox is wide enough (though without any protective barriers) for cyclists to share the way. But then you have to transition to Freeport Rd and everything falls apart. There is potential - Papercraft Ave to Chapel Harbor Drive to ... somehow behind the Water Treatment Plant to the Aspinwall River Trail. Then all the way downtown or catch the new bridge path across the river and up Washington Blvd to Negley Run. Someday it would be cool if the bus way would share a protected lane with the bikes. #dreaming

I just posted on this thread that I do sometimes use Freeport but it's also got it's issues.

Most of the time now we will toss the bikes into my wife's Honda Odyssey and then park it at the Washington Blvd Bike Track and then go up Negley and into town. Not ideal as we are taking up a parking space others could use and it requires the use of a car.

Lol, they said clean rivers.

Holy moly. Got driven home from a party last weekend and a biker was riding down ARB at 4 AM. I could not believe it and feared for that person's life. I don't think they had lights on the bike or anything.

Dude literally had a death wish.

It’s in the area of the eagles nest but quite a large area.

And trains. Rail service to the city.

It's a PennDOT road after 62nd, so much harder to improve

And? Kennywood is an amusement park. Happens everywhere

There used to be commuter traffic on those tracks. There were stations all along the river, there's a street in Avalon that runs right to the tracks.

PennDOT's infrastructure plan is basically to kill as many cyclists and pedestrians as possible

A bike lane from 57th to Fleming Bridge would at least be something. Does it being PennDot mean the state would have to approve/pay for it I guess?

Yea and PennDOT in general seems much less interested in these projects than the city