Bike czar visits to talk sustainability

Aside from the mayor and city council president, the City of Pittsburgh also has a czar. … Aside from the mayor and city council president, the City of Pittsburgh also has a czar. Stephen Patchan’s formal title is the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator for the City of Pittsburgh’s City Planning Department, but he’s better known as the ‘bike czar.’ Patchan came to campus on Friday to discuss the issues that cyclists face during a special campus sustainability meeting. Those at the meeting said the largest demographic within the cycling community are people in their 20s to mid-30s, a good portion of whom are students. Patchan is working with Bike-Pittsburgh to get the word out to current and potential cyclists about improvements and initiatives within the city to aid cyclists with commutes and bike safety. Since he took office in August, Patchan worked to get some of the city’s existing bike lanes repainted. He is also working on an incentive proposal for business Downtown, which will encourage the area to become cycling-friendly by offering employees things like secure parking for bikes and showers in the work place. ‘ Many people at the meeting raised concerns that there aren’t enough bike routes within the city. This is one of Patchan’s biggest concerns and undertakings. ‘I’d like to see all the parks connected ‘hellip; more bicycles on the street and less conflict between cyclists and motorists. Additional bike lanes would be a part of that, too,’ said Patchan. One of the ideas brought to the table was to have more bike racks and cages to safely park bikes Downtown. Patchan described a cage system tht would be free to riders who applied to get a card for access. Upon swiping the card, individuals who held a card could have access to secure their bikes safely. This system will help authorities to cut down on bicycle theft, as they will know who had access to the cage because the card swipe registers the swiper’s information in a log every time he uses it. Another idea that Patchan is currently working on is combining local authority resources to keep track of stolen and found bikes. Currently the city, the surrounding communities and local universities have their own tracking and lost-and-found systems. Patchan wants to combine the information and efforts of these different departments to help cyclists report lost bikes and find them more efficiently then reporting and checking each different department. Finally, Patchan announced that he is currently working with a local television station, which he is not yet at liberty to name, on a series of public relations projects. The project is meant to inform citizens about cycling in Pittsburgh, why they should start cycling and what the rules of the road are for cyclists and motorists alike when it comes to responding to bikes on the road. This series of informative segments will run from April through August 2009. For more information on cycling your way through the city, go to www.bike-pgh.org, where you will find information about the cycling rules of the road and information about the improvements and projects of the bike czar.