Biking booms in ‘Burgh

With rough roads and hilly terrain, Pittsburgh is not the most likely city to be… With rough roads and hilly terrain, Pittsburgh is not the most likely city to be bike-friendly.

In fact, in 1990, Bicycle Magazine placed Pittsburgh among the 10 worst biking cities in the country. But despite challenges, in recent years local organizations like Bike Pittsburgh and Friends of the Riverfront have banded together and made this steel town a more accessible city for cyclists.

According to Bike Pittsburgh’s executive director Scott Bricker, ‘Biking in Pittsburgh has come a long way since the ’90s.’

With the construction of trails, promotion of bike advocacy and a growing biking community, Pittsburgh has taken major steps to becoming a cycling city.

‘Bike Pittsburgh has doubled in membership since last year and added about 1000 new people to our e-mailing list,’ said Bricker.

With such growing popularity, giving cyclists places to ride has been a primary objective of Friends of the Riverfront over the past decade of their existence.

Friends of the Riverfront executive director Thomas Baxter explained, ‘Friends of the Riverfront was created as a way of deciding what to do with Pittsburgh’s riverfronts after the steel mills closed.’

Ten years later, the group has transformed Pittsburgh’s riverfronts, which were previously the site of the polluting Pittsburgh steel industry, into more than 20 miles of riverfront trails that have been opened for environmentally friendly gasoline-free transportation and recreation.

They’ve worked hard to open the Three Rivers Heritage Trail that encompasses all of the bike trails within city.

The Three Rivers Heritage Trail brings together neighborhoods around the city with beautiful pathways for environmentally aware and economically concerned commuters on bicycles as well as city residents looking for free and healthy recreation on the weekends.

Trail construction began 12 years ago with the South Side Trail, which runs along the river and ends in Baldwin. But according to Baxter, the South Side Trail will soon be expanded to reach far beyond the Pittsburgh area.

‘We’ve got about three more miles of trail to build to connect the trail to Wexford, which will complete the Great Allegheny Trail, which will run from Pittsburgh to D.C.,’ said Baxter.

The Eliza Furnace Trail, more widely known as the ‘Jail Trail’ because it runs past the Allegheny County Jail, connects Downtown Pittsburgh to the east end of the city. The North Shore Trail stretches along the North Shore, passes by the Carnegie Science Center and Heinz Field and connects the North Side of Pittsburgh to Millvale.

With connected neighborhoods and high gas prices, many commuters have turned to using the bike trails rather than cars when the weather permits.’Pittsburgh has seen a marked increase in commuters using the riverfront trails. It makes sense. It’s healthier and cheaper mode of transportation — plus it’s good exercise,’ said Baxter.

But commuters and city cyclists need to use more than just trails to get to their desired destinations. The major objective of Bike Pittsburgh has been to promote bike advocacy and the addition of bike amenities to the city.

Throughout the year, Bike Pittsburgh hosts events such as Bikefest to bring the cycling community together, Bricker said.

And this community includes Pitt students, too, like student and bike commuter Mike Freedman.

‘I love biking because it’s completely at my own schedule and convenience at all times,’ Freedman said. ‘I can lock [my bike] to anything.

‘Often times biking is much quicker than a bus. You don’t have to wait through all the stops, and you can always take the trails to bypass traffic.’

Zach Morris, another Pitt biker, said, ‘Pittsburgh is a bike-able city. People don’t really realize it, but it is. The trails are easy and accessible. And it’s a beautiful city especially in the summer.’

But outside of promoting events and trails, bike organizations are pushing for the addition of biking amenities to Downtown and for bike safety.

Bike Pittsburgh was granted $9,000 by the Sprout Fund to design and manufacture unique and artistic bike racks throughout Pittsburgh. The two organizations worked together to make and place more than 100 of these original bike racks throughout the city.

Another major step forward for the Pittsburgh biking community was made by Sustainable Pittsburgh in 2001 with a program called Rack ‘n’ Roll, where the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission provided $290,150 to place 75 bike racks on the fronts of Pittsburgh Port Authority buses.

The buses with racks run on eight different routes and make getting around the city much easier for bikers who also uses buses.

A side project of Bike Pittsburgh called Free Ride has also brought the biking community together in a unique way. Free Ride is a nonprofit bike repair shop where volunteers teach and help people repair their own bikes at no charge as well as providing free recycled bike parts when they’re needed. Customers are expected to give back to Free Ride by making donations or putting in volunteer hours themselves. Free Ride also offers bike mechanic classes where students can learn more about bicycle repair.

One of the most important things that Bike Pittsburgh focuses on is bike safety.

According to Bricker, his organization is working to make Pittsburgh more accessible and safe.

‘We advocate for the enhancement and maintenance of trails but we’re also very focused on adding more on road bike lanes,’ he said. ‘We’ve worked to get a grant to hire a traffic engineer to recommend on road bike routes throughout the city.’

Pittsburgh drivers have become more conscious and considerate of bikers on the roads, Bricker believes.

‘It was pretty bad biking on the road six or seven years ago. Bikers were always getting honked at. But it’s much better now. Months go by without accidents occurring. Drivers are more accepting of cyclists riding on the road, because that’s where they belong.’

Throughout the past 15 years, Pittsburgh has transformed itself to a more bike-friendly city, and the organizations responsible for it show no signs of slowing down their efforts.

‘I’d love to see the routing system improve, see more business people biking to work and bike racks everywhere,’ said Bricker.

Nick Ceraso, program assistant and public relations executive at Friends of the Riverfront said, ‘I’d definitely say the city has really become much more bike-friendly. Organizations and people working towards making Pittsburgh bike-accessible have hopefully really changed the outlook of the city.’