Invasion Fleet, Terra Cotta Yinzers, PARKing Day, MC Escher in Greenfield

09/21/12 33# 231m

Started at sunrise at the Bastille, and as we rounded the corner after the Science center we encountered the well-known sterncastles of the Nina and Pinta moored on Pittsburgh's NorthSide:


Crossed to downtown, rode along First Avenue and found another Shepard Fairey mural:


And across the street we found what we were looking for, a courtyard sculpture garden of Terra Cotta Yinzers:


Jail Trail, Junction Hollow Trail, on Joncaire Street to see the Iron City Bikes mural, by L. Stock and T. Adoki, at S.Boquet and Joncaire in Oakland:


This is a commercial mural, but I'm including it BVOCD (by virtue of curator's discretion); located on Oakland Ave. and Forbes in Oakland.



Oakland mural, Sennot and Atwood Streets in Oakland, an MLK Mural by Kyle Holbrook and others


"Interpretations of Oakland", 3609 Forbes, a tribute to Mr. Rogers by John Laidacker:
Personally, I found the dissolution into red spheres a bit disconcerting and pseudo-sanguinary, and I wonder if the red/white flow isn'ta flirtation with the vision of Faustina Kowalska.


Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson in a Starbucks doorway on Atwood and Forbes



PARKing Day, FLOCK of CYCLES, Forbes Avenue. Mini-gold and sugar cookies. Got to see Marko, and meet Mr. Marvelous.




"All In A Day", 2345 Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill, by Leslie Ansley and Monique Luck:


We continued south on Murray and rode over the top of the Squirrel Hill bridge, I've never been south of Forward on Murray. Saw the Good Grief! Center which seems like a very cool thing which I'd never heard of.


"Connected" by Will Schlough, 4301 Murray in Greenfield, in a manner reminiscent of MC Escher:



Lunchboxes, mural at Hough's, 563 Greenfield:



Community Drug Mural, Greenfield Ave and Coleman St, Greenfield:


Greenfield - Hazelwood Boundary Mural, Greenfield Ave and Second Ave.


We joined the Jail Trail at Swinburne and saw volunteers working on the undergrowth along the trail. Continued north and encountered an ongoing hostage situation at Gateway Center, which was later resolved without injury.

We detoured due to the closed roads around the hostage scene, and tok the Convention Center Trail along the Allegheny. The Strip District was a bit over-crazy with Wholey's 100th Anniversay, so we avoided the main streets and worked our way past the 40th Street Bridge.


BikePGH's PARKing spot included bike registration, Bike-Toc-Toe, and some friendly bike advocacy chat.



This is the Allegheny Riverfront Greenway project's PARKing spot:


"Yarn Over Society", a group of militant Yarn Bombers, had a knitting park:

Open Season and A Tale of Two Cities: Bike-Haves and Bike-Have-Nots

Last Wednesday July 25, at 0530 a driver hit a bicyclist on the 7500 block of Penn Avenue and then fled the scene, leaving James Price to die alone on the curb. Monday afternoon 7/30 BikePgh led a memorial ride and placed a ghost bike along with Mr. Price's family.

Saturday 7/28 a successful Pittsburgh real estate developer and bicycle advocate was killed in a charity bike ride near Frederick MD. There were no cars or other bikes involved in the incident. Because he was highly regarded, a true friend of Pittsburgh bicycling and a money guy, influential people have made a big thing of this.

Tuesday night 7/31 at 1030pm the driver of an SUV ran over Anthony Green, a 47-year-old bicyclist from Wilkinsburg on the 7700 block of Penn Avenue, and then drove into a phone pole and came to a stop. Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Green died of his injuries from the second Penn collision.

Wednesday morning, 8/01 the mayor's office put out a communique urging people to be careful and saying that an alternate bike route would be developed to get bikes off Penn Avenue.

Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. at the intersection of Church Street and South Braddock Avenue in Swissvale, the driver of a truck hit a bicyclist and drove away from the scene.

Thursday at 6:30 pm, a police officer on a motor cycle was patrolling in the area in response to the accidents. He was hit by the driver of an SUV. Uniformed policemen, official vehicle, blinking lights; yes, he was wearing a helmet.

Friday 8/03 at 2:15 pm, Driver flees scene after striking 6-year-old child on a bicycle in the 200 block of Alter Street, East Carnegie.

Saturday 8/04 at 7pm, another cyclist hit by a driver in a hit-and-run, in the 2200 block of Perrysville Avenue in Perry North.

For those keeping score: Five drivers-hit-bicycles, one driver-hits-cop, two deaths, four hit-and-runs: No charges filed.

My first conclusion for your consideration is: It's open season on cyclists. There are no repercussions for a driver who hits a bicyclist with their car in Pittsburgh.

My second conclusion is that when it comes to bike safety, we've got two Pittsburghs: the Bike-Haves and the Bike-Have-Nots. One is Most Liveable and Bike Friendly-Bronze, and the other one is Most Likely to be Tragic. There is truly some wonderful bicycle stuff happening in Pittsburgh - but it's not in any way evenly distributed. (to paraphrase William Gibson).

As often happens, progress and benefits are distributed along existing lines of political, class, and economic structure, and so our bike infrastructure and our bike friendliness tend to mirror (through the invisible hand) the existing power structure.

First look at where the bike trails and bike lanes and sharrows are - and frankly, that's where I ride. I'm a bike-safety-Have.

Then look at where the Pittsburgh bike deaths are, look at who's dying, and look at the actual activity in response to it. (telling the bikes to move away from the speeding cars).

Memorial Ride

07/30/12 238# 32m

A very different sort of ride today, a memorial ride for James Price, a Pittsburgh bicyclist run over by a driver who killed Mr. Price and fled the scene.

Started riding in Millvale at midday, rode around to the stadia, Ft. Duquesne and Ft. Pitt bridges, South Side, Keystone Metals, Hot Metal Bridge, and Junction Hollow up to CMU and Fifth Avenue.

From there it was bike-map and GPS time to navigate out to Wilkinsburg and Point Breeze and Tioga Street, where Mr. Price's mother lives - tragically, the same block where Jordan Miles was beaten by Pittsburgh police. The plan called for a 3.30 muster for a memorial ride.

At 3.15 there were only two bicyclists there and I began to fear a poor turnout, but by 3.30 we had quite an array of bicyclists - relatives and friends from the neighborhood, and cyclists from all around the city and surrounding areas. It was quite a sight.

The ride was both somber and fun, with a motorcycle escort leading the way. The ride followed the route of James' ride until the point of the accident, at which the group stopped at a temporary memorial and some relatives and friends said a few words.



Back on the bike and over to the Church where the viewing was being held. The family was very gracious and positive and went out of their way to make all the outsiders on bicycles feel welcome.

YC told me that Mr. Price's Aunt said, "I understand that accidents happen and people get hurt and get killed on roads. What I don't understand is that they left him to die alone on the side of the road, like he was road kill".

Departed and tried to pick a route through to the 40th Street Bridge. Descended through Allegheny Cemetery and was surprised to find quite a few deer, who did not seem to mind it at all.


At sunset Bike-Pgh also put out a ghost bike near the scene of the crime.

Cleveland Wants What Pittsburgh Has (Bike-wise)

3/19/11
229#

From that city to the northwest: What Pittsburgh Has That Cleveland Wants.

As the Post-Gazette recognized all those years ago, the most livable cities -- the ones that populate the League of American Cyclist's honor roll -- are the very same ones that are attracting the much-coveted young entrepreneurs. Cities like Denver, Portland, Seattle, Columbus, and as much we may hate to admit it, Pittsburgh.

It's a great article about Pittsburgh bicycling, it catches the sense of what's happened in Pittsburgh bicycling over the last ten years. The article correctly credits two main players for the bike renaissance:

• Bike Pgh
• Mayor Tom Murphy

I really think we should rename the Hot Metal Bike Bridge as The Tom Murphy Bike Bridge.

Week 11 // Miles this week: 27 Miles this quarter: 201 // miles this year: 201