Ghost Bike: "Not Just to Mourn, But to Demand Change"

9.12.2015 11m

On a cool and drizzly-rainy morning we had a Ghost Bike ride for Arthur Bell. It was wonderful that so any folks came out, often from a distance, to commemorate the death on State Bike Route A.



The Hopewell Township (Beaver County) police department was wonderful. They added a completely different level of safety on a reduced-visibility morning and this road is marginal in ideal conditions.

Cyclists used ribbons (some bearing wishes) as armbands during the ride, and carried them to the Ghost Bike Dedication. In the photo below, siblings of the deceased tied their ribbons to the ghost bike.


After the dedication, the cyclists departed using an alternate route from Route51, which the Ohio River Trail is trying to get designated as Bike Route A. The first mile was bumpy, but it was a much safer and more relaxed ride. I think a few of the riders were surprised that you can get through that way.





After the ride the Ghost Bike was placed at the accident scene. I took the chance to go through the messages that I could read (some of the ribbons were tightly rolled and the message wasn't visible). They were clever and poignant. The one that rang my bell was, "Not Just to Mourn but to Demand Change.

Coffee Insufficiency & Coveting

9.09.2015 0m

I am not a coffee snob. I drank Navy and FAA coffee from jug-size percolators for a long time and was glad to have it.


But I do appreciate great coffee and I will spend time and effort to have it. This is how I make coffee when I'm bike camping:

It works well. The Starbucks Via is several degrees better than generic instant coffee.

Recently I saw that NoahP and SarahP were using this rig at Dravos Cemetery:

and I felt a mix of gear-insufficiency and coveting. I'm pretty sure their morning coffee experience is better than mine.

This week I saw that @Chrisamaphone was using this outfit:


and I am feeling completely under-equipped. I want to raise the level of my camp coffee game, after I work through the stash of Via's I've accumulated.

Viewshed Gentrification: Homeless Displacement

Tues 9.08 21m

Yesterday I wrote a post that mentioned my appreciation that Pittsburgh (city, county) doesn't roust homeless people. Today I saw that the Second Ave homeless camp is wiped clean, no trace; it's as if it never existed.

Turns out there is a cycle of complaints and evictions; when the City gets sufficient complaints, the police force the people off the site. That explains the recent appearance of tents under the 31st Street Bridge, and the outside sleeper by the Casino.

I don't know what the answer is to this. I don't like forced displacement and suppression because people don't like to see the homeless, to be reminded of their existence. I think they have a struggle to survive that's driven by a lot of different factors, and I don't know that society should be displacing them because of awkward optics. Call it "viewshed gentrification"; forced displacement with nobody moving in behind them, in an attempt to maintain pleasing visual sightlines.

I don't think there's any easy solution, although Utah has done some interesting stuff. But in the spirit of "first, do no harm" we could certainly not make things harder for these people in the interest of appearances.

Argghhhhh.

Rode from the Northside to Oakland. Crossed the tracks to see the lake in Panther Hollow for the first time. Descended and stopped at REI for socks, which somehow cost $20/pair. Stuffed them in my panniers, still reminding me of the tiny objective differences between myself and the homeless guys.

Rolled over to OTB Southside and met two cyclists pushing off for DC, planning a nine day trip. One was riding a CoMotion step-through I've been seeing at Golden Triangle, a very sweet bike. Back to the Bastille and feeling the heat.

Essential Pittsburgh

9.6.2015 Sunday 21m

This was an "essential Pittsburgh" kind of day. I started riding just after sunrise at the Bastille, going south toward the Casino.

On a bench along the Casino trail, a homeless man was sleeping wrapped in a blanket. His bicycle was leaning against the railing, and his possession were in two bags leaning against the bike.

This brings me again to my ongoing internal dialogue about Homeless Folks and Touring Cyclists and class distinctions. I am glad that Pittsburgh doesn't roust the people sleeping outside. I've seen a new homeless mini-camp under the 31st Street Bridge and I am glad the City allows these folks to be.

I got to my workplace for the day a bit early, and sitting on a public bench nearby my mind turned to napping, which is where it often goes when I have a spare +15 minutes. If I had laid down on the bench, with my bike and single pannier, I would have been doing exactly what that other man was doing, but society would view it so very differently. I know that's wrong. I can't articulate society's underlying reasons without perceiving class and privilege.

Anyway. Met a cyclist and exchanged a few pleasant words. Later I was told he's a local entertainer who has made some unwelcome comments about cyclists in his act. I'm glad he's on a bike, but I'm sorry he resorts to that shtick.

I met two cyclists rolling on Pedego e-bikes, really sweet bikes. Talked to them about where they were going, they were trying to figure out a commuting route from Squill to Allegheny General. JoanneP was riding by and joined us, and told them: follow me, I'll show you the way which is an Essential Pittsburgh response. Traditionally it involves cars, but now it involves bikes. (related: RenoRambler on ebikes)


I took a photo of a mother and her daughter starting out on a ride to the Point. The kid was awesome, she was a person of few words but so excited to go ride.


Took a group of newly-arriving CMU grad students out for a tour. Mentioned the lunar lander mockup that was on the Alomono site, working on the Space-X project. We took them up Panther Hollow which was a bit steep for some of them, and took the lane on Second Avenue which was an adventure for some. It was a good group and they were amazed at how many neighborhoods were accessible on a bike.



The rivers were packed crowded, the LST is still on display, and the Northside was as crowded as I've ever seen it (there was some kind of a RibFest going on). A tremendous, vibrant exciting day in Pittsburgh.

Fratboi Follies

Sat 9.5.2015 24m

Driving into Pittsburgh and then bicycling around is a regular activity of mine. Today I started at the Bastille along with my wife Karen and her friend Marion.

We rode from the Bastille to Millvale and stopped at Pamela's for pancakes. Then I departed to ride downtown. I picked up a tour group at 10am and we rode Hot Metal Bridge, Ft. Pitt Bridge, under the convention center (and the waterfalls and lighting were operating, ++). Then we took the Penn Ave bike lanes, Sixth, Market Square, PPG Plaza, and Blvd of the Allies back to the Jail Trail. Great ride.

There were throngs crossing the Ft. Duquesne bridge heading to the Pitt game at the football stadium. In general, everybody cooperated and it was pleasant. One young fratboi walking in front of me in the far-left of the walkway decided to stop moving, bend over, and adjust his footwear as I was coming up behind him. #DiscTrucker #Kids.

Timing was fortuitious, and I shoved off from the tour just as K & M were returning to the Bastille. We arrived at about the same time and drove back to the Great Northwest of Beaver County.

The Future Showed Up

Friday 9.04 23m

Friday. Rode from the Bastille to Millvale and Pamela's Pancakes, then to Hot Metal Bridge and Big Dog Coffee, then back to the Bastille.

So much good infra stuff is happening in Pittsburgh cycling.

• Completely unannounced, the Rankin Bridge got bike lanes. They don't connect to any infra on either side, but it's a footprint.
• The Penn Ave bike lanes will be extended from 6th to Stanwix in the next month
• There's going to be a new bike lane on 40th from Butler to Penn; bike lane on the climbing side, sharrows descending

In addition, as previously noted:

• Route 50 bridge on Montour Trail to open this month
• Valleybrook Road bridge on the Montour Trail to open this month
• Pinkerton Tunnel to open this month
• Amtrak roll-on, roll-off bike service may rollout this month.

Not to mention recent deliveries:

• Bikeshare (Pittsburgh HealthyBike) in May
• initial protected bike lanes rolled out in Oct.2014 at the RideWalk Conference

These are all the sorts of things that were always over-the-horizon, always like eight years away, and now they're all happening. It's like the future finally showed up, all at once. In some ways it's better than jetpacks.

Haze Grey and Underway; Caffeine at Caffe D'Amore

Wed 9/2 21m

Started riding with Rusty at 0800 at the Bastille in an attempt to beat the heat. (We should have started earlier for that).

Rounding the bend at the Science Center we saw LST-325, a Navy landing ship from WW2 (which put 20 Sherman tanks ashore at D-Day).

I lived on a Navy ship for two years and the sight of a "haze grey and underway" hull pulled at some strings. Mostly, it pulled at the string that reminds me of the smell of a warship - a mix of heavy oil smell, welded hot-metal smell, and the smell of sweat - and I didn't feel any need to go onboard and have the visceral olfactory nostalgia. The only place on a ship I like the smell of is the lazzarette, the rope locker, with its smells of wet rope and tar and something more organic than metal.



With a great desire for caffeine we rode out to Lawrenceville and the soft-opening of Caffe D'Amore at 5400 Butler Street. I had attended a coffee briefing from owner Sareh last year during Pittsburgh Coffee Week and I thought her shop would hit the target and it is spot on. (new website: CaffeDAmorePgh.com/.



I had a iced coffee and it was tremendous. I had a major caffeine buzz going for a while. We got into a discussion about coffee processes and soon Sareh was talking about Total Dissolved Solids Ratios and I was way out of my league pretty quickly.



We rode uphill through the Allegheny Cemetery, rode Liberty, Aiken, and Ellsworth to Oakland, then the Junction Hollow Trail down to the Hot Metal Bridge. Stopped at REI. Continued north-west on the SouthSide Trail, took the Smithfield Street Bridge, Blvd of the Allies, and the Ft. Duquesne bridge back to the southside.

Pleasantly surprised to encounter G. riding opposite direction on the trail. He had errands to run downtown so he parked at the perimeter and biked in; I think we're going to see a lot more of that in Pittsburgh in the next few years.