Lake Fong, Post-Gazette The city is planning to install signs, adjust traffic patterns, and paint bike lanes on Liberty Avenue in the heart of Bloomfield on part of a bicycle route between Herron Avenue and Baum Boulevard.

By Diana Nelson Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The city is planning a bicycle-friendly passage through the heart of Bloomfield, with lane striping, new signs and tweaked traffic patterns on Liberty Avenue.

The pilot project awaits federal approval for signs and likely will be completed next year.

The city Planning Department, which consulted with Bike Pittsburgh for a year, presented its design strategy Aug. 19 to a packed house at West Penn Hospital's Wintergarden Auditorium.

It is aimed at giving bicycle commuters a better network for safe travel and making drivers more heedful. A similar strategy has been established in Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., Chicago and San Francisco.

Scott Bricker, president of Bike Pittsburgh, said his group began measuring wide streets throughout the city last fall, using city planning's specifications on width and traffic use.

"Liberty Avenue fit all the criteria we needed," he said.

The design comes in two segments: striped bike lanes starting at Herron Avenue, uphill to and downhill from the Bloomfield Bridge; and a "share the road" plan for the flat, more congested business district from the bridge to Baum Boulevard.

Richard Meritzer, coordinator of bicycle route planning, said road-paint symbols and upright signs will line the entire corridor. It will cost the city less than $5,000 and be done by the Department of Public Works, said Planning Director Patrick Ford.

The only "serious" bike lane now is on Beechwood Boulevard in Squirrel Hill, said Dan Sullivan, a cyclist from Oakland. It snakes along the right lane and leaves room for cars to park.

One of cycling's greatest hazards is the sudden opening of a car door, what cyclists call "being doored."

The Beechwood lanes and those in the Liberty proposal are 12 feet wide. A 5-foot-wide car and its 4-foot-wide door leave the cyclist three feet if the car is parked as tightly in as possible. Less than three feet of space is too little for the cyclist to avoid swerving into traffic to avoid an open door.

Mr. Sullivan and other cyclists favor a second stripe, three feet in, in the bike lane going uphill from Herron Avenue to remind parkers to check for a bike before opening their doors.

Coming down from the bridge toward Herron is a different issue, he said, because of the speed a cyclist can muster against the right side of a car. Being doored is still an issue in stretches of the downslope, but because of the risk of a driver making a right turn with a cyclist in his blind spot, he said, "it would make more sense to post a 'share the road' sign."

Mr. Meritzer said an extra stripe will be considered, although parking on that slope is "low density" with little turnover, and that signs will be well posted on the downhill stretch.

Mr. Sullivan said Pittsburgh is coming late to planning for bike traffic "and we're grateful." Planners can study designs in other cities and avoid mistakes, he said.

"In many cities, the lanes are too narrow, sometimes right up against parked cars. When I lived in Philadelphia, I had to keep moving into traffic."

Ben Forman, owner of Joan's Hallmark store and vice president of the Bloomfield Business Association, said the initiative "is a great idea for the whole city. It will encourage young people, which is exactly what we need. And a lot more people are biking to work with fuel costs."

But the association is concerned about the safety of cyclists in the congested segment, with cars continually parking and pulling out, Mr. Forman said.

"We'd urge an alternative" to road sharing, he said.

Mr. Sullivan was less worried about the congested segment "because cars and bikes tie each other up equally through there." He favors share-the-road signs instead of lanes because cyclists are entitled to share the road, and drivers need reminding.

Many drivers remain disrespectful, even hostile to cyclists, tailgating, honking and cursing, he said.

"Cars are more aggressive when you get out of a bike lane, as if you have no right to leave your bike lane," he said. "But if you want to turn left, you have to."

Everyone needs a better education about sharing the road, he said, "because with the high price of gas, there's a big explosion in bicycle commuting."

The city is drafting proposals for foundation support to meet that explosion, said Mr. Meritzer.

The next three routes Bike Pittsburgh recommends are Dallas Avenue through Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze and Homewood; Greenfield Road along Schenley Park; and Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill from Wightman Street to Murray Avenue.

Federal approval is almost certain, said Mr. Meritzer.

"We just never asked," he said. "But the biking community is organized now, and it's an effective voice."