Bike Pittsburgh is dedicated to making the city safer, more accessible and friendlier to bicycle transportation.

And when that happens, in increments large or small, Bike Pittsburgh acknowledges it. It wants its membership to do the same.

That's why Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, City Councilmen Ricky Burgess, Patrick Dowd and Bill Peduto and state Rep. Joseph Preston Jr. will be getting more mail than usual. And the letters and cards will contain more compliments than complaints.

Bike Pittsburgh is asking its membership and the city's cycling community to thank the mayor, the councilmen and the legislator for their help in putting East Liberty Boulevard, a wide, high-speed road, on a "much-needed road diet."

It praised the public officials for their help in slimming down the busy East Liberty thoroughfare between Negley and Frankstown avenues -- a 1 1/2-mile stretch that goes by Peabody High School, the Vintage Senior Center, the Kingsley Center, several churches and homes.

A traffic engineering study showed that the boulevard "was far too wide for the amount of motorized traffic that it carried, so [motorists] treated it like a freeway and traveled at unsafe speeds."

The road has been re-engineered to "calm traffic" and provide safer access for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

The most visible sign of that are the white lanes and "sharrows" -- an arrow-like design painted on a roadway to mark a bicycling route and to promote sharing the road.

Although bicyclists still have to be vigilant while using it, East Liberty Boulevard is considered to be a safer alternative to Penn Avenue when traveling to the nearby neighborhoods of Garfield, Larimer and Shadyside.

In its monthly electronic newsletter, the eMessenger, Bike Pittsburgh included a sample letter its members could use to thank officials for the new bike lanes.

But it encouraged them to personalize their letters to explain why bike improvements are meaningful for them "and for the future of the city."

If you agree, and why wouldn't you, send a thank-you card, note or letter to the mayor and councilmen at their respective offices in the City-County Building, 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15219.

Preston's address is 208 Highland Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15206.

About that detour

Several bicyclists have e-mailed me in recent weeks about the section of the Great Allegheny Passage on the South Side that requires a short detour on hard gravel, rough stone and potholes from 4th Street to McKean Street to 2nd Street as you ride toward Station Square.

"The main defect is behind the [Allegheny County] maintenance garage," said Art Fleming.

"The word is that the county will move its vehicles [into and beside the garage] and onto the lot behind the old distillery on 2nd Street and then pave behind the garage. But they never do it. Can you shed some publicity on this failure to complete this small but central trail segment?"

Yes.

The county did plan to pave the path behind the garage but discovered that CSX owns it. Kevin Evanto, spokesman for county Executive Dan Onorato, relayed that information yesterday.

If and until that's resolved, the detour will remain.

What to call it

In a column last month about a ride I took along the Great Allegheny Passage from Mc-Keesport to Dawson, I referred to that segment as the Youghiogheny River Trail.

That segment is known as the Youghiogheny River section of the passage, said Linda McKenna Boxx, the president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, which is overseeing the construction and maintenance of the passage.

"How to differentiate the various sections is still a challenge for all of us," Boxx said.

Amen.