Alliance > Media center > People Powered Blog

Entries tagged: Bike Pittsburgh

After a mandate from members and a decade of dedicated work, Bike Pittsburgh celebrated last week as the local Port Authority announced 100 percent of buses now have bike racks.

The story starts way back in 2002, when BikePGH was just getting its feet wet as an upstart advocacy organization. Already, the Port Authority and City of Pittsburgh had received a $75,000 grant for “Ride, Rack and Roll,” an initiative intended to outfit 75 buses with bike racks. But, a year after the program was established, only eight routes had racks — and often, even on those lines, buses would arrive sans rack. So BikePGH got to work.

“[From 2003 to 2006] stakeholders represented by Sustainable Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning, the Port Authority and BikePGH met on and off to try to figure out the issues regarding the Rack ‘n Roll service,” Erok Boerer, BikePGH Advocacy Director, explained on the group’s blog last week. “It was clear the only answer was to get more racks into the entire system.”

In 2004, the program got an influx of money — $290,150 from the federal Transportation Enhancements program — to grow the program to 12 routes. But still, service was spotty and riders had little confidence that their bus would arrive with a rack. So it wasn’t surprising that BikePGH members considered the bus situation a major frustration. “At a BikePGH strategic planning session, members expressed that outfitting 100 percent of Port Authority buses with bike racks should be a high priority campaign that we should pursue,” Boerer explained.

So, in 2007, when the Port Authority announced it was buying new buses without racks the advocates pressed for a new policy that could solve the problem: No new buses should be purchased without a bike rack. The Port Authority agreed. By 2008, the landscape started to change as old buses were retired and, from the get-go, the new ones hit the streets with racks attached. To make sure the Port Authority had the cash to complete the task, BikePGH worked with local officials to get funding from another federal source — the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program — and from a private foundation. By the end of 2009, they had secured the dollars to outfit the remaining 190 buses and the city promised to get it done by the end of 2011.

Finally, on Friday, the Port Authority and BikePGH had reason to party: All the city buses are now equipped with bike racks.

“This momentous development didn’t happen overnight,” Boerer wrote before the event. “It took a decade, with many different folks working to better the program. When it all came down to it, though, it was all about advocacy and leadership that made it happen.”

Read more on the BikePGH blog.

In line with a goal to double federal funding for biking and walking, Advocacy Advance is awarding more than $100,000 in direct grants to four organizations.

Using the grants to tap into federal funding streams and build their political influence, recipients will work to triple bicycle mode share in Atlanta, Ga., dramatically improve infrastructure in Pittsburgh, Pa., empower Latino cyclists in Los Angeles, Calif., and create a new model to win state dollars in Delaware.

Since 2009, Advocacy Advance—a partnership of the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists—has awarded more than $500,000 in direct grants to 25 state and local advocacy organizations. This year, more than 60 applications with proposals totaling more than $1.3 million were received in the two grant categories: Model Grants and Capacity Building Grants.

Model Grants provide multi-year support for efforts that significantly increase federal investment for biking and walking. Capacity Building Grants catalyze the growth of advocacy organizations. Based on the organizations’ successful track records and innovative strategies, 2011 grants will be awarded to Bike Delaware, Bike Pittsburgh, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

“We are excited to support these grantees, as they help lead the way towards a more equitable and rational use of limited federal transportation funds, especially as the lessons we learn will be applicable to accessing state and local funds,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists.

“Receiving this Model Grant is a testament to the decade of work we’ve poured into building strong relationships with key city, county, regional, and state transportation officials - and winning the cultural battle that bikes belong in the transportation mix,” Scott Bricker, Executive Director of Bike Pittsburgh, said. “Now it’s time to identify and fund specific projects that will keep bike riders safer and result in more people bicycling.”

Advocacy Advance Grants are made possible thanks to generous funding from SRAM and Planet Bike.

2011 Model Grants

Bike Pittsburgh
Receiving the largest grant ever awarded through the Advocacy Advance program, Bike Pittsburgh will use $40,000 per year, for three years, to leverage partnerships, identify key bicycle and pedestrian projects and get them funded. Advocates will work closely with the City of Pittsburgh on MOVEPGH - Pittsburgh’s first comprehensive transportation plan - to ensure the plan includes recommendations for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects that are eligible for federal funding. Advocates will also work with county officials to get projects in surrounding municipalities in the queue for federal funding.

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (ABC) will receive $35,000 per year, for three years, to double federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian projects and programs in the Atlanta region, and triple the bicycle mode share from 1 to 3 percent. To meet these ambitious goals, ABC will hire additional staff and work with the local metropolitan planning organizations, and the Georgia Department of Transportation, to tap into two federal funding streams currently underutilized for bicycle and pedestrian projects - the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program and the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

2011 Capacity Building Grants

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) will receive a $15,000 matching grant to hire a dedicated bilingual education/outreach staff member to empower Spanish-speaking residents who lack access to bike safety and advocacy tools, and build political power for improved bicycling in L.A. by better including populations of color.

Bike Delaware
Bike Delaware advocates recently won $5 million in new dedicated funding for bicycling in Delaware in 2012 - more money than the state has ever allocated in the past. A $10,000 matching grant will help Bike Delaware create a national model to increase state bicycle and pedestrian funding by creating an action plan for state bicyclists, advocating legislation, monitoring and communicating with DelDOT, and tracking progress.

In addition, Advocacy Advance will grant $25,000 in Rapid Response Grants throughout the year to help state and local organizations take advantage of unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking.

Learn more about Advocacy Advance at AdvocacyAdvance.org.

It’s been a big week with Bike to Work events and news of legislative victories in a number of states, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busily uploading the latest research and exemplary materials from Alliance member organizations to the Resource Library. Here’s the latest…

• Transportation Alternatives in New York City put together a best practices guide for its innovative Play Streets initiative — which we wrote about on the People Powered Blog back in November.

• Lisa Quinn at Feet First got us psyched about her participation in our upcoming Mutual Aid Call on “Cultivating an Active, Involved Membership” by sharing these great videos about the group’s popular Walk and Talk events.

• We received in the mail (Hint: We love getting mail!) a sleek, eye-catching tip sheet from the East Bay Bicycle Coalition on “5 Easy Ways to Inspire your Employees to Bike To Work,” which the organization used in its mailing to potential business supporters and participants for its Bike to Work Day on May 12.

• Speaking of Bike to Work Day, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition created an artsy postcard promoting its CycleMAYnia events, with a listing of events and link to a one-stop website for all the festivities.

• And another tool for Bike to Work Day: The League of American Bicyclists debuted a quick, convenient online tool that provides bicycle commuting statistics by city, based on data from the 2009 American Community Survey.

• Bike Pittsburgh also launched a fun, new tool — unveiling its Car Free Calculator, which allows cyclists to enter their miles traveled and keep track of their calories burned, dollars saved and carbon dioxide reduced. (p.s. Brought to you, in part, by funding from the Advocacy Advance grant program!)

• Brighid O’Keane, our Advocacy Advance Program Manager, put together a helpful overview that covers funding sources for bike/ped organizations, including grants, government funding, grassroots fundraising, and other resources.

• A (relatively) new study out of Oregon dispels some myths about active transportation in the suburbs.

• And another report finds that traffic crashes are more strongly correlated to the built environment itself rather than random driver error.

To shine the spotlight on the progress and victories of the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy movement, the Alliance for Biking & Walking is pleased to announce its 2011 Advocacy Award winners. Since 2009, the Alliance has solicited public nominations and recognized the individuals, organizations and business leaders who are propelling our People Powered Movement. This year, we honor the following winners from across North America.

Advocacy Organization of the Year- Bike Pittsburgh

On its face, Pittsburgh is a tough place to ride a bicycle. The streets are steep and twisting, and the winters are long and brutal. But bicycle mode share is up and the Steel City is charged up with new enthusiasm for active transportation. Why? Bike Pittsburgh. The advocates at BikePGH have been working hand-in-hand with government officials to get new infrastructure on the ground, partnered with the local companies to get the business community on board and created innovative programs, like Car Free Fridays, that are getting more people on bicycles. But BikePGH excels at more than the nuts and bolts of basic organizing. The members of their small staff are the best kind of ambassadors for the movement: They’re friendly, energetic and welcoming. The work and attitude of BikePGH are making Pittsburgh a mighty appealing place to ride… despite the tough terrain.

Advocate of the Year: Jackie Douglas, LivableStreets (Boston)

This award goes to an individual who has shown tireless commitment to promoting bicycling and walking in his or her community and serves as a role model for other advocates across North America. In 2010, there was no advocate more tireless or worthy of modeling than Jackie Douglas from LivableStreets in Boston. Having risen from the ranks of intern, Douglas never rests as executive director, working to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians; increase membership for the organization, bring in grant funding for its programming and act as the face of LivableStreets at near-daily public meetings, volunteer gatherings and public speaking events. For Douglas, working overtime is the norm and that tireless dedication shows in the sophistication and success of LivableStreets campaigns, including a Better Bridges initiative that’s tackling the tough task of getting better provisions for bicyclists and pedestrians on the region’s river crossings. Despite her busy schedule, Douglas is generous with her time, frequently sharing her experiences and insights with other advocacy leaders in Advocacy Advance reports and Alliance Mutual Aid Calls.

Business Advocate of the Year: New Belgium Brewing Company

In 2010 alone, New Belgium Brewing Company raised more than $330,000 for bicycle advocacy organizations with a nationwide event that blew the minds of more than 70,000 residents in 13 different cities. The Tour de Fat festival is an ingenious way to celebrate and elevate bicycle culture - and give back to the bike-ped movement. In each Tour city, New Belgium selected area nonprofits to receive the proceeds from the beer sales, funneling thousands of critical dollars into local advocacy efforts to improve biking and walking. In addition to the Tour de Fat, New Belgium Brewing promotes biking to the brewery for employees and visitors; provides a free bike to each employee upon their first anniversary; provides funding to many bicycling-related non-profits through its Community Grants program and sponsors dozens of bicycling events around the country.

Winning Campaign of the Year: Michigan Complete Streets

At the start of 2010, Michigan had just one local complete streets ordinance. By the end of the year, there were more than 20 communities with complete streets policies and the Governor had signed a new statewide complete streets law. That incredible and rapid transformation was sparked and spurred by advocates from the League of Michigan Bicyclists, who helped to create a powerful Michigan Complete Streets Coalition with more than 100 diverse member organizations. That powerful, unified voice led to the passage of a statewide complete streets bill, the adoption of policies in a number of communities and a new priority within the state Department of Transportation to plan streets that safely accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. Thanks in large part to this Winning Campaign, the state that spent the last century focused on all things automotive is now leading the way in the Great Lakes region.

Best Practices Award: Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

The Best Practices Award goes to an organization that serves as a model for other bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations. In 2010, countless individuals and a number of advocacy organizations drew information and inspiration from the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. The LACBC’s City of Lights initiative elevated the conversation about “invisible cyclists” - men and women who ride bicycles but whose voices aren’t heard and needs aren’t acknowledged because of language or economic barriers. Through thoughtful outreach and, more importantly, true collaboration, the LACBC is changing the dialogue among city officials about urban planning, bringing new cyclists into the movement and, expanding the scope of the bike-ped movement to address critical issues of social and economic justice.

Susie Stephens Joyful Enthusiasm Award: Stephanie Routh, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition

The Susie Stephens Joyful Enthusiasm Award commemorates Alliance co-founder, Susie Stephens, commemorating her passion for biking and walking as fun and economical means of transportation and her commitment to creating a safe environment for all street users. This year we honor Stephanie Routh, executive director of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition. In just two years, Routh has transformed the group from struggling-to-be-noticed to well-networked, in the news, and in demand for participation in regional active transportation forums. Stephanie has embraced this role with great enthusiasm, increasing the membership and volunteer base, building bridges to diverse communities and partnering with other active transportation organizations.

Innovation Award: Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling

The Innovation Award goes to an organization that’s pioneering or inventing new ways to promote biking and walking. In 2010, the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling released a groundbreaking new resource: Guide to Reviewing Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations for Virginia Bicycling Advocates. The 28-page booklet simplifies and streamlines the confusing road design process with easy-to-follow flow charts, handy check lists and explanations that make sense to folks who don’t have a masters degree in urban planning. Almost immediately, FABB’s innovative guide was in high demand. Over the past six months, it has been widely distributed, well received by both advocates and transportation officials, and now FABB advocates are working on a template that other organizations can use to tailor the guide for their specific states and transportation jurisdictions.

Blog contributed by Alliance intern, Camie Rodan

It’s no secret that Pittsburgh is transforming into a great place to be on a bicycle. At their annual membership meeting last week, Bike Pittsburgh (BikePGH) recognized 11 Pittsburgh-area companies that have aided in this transformation, presenting the organizations with inaugural Bike Friendly Employer (BFE) awards.

Backed by the Sprout Fund and the Benter Foundation, BikePGH established the BFE program with goals of facilitating the creation of bike-friendly workplaces, helping bike enthusiasts inform employers of the importance of installing bike amenities, and promoting Pittsburgh as a great place to bike commute.

The inaugural class of Bike Friendly Employers is a diverse group of organizations including: Sprout Fund, Mullen, Whole Foods Market, REI, Google, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, East End Food Co-op, Springboard Design, Urban Design Associates, Chatham University, and OTB Bicycle Cafe.

By participating in the program and rallying employees to support bicycling, each recognized company has lent a strong hand in helping transform Pittsburgh into a bike-friendly city. “A bike-friendly workplace not only serves in attracting talented employees, it also represents a key element in an organization’s sustainability practices,” Lou Fineberg, of BikePGH, says. “In a city still steeped in its smoky heritage by the outside world, bicycling represents a fundamental and highly visible shift of our city’s culture and livability.”

To nationally recognize the city’s shift in culture and livability and further advertise Pittsburgh as a bike-friendly locale, Bike Friendly Employers are urged to apply for national recognition as a “Bicycle Friendly Business” from the League of American Bicyclists.

To get a sense of the creative ways these employers supported biking in Pittsburgh, check out BikePGH’s blog.

In Spring 2010, the Alliance awarded a $15,000 Advocacy Advance Grant to the good folks at Bike Pittsburgh to bolster their Car Free Fridays program. The innovative initiative, BikePGH pledged, would entice commuters who travel alone by car to adopt more social means of transportation: biking, walking, ride-sharing or taking public transit. And they made good on that promise.

Late last month, they crunched the numbers and the results were impressive. In 2010, Car Free Fridays included 38 activities in 8 different neighborhoods. Those events attracted 1,158 participants and enticed 795 people to take the extra step of signing the Car Free Friday pledge. Because of the efficacy and visibility of the program, BikePGH also won the support of 15 funding organizations and secured $54,950 in in-kind support from area businesses.

This year, though, they’re making the program even more interactive with the addition of a long-awaited Car Free Calculator. According to BikePGH, the online application will “track the calories burned, CO2 kept out of our atmosphere, and the money we save as individuals and as a region by replacing car trips with biking and walking trips.”

Subscribe to the BikePGH blog to get all the latest news on Car Free Fridays.

It’s already looking like a white Christmas for cyclists in the Steel City. Thanks to the efforts of Bike Pittsburgh, streets are being trimmed with fresh white paint, marking new bicycle facilities across the East End.

According to BikePGH: “Over the past year, we worked diligently with the City of Pittsburgh to plan for and design over 12 miles of new bike lanes that we have been waiting patiently to see installed.”

Well, Santa came a little early: The waiting is over.

In recent weeks, city officials have striped a number of new bike lanes and installed a slew of sharrows. The advocates at Bike Pittsburgh have been involved throughout the process, so the bicycling facilities create a viable two-wheeling network.

“The city continued the expansion of the East End bike network this weekend with the addition of bike lanes on Dallas Avenue and shared lane markings, or sharrows, on Hamilton Avenue,” Erok Boerer, the group’s advocacy director, wrote on the BikePGH blog last week. “This adds to the recently installed markings on Highland Avenue and Wilkins Avenue that now connect six neighborhoods and three parks with clearly marked on-street bicycle infrastructure.”

That’s not the only November victory, either. After years of advocacy from BikePGH, the Pittsburgh Port Authority announced last month that it will outfit the remaining 190 buses with racks by this time next year. With so much activity on the ground, it’s no wonder Pittsburgh bicycle mode share jumped 76 percent from 2008 to 2009. According to the latest American Community Survey, Pittsburgh now ranks 7th out of the 60 largest cities for the percentage of people who use active transportation (walking, biking or taking transit) as a means of commuting.

So it’s also no surprise that folks outside bicycling circles are taking notice of the BikePGH crew. Pittsburgh Magazine just released its “40 Under 40” list and guess who’s included? Scott Bricker, co-founder and CEO of Bike Pittsburgh (and esteemed board member for the Alliance).

The magazine raves: “Ten days of BikeFest annually, 100 donated bike racks, a map of the city now in its third edition and a ranking as one of the best cities for bikers. Pittsburgh owes these two-wheeled statistics to the efforts of BikePGH and its co-founder and CEO, Scott Bricker. From advocating for bike commuters to renting bikes to tourists, his work helps cyclists enjoy a smoother ride. ‘[We are] giving a voice to this community and … have begun transforming the city into a more livable, bike-friendly place,’ he says. ‘If I can make local leaders think of our streets as places meant for moving people, not just cars, I will have succeeded.’”

Click here to read more from BikePGH.

Photo: Scott Bricker cruises down one of the new bike lanes in the East End of Pittsburgh.

It started in 2005 as a single patch of sod on a metered parking space in California.

That’s when the creative minds at Rebar, an art and design company in San Francisco, realized the absurdity that so much public space is gobbled up by the movement and storage of private vehicles. So they decided to put a single parking space to a different use, as a temporary park.

“Our original PARK stood for two hours — the term of the lease offered on the face of the parking meter,” the group explains on its website. “When the meter expired, we rolled up the sod, packed away the bench and the tree, and gave the block a good sweep, and left. A few weeks later, as a single iconic photo of the intervention (above) traveled across the web, Rebar began receiving requests to create the PARK(ing) project in other cities. Rather than replicate the same installation, we decided to promote it as an “open-source” project, and created a how-to manual to empower people to create their own parks without the active participation of Rebar. And thus ‘PARK(ing) Day’ was born.”

In just a few years, it’s taken off. Park(ing) Day has grown into a global event that challenges people to rethink the way roads are used and reinforces the need for broad-based changes to urban infrastructure. This year, on September 17th, plenty of Alliance organizations took part in the creative, temporary redesign of their communities’ streets.

In the Steel City, Bike Pittsburgh pimped out the pavement by creating an urban lounge, complete with wooden furniture and a fancy throw rug, where cyclists could kick back and hang out. BikePGH didn’t just have its own space, though. Some volunteers also offered a bike tour of the more than two dozens oases across the city. Check out pictures from the ride here.

Out west, in California, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition got comfortable next to the curb, too. “Couches, tables and chairs, potted plants, hammocks, and sod adorned the streets of San José as places where people normally dump their abandoned cars were converted to places for people to meet and mingle. Some were lured by SVBC’s offer of a $100 Sports Basement gift certificate, though most probably wanted to see the city made a bit more welcoming to humans for a couple of hours.” More from the SVBC blog here.

And up in the Northeast, Boston’s Livable Streets saw the Park(ing) Day tradition expand into double-digit participation: “Boston saw its first spot in 2008. In 2009 there were five spots in Boston and Cambridge, and this year it was expanded to 10 spots across Boston, Brookline and Cambridge. It was a huge success, and there’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm to expand to more spots next year.” Get the full story in Livable Streets’ newsletter.

How did you spend your Park(ing) Day?

According to Bike Pittsburgh (Bike PGH), “Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed the Bike Parking Ordinance this week.  The ordinance is an amendment to the zoning code that requires all new and “change-in-use” buildings to install bicycle parking, just like they already must do for cars.  There is also an incentive component to the ordinance, whereby a developer can replace up to 30% of their car parking requirement with bicycle parking. Basically, it makes sure that bikes are considered during the planning process, instead of trying to retrofit for them afterward.

Councilman Patrick Dowd connected the dots and discussed how this ordinance is just a piece of the broader concept of what ‘we really have to do’ to turn Pittsburgh into a bicycle-friendly city.  He cited the four-E’s commitment from the city: enforcement, education, economic incentives, and engineering.”

For over two years, BikePGH has been working on this measure, with the planning department and the mayor’s bike/ped coordinator, researching best practices from other cities, getting input from architects and developers in order to get this piece of code written, and encouraging cyclists and other members of the public to participate in the process. This is a big win for BikePGH and a milestone for bicycling in the city of Pittsburgh. 

To view the full ordinance and find out more about BikePGH click here.

PITTSBURGH – The bike advocacy group BikePGH just released Bike Commuting 101 to share with commuters the basics of bike commuting. The booklet explores topics like choosing a bike, how it should fit, riding safe, useful accessories, and general information that enhances the bike commuting experience. Culling the combined input of BikePGH’s staff and long time members the guide focuses on the essential elements of bike commuting using the themes of convenience, comfort and safety. Illustrated by local artist Glen Johnson the guide not only provides practical advice, but it also presents the city in a fun graphic style.

“Bike commuting is not and all-or-nothing choice” says Program Manager Louis Fineberg. “You can ease into it. Try it once a month, maybe eventually once a week. More than likely once you start you’ll realize the benefits immediately and you’ll want to bike to work regularly.”

Since it’s start in 2003 BikePGH has hosted bike commuting workshops.  The guide compliments the workshop or stands on its own as an informative reference for all levels of riders.

Bike Commuting 101, Car Free Fridays, and similar initiatives are part of BikePGH’s efforts to engage local employers in supporting workers who want to bike to their jobs. “A work environment that welcomes bike commuters sends a strong message about the values of your workplace and reinforces the idea that Pittsburgh is a city that provides a high quality of life”, adds Fineberg. “Biking to work is different than driving and it requires some planning.” BikePGH is developing a Bike Friendly Employer program to assist employers in meeting this growing need.

This first edition of the guide is free and available through BikePGH, the city’s Bike/Ped Coordinator, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the Sprout Fund, and bike shops throughout Pittsburgh. Download or view the guide at http://www.bike-pgh.org/101. The guide’s official release will be during BikePGH’s annual member meeting on November 10th at the Union Project.

The City of Pittsburgh installed the first of 200 new bike racks in front of Enrico’s Biscotti Co in the Strip District this morning.  The racks, in the iconic Three Rivers Bike rack design, are to go to business districts and small businesses as part of the Mayor’s Taking Care of Business Districts program.  BikePGH donated one hundred of the racks to the city (for small businesses, made possible through the Richard King Mellon Foundation and William Benter Foundation), while the City matched them with another 100 that will go into business districts.

The event drew an impressive crowd of cyclists, media and movers and shakers who were greeted with delicious baked goods from Enrico’s.  Mayor Luke Ravenstahl introduced the program, followed by speeches from BikePGH’s Scott Bricker, State Senator Jim Ferlo, State Senator Wayne Fontana, and Councilman Patrick Dowd.

The next step is placing the racks around town.  Many businesses throughout the city have already requested racks, and will get first dibs.  The rest of the racks will be distributed using a new online request form.  Once a business requests a rack, the location will be assessed to make sure it complies with ADA and other right-of-way standards.  If the site is in compliance, public works will then install a rack.  As they are in the public right-of-way, the City assumes liability on the racks thereafter.

For more information, visit http://bike-pgh.org/2009/10/city-launches-bike-rack-program-rack-request-form-now-live/

According to Bike Pittsburgh, their 2009 Bike Fest had 50+ events on the calendar attracting people from far and wide. The fundraiser party was packed with over 500 attendees raising nearly $14,000 for bicycle advocacy. The group parked over 200 bikes, raffled off a Cannondale Quick 4, and even offered great dance floor shots.

Visit http://bike-pgh.org/events/bikefest/ for more info and to see pictures from the event.

With City Council’s resounding “yeah” vote, the City of Pittsburgh now has bike rack installation rules similar to other cities with bike friendly status. Reflective of a new found commitment to transform Pittsburgh into a “world class city” of bikeable and walkable communities, the ordinance will allow for bicycle racks to be installed in the public right-of-way by property and business owners through a simple and expedited process. Read more about this first major accomplishment of the recently hired Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, a city position created by BikePGH.

Click to read more...