Bike lanes may not run down Fort Pitt Boulevard, after all.
Pittsburgh city officials will explore alternative routes for the Downtown lanes planned there, Mayor Bill Peduto said Friday, adding that the parallel Boulevard of the Allies “might have some potential.”
“It’s not a done deal,” Mr. Peduto said of Fort Pitt Boulevard, acknowledging “a lot of concern” along the thoroughfare. “And the public is being listened to on this.”
Property owners and business operators on Fort Pitt have said bike lanes would hamper access, obstructing deliveries and likely ruining street parking. At a community meeting in December, the city was urged to investigate other routes.
Pittsburgh developer Wayne Gregg, who owns a building in the 200 block of Fort Pitt, said he’s elated the city will review options.
“It’s terrific. It’s nice that the city and the mayor are listening,” Mr. Gregg said. “It’s wonderful. We appreciate it.”
City Council in October approved spending $772,000 to add bike lanes on the north side of Fort Pitt from Grant to Stanwix streets, then north on Stanwix to Penn Avenue. The same plan shows the lanes jogging west on Penn to Point State Park.
Federal grant money is expected to cover about 80 percent of the project, which will give cyclists on the Great Allegheny Passage a direct link through the Golden Triangle. Those riders now reach the end of a dedicated path at Grant Street near the Monongahela River.
“We never really figured out that final connection” to the Point, said Eric Boerer, advocacy director at the nonprofit group Bike Pittsburgh.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors follow the GAP trail into Downtown each year, he said. Mr. Boerer said it’s also important that bicycling commuters “can get to their jobs easily within the Central Business District.”
Still, Bike Pittsburgh is not taking an absolute position on where the bike-lane project should take shape, he said. “We want to be reasonable and flexible with this and come to consensus on how this can all work out for everybody.”
Mr. Peduto said the city wants to introduce the lanes by fall.
“The easiest way, the straightest way, is Fort Pitt Boulevard. But it may be more of an impact than doing a combination of a couple of streets that run parallel,” he said.
One suggested concept — relying on First Avenue instead of Fort Pitt Boulevard — might not be feasible, but the city will “take as much time as we need” to weigh options, Mr. Peduto added.
“We’ll look, and we’ll continue to work with the community as we come up with the solution,” he said.
Adam Smeltz: 412-263-2625, asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz.
First Published: February 18, 2017, 5:27 a.m.