Responding to three traffic fatalities in the Oakland area in the past week, Bike Pittsburgh is asking for immediate safety changes in the Fifth and Forbes Avenue corridors.
The organization said Wednesday it would present petitions to the City of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh and PennDOT asking for improvements to help bikers, pedestrians and motorists coexist safely. Communications manager Ngani Ndimbie said the group collected 2,500 signatures in three days supporting safety improvements.
“Three deaths within four days is something that should get a reaction,” she said. “It is vitally important and should be a top priority to protect people.”
The group is calling for changes such as speed bumps to slow traffic, education programs and increased traffic enforcement in the area, which includes three universities, two major hospitals and numerous offices, businesses and attractions such as museums.
Traffic in the congested area has been in the spotlight as a result of a Pitt administrator being killed Friday when her bike was struck on Forbes Avenue near South Bellefield and a Wilkinsburg couple dying Monday when they were struck after getting off a Port Authority bus near the university’s Petersen Events Center.
City spokesman Tim McNulty said he wasn’t sure what the city could do in the short term to improve safety, but it is working on long-range plans for the corridor. Options for bike lanes and other improvements are under consideration as part of the Port Authority’s bus rapid transit study to add service linking the Duquesne University Bluff area to Oakland.
The city applied for federal money for a protected bike lane between Downtown and Oakland as part of the BRT project, he said.
“The earliest a lane could be built if the federal money comes through is 2017,” he said in an email.
Pitt spokesman John Fedele said the university has bike racks throughout the campus, encourages car-pooling and stresses pedestrian safety to students beginning with their freshman orientation.
PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said the agency is wiling to meet with Bike Pittsburgh or anyone who can suggest safety improvements.
“From PennDOT’s perspective, we’re always open to those types of street improvements as long as we are sure they would help,” he said. “You’re talking about a corridor that is heaving traveled by motorists, bikes and pedestrians.”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1470.
First Published: October 29, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
