Carnegie Mellon University and PennDOT presented proposed safety improvements for Forbes Avenue in Oakland Wednesday night that include bike lanes, traffic signal upgrades and safer crosswalks.
But if the raucous crowd at CMU were giving the $10 million to $12 million worth of work a grade, it would be “incomplete.”
Speakers from the overflow crowd at Cohon University Center told officials that bike lanes should extend beyond CMU’s campus throughout Oakland; questioned the safety of bike lanes crossing turning lanes at some intersections; and generally complained that project planners were “tone deaf” to safety concerns for bicyclists. Officials said they would try to address the concerns as best they could within financial and physical limitations.
The proposed work, which could go out for bids in late 2017, is actually two projects. One involves paving Forbes from the Birmingham Bridge to Beeler Street, and the other would install bike lanes along Forbes from Beeler to South Craig Street.
The bike lanes, included as a result of a federal planning grant with the Oakland Transportation Management Association, would be 4 feet wide on each side of the street. Lanes for motor vehicles would be reduced from four to two in some areas with turning lanes and a traffic signal added at Collaborative Innovation Center Drive and another traffic signal moved from Hamburg Hall to Cyert Drive.
There would be pullovers created for bus stops, and the stop outbound at Forbes and South Craig would be moved past the intersection. Additionally, the university would put a buffer of trees between the curb and sidewalks to improve pedestrian safety.
Bicyclists at the meeting questioned the part of the plan that would put the bike lane to the left of the vehicle turning lane. In most areas that have bike lanes now, the bike lane is the curb lane. The proposed configuration would be “treacherous” for bicyclists and wouldn’t allow for the 4-foot safety clearance required by state law.
Some said they believe that type of planning led to the death of a bicyclist on Tuesday in an accident on West Carson Street. Advocates had pushed for bike lanes to be part of a project there that finished this month, but PennDOT didn't include the lanes because studies showed changes instead needed to be made to avoid rear-end and turning crashes.
Dennis Flanagan, 49, of McKees Rocks, was riding along West Carson about 3 p.m. Tuesday and was struck by a passing vehicle. He died later in the day at Allegheny General Hospital.
Eric Meyer of design consultant WRA said the firm would look at possible changes to the Oakland plans.
But the main complaints centered around the lack of bike lanes between the Birmingham Bridge and South Craig.
PennDOT District 11 executive Dan Cessna said the plans don’t include them yet because the Port Authority and city of Pittsburgh are working on a Bus Rapid Transit plan between Downtown and Oakland. PennDOT will meet with the city and Port Authority within a month to coordinate plans and come back with recommendations for that area by the end of the year, he said.
“We’re simply not at the point yet to include [bike lanes in that area] as part of this project,” Mr. Cessna said. “We’re working hard at this. It isn’t easy.”
Mr. Cessna said other suggestions such as installing speed bumps or reducing the speed limit from 25 mph aren't realistic.
“We’re very committed to making the streets safer. But it's not a neighborhood street as much as we might like it to be,” Mr. Cessna said, noting that Oakland is the third busiest commercial corridor in the state.
City Planning Director Ray Gastil tried to assure the crowd that their concerns would be addressed. He said connecting the new bike lanes with existing lanes on Bigelow Boulevard is “absolutely critical.”
“We are listening hard to everything you are saying,” he said.
After the meeting, bicyclist Donna Green of the North Side said it seemed to her that planners were more concerned with meeting a “level of service” for motor vehicles first and protecting bikers and pedestrians as an afterthought.
“What we are talking about is how [bikers and pedestrians] live through this,” she said. “These are the vulnerable people — the people who bike and walk.”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1470.
First Published: September 1, 2016, 1:32 a.m.
Updated: September 1, 2016, 3:28 a.m.
