Regarding the Dec. 2 letter from Max Sestil Jr. (“Signs Should Provide Rules for Cyclists in Various Zones”): Mr. Sestil thinks signs are the answer to peaceful co-existence with cyclists. It is a $300 fine to ride a bike on the sidewalk through a business district. Several times now, the Lower Bloomfield Unity Council asked the local business group and the city of Pittsburgh to install signs along Liberty Avenue prohibiting bike riding on sidewalks. Our request has been ignored for years!
Most bikes have no horn or bell warning pedestrians of approach. A step right or left can result in pedestrian injury. It has happened twice in Bloomfield. Bikes have the same federally recognized privileges as cars and airplanes but with no enforced responsibility! We encouraged bike legislation, bike licensing and penalties. What “dutiful” cyclist could object? But local and state representatives ignored our proposal, since “bike friendly cities” get more federal dollars with more leniency.
Lastly, curb cuts were mandated by the federal government for the convenience of the disabled and not cyclists. The frail and elderly use them routinely. In Bloomfield, most curb cuts don’t line up, and those using them move farther out into the street to get back on to a sidewalk. The Lower Bloomfield Unity Council voiced concern about this. City inaction is the same as trivializing public safety.
I’m in Mr. Sestil’s corner, but we’re just spinning wheels, I guess, and at the expense of public good.
ANDREW J. LECCE
Executive Director
Lower Bloomfield Unity Council
Bloomfield
First Published: December 14, 2013, 1:49 a.m.
