This morning I was biking to work along Greenfield Ave. There was a significant amount of traffic (vehicles stopped bumper to bumper). As I pass this black truck, a man shouts out, well kind of barks really, the word ”bikelane”. I yelled something like, “there is no bikelane, a**hole.” I admit that there was no point in responding at all–let alone including an obscenity in the response. But as I made my way up to the Eliza Furnace Trail leaving Second Ave., I considered what he may have meant by the comment. Did he think the 40 foot long jersey barriered sidewalk-stretchalong Second Ave constituted a bikelane and that I should have been on that instead of the road? Or, maybe he was indicating to his companions that I was making my own bikelane-? Or that there should be a bikelane? The latter possibilities are unlikely but the first one is interesting– if he thought the area of sidewalk with concrete barrier leading to the Furnace/Jail Trail was a “Bikelane,” we have a real information breakdown on our hands. I mean really…That area that he was considering a bikelane is actually a sidewalk. Yes, it’s practically on Second Avenue, the road. But its usability is severely restricted because it duals as sidewalk, is narrow, and has blind curves at either end. There are even signs posted indicating that cyclists should walk their bikes around the curves and along the straightaway–hardly a “bikelane,” more like an improvised safety zone to connect from Panther Hollow Trail to Jail Trail.
Additionally, the motorist’s commentsgot me thinking about the development of biketrails and what people who don’t cycle apart from putting their bikes on racks to take the trails, consider the role of trails to be ( This is not a knock against such folks. I’m just trying to characterize the extent of who may not consider the validity of bikes on the road, or the need to give them just as much leeway as motorized traffic). Is the general understanding among non-cyclists that if biketrail exists, (such as along Second Ave. in Pittsburgh), it is the cyclist’s duty to be on that, instead of on the road?
In the context of Second Ave., I don’t see why a cyclist would choose to ride on the road instead of the Jail Trail–unless they needed to leave the trail at a point where there is no easy exit (since there’s fencing along most of it). Nonetheless, trails don’t/shouldn’t imply that cyclists should be ghettoized to them. That’s ridiculous. But is this public perception among non-cyclists and non-roadcyclists common in Pgh? I’d love for cyclists and non-cyclists to weigh in.
