Car-free Friday and the start of Bike Fest in Pittsburgh

It was a wonderful morning to be out on the bike today. It wasn't too hot. It was nice and sunny, but there was a bit of fog hanging around to give some sense of distance as the sunlight filtered through it.


Pittsburgh (and other places) has an ongoing group of folks promoting the concept of car-free Fridays. The biking, public transit, and environmental (for lack of a better all-encompassing term) communities are trying to get the idea out there that there are a lot of reasons to avoid use of a personal motor vehicle when it's unnecessary. If we take one day a week and use some alternative form of transportation, it can help reduce traffic congestion, pollution, energy use, stress, and other bad things. I don't mean to leave out the other forms of transportation by talking about bikes and buses. The in-line skating and kayak/canoe communities are represented in groups promoting friendlier forms of commuting.

Anyway, today's a Friday, but it's also the start of Bike Fest! Bike Fest is an annual cycling celebration in Pittsburgh that sees a wide array of celebratory events around the city for about 10 days. The events are grass-rootsy in that most are organized by various groups, clubs, or companies. However the overall coordination and some of the events are done by the local bike advocacy group, Bike Pittsburgh. This morning, the Neighbors in the Strip business association sponsored a car-free breakfast event outside the office of the advertising company, Mullen. From the Bike Fest description of the event:

There will also be a host of businesses attending as well including Enrico Biscotti Co. (with free biscotti samples), Right by Nature (with Give Water and Streaz drink samples and bike raffle), Schoolhouse Yoga(with free yoga breathing sessions) and Three Rivers Inline Club (info on inline skating as a commuting option), just to name a few.

Pittsburgh Pedicabs was present, letting folks try out the bike.

Four of us in our office rode in today. Our count is between 2 and 8, depending on weather and what's going on at work. There are only three of us who ride regularly year-round. Below is a picture of the new location of our bike rack. The HVAC testing area caused the first move of the rack to the larger research bay. But then, the building envelope/thermal enclosure mock-up took up that space, and the bike rack got moved to the area outside the former BuildIQ cubicle area. I'm happy the company has continued to try to keep the rack indoors.

Two parting shots of cyclists I encountered on my way into town this morning. Both on Penn Ave. Note the correct name, Becky. :)

More on the sharrows in the Strip

The sharrows are indeed on Penn Ave between 31st St and 26th St. The 23rd St to 16th St is a very crucial section that still needs to be painted. Evidently, the plan is to go all the way into downtown.

Of course, they're no silver bullet. We all still need to try to get along. The problem cyclists and motorists are still going to be out there, but this helps validate cycling as a serious mode of transportation and hopefully helps garner a greater feeling of safety for those riders who are unsure about riding in traffic.

Sharrows in the Strip!

According to the Bike Pittsburgh blog, the city painted sharrows in the Strip District today. This will link the bike lane on Liberty Ave to Penn Ave and head into downtown. My office is in the Strip District, but I don't think they'd made it down to 21st St by the time I took my lunchtime stroll at 11:30 today. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow.

More at: http://bike-pgh.org/2009/08/06/fresh-sharrows-on-penn-ave-in-the-strip/

Brake replacement

The rear brakes on my road bike have been acting up for a while. I suspected the brake pads were worn, but hadn't really taken the time to pull them apart and check them until yesterday. Turns out that they were less worn than I feared. I was worried I'd blasted all the way through the brake material into the metal substrate. Luckily, that hadn't happened yet, but you can see in the first picture below that it was very near at hand on the inboard pad. The big problem was that the retaining/return spring had broken. This forced the outboard pad into misalignment and allowed the grab tab on that pad to rub on the rotor. The wear on the rotor is visible, but it doesn't appear to be seriously grooved. I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't warp or rust out.


For comparison, here is the set I pulled from my parts bike to replace the pair shown above. The spring has much more spread to it, not to mention is still whole. The pads have a little wear, but I didn't have many miles on that bike before I got hit on it and destroyed the frame.


For reference, these are for an Avid BB7 road mechanical disc brake. The pads have something like 1,500-2000 miles on them, including this past winter's commuting.

Hey, where's your stoker?

I caught up to this person riding a tandem bike solo climbing the Liberty hill the other day. I didn't get to talk to him/her because I met up with my turn just as I caught up. I wonder what the story was. I've ridden our tandem some by myself, but not in the city yet. It's a funny sight to see. Maybe I should do ride it to/from work one day, just to give people something to talk about.

Bike commuters take over the research bay

We had six bike commuters today! The seventh bike has been abandoned since the weather got wet and cold in the fall. The offending person says she'll get the bike home and start riding again soon. We're going to need to build another rack to accommodate the few more riders we'll likely pick up when the weather actually gets nice. This one is Kevin's handwork.

The flash sets off the reflective sidewalls on Dave's and my bikes nicely. John's got a good reflective strip around his seatpost tool bag.

Pedicabs in Pittsburgh

I forgot to post this from a few weeks ago. Green Gears isn't the first pedicab company I've seen in the city. I chatted for a while with a guy near Penn Brewery about his almost four years ago. I haven't seen him since. I hope they make it. I think the timing is good, as the city seems more accepting of something like this than it was in the past.

I saw the one above in the Strip District. The other night, Dave and I were admiring another giving folks rides between the Cultural District (downtown) and Station Square on the South Side. It's hiding in traffic outside the Byham Theater.

Sunny morning commute with Dave

Dave from work and I ride the same route to work (for the most part). We were both late coming in this morning. This is a shot over my shoulder of Dave as we rode down the hill in the bike lane on Liberty Blvd. Note the conscientious driver giving us a nice wide berth. I appreciate the sentiment.

Sargent Electric murals

The new Sargent Electric Company building on Liberty Ave has a series of murals on the ground floor. They're unfortunately challenging to see because the road is such a raceway for cars and few people actually walk past. However, I see them daily on the bike and stopped to photograph them (less than professionally, I know) one day when I walked to work instead of having ridden the bike. The theme follows the region's progression of power generation and artificial light from the early days of the industrial revolution to the current push toward renewables and into the future in the last pane. The murals were done by students from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and more info can be found on Sargent Electric's webpage for the murals: http://www.sargent.com/mural.

Snowy Spring morning

It was a pretty Spring morning with snow. Fluffy and sticky snowfall made for a fun ride in with only wet pavement. I bet that's "clean coal" being carried in the train I passed on my ride.

Bridges, the Run, and the Hollow

There have been some nice evenings to ride after work this week. I finally remembered there is a sidewalk on the Fort Pitt Bridge (shown above). It makes for a nicer, albeit longer ride over the Monongahela River to the South Side than fighting rush hour traffic from the Point to and over the Smithfield Bridge. The next picture is crossing the Allegheny on the Fort Duquesne Bridge. The Fort Pitt Bridge can be seen in the distance.


Riding home from the terminus of the Eliza Furnace Trail takes one through 4-mile Run. Big Jim's resides in the Run. In true Pittsburgh fashion, the serving sizes are enormous and are dirt cheap.


Continuing toward Oakland, in Panther Hollow, is this building. I think it's a CHP plant for the university, but don't quote me.

Feels like Spring

The days are getting longer and more mild. There is still some ice on the cliff behind my office, though. It was a nice sunset, and I got to ride home without a jacket.

Mon Wharf trail work starts

The city has started work on the riverfront trail along the Mon Wharf parking area. This project is very exciting, as currently, there is no non-traffic connection between the Eliza Furnace Trail (lovingly called the Jail Trail locally) and Point State Park. The Eliza Furnace Trail (more info on the Three Rivers Heritage Trails) runs on the north side of the Monongahela River between Oakland and Downtown and connects via the Hot Metal Bridge to the Southside Works and the South Side Trail (Station Square to the Glenwood Bridge area).

The Mon Wharf is parking lot for the folks that work and visit downtown. It's a dodgy place to park in that the Monongahela River floods the outer edge of it when the river crests 18 feet, which is about any time it rains more than a drizzle. The work will remove some parking, but create a promenade that will allow bike and pedestrian use and green space.

I'm very excited about this, in that I frequently ride from work through Point State Park and then navigate my way through traffic up to the Eliza Furnace Trail to head back home. I'm comfortable riding in traffic, but there are many weekend riders of the Eliza Furnace Trail that would be well served with a safer route to the point. Many times, I've seen parents with small children on bikes fearfully making their way along Boulevard of the Allies (busy, arterial road) to get between the trails.

The Post Gazette article about the start of the work can be found here. Here is a picture I took of the Mon Wharf looking up the Monongahela River.

This last image, courtesy of the Post Gazette. Note that this is looking the opposite direction from my picture above and shows a different bridge.

Clean chain!

My chain recently spent a few hours bathing in a cleansing bath of citrus degreaser. It was much happier as a result, as was I. I didn't feel like I was leaving little piles of gear dust on Liberty Ave so I could find my way back home at the end of the day.

February 2009 human-powered transportation wrap up

I recovered from the surgery enough to have gotten back on the bike and back in the running shoes in February. Here are the monthly totals:

Biking (95%+ commuting/errands) = 70.0 miles
Running (0% commuting) = 27.0 miles
Canoeing (0% commuting) = 3.4 miles

The photos are from my daily commute on a frontage road parallel to the busy street that my office is on.

Back on the bike!

I'm happy to report that I'm back on the bike after the surgery and commuting again! It feels great. My legs are complaining some, as I don't really know how to hold back on the hills. The shot above is a poor representation of how pretty the ride this morning was. It was sort of cold (mid-20's), but clear and sunny.

Evening commute (from November)

In looking through my post list, I found an old post for which I had uploaded pictures, but never wrote text and published. Evidently, I had a nice evening ride home from work...

2008 bike mileage

I finally got around to tallying the miles on the bike last year.

1,843 miles. That's what the GPS says. I did screw up here and there forgetting to start the watch or forgetting it altogether, so the actual mileage is slightly higher. The total elapsed time, including stops and whatnot was 158 hours.

Most of the summer would have been pretty consistent mileage, but I had a number of work trip that took me out of town for 3-5 days at a time. It tapered off when Silas was born in August.

Except for a few days at the end of the year and occasionally driving for a part work day on my way to the airport for a work trip, I commuted by bike to/from work every possible day of the year. I'm guessing it works out to about 200 to 225 work days at 5.5 miles per day. So, I feel good about offsetting over 1,000 miles of car commuting with the bike.

Misty fall morning riding

It's been a nice week for riding in the mornings, somewhat chilly at full speed, but worthwhile.