Blood on PennDot's hands

Another death of a cyclist, another memorial ride. This ride presented itself as more of a protest ride. The cycling community voiced itself early in the planning stages of the 4-year rehab project on the stretch of road Dennis Flanagan died on: West Carson St. We begged for traffic calming, bike lanes, shared-use sidewalks, something to reduce deaths. What we got was a 'Share the Road' sign, wide lanes that encourage speeding and a beg button to cross that takes nearly TWO FULL MINUTES (1:49) to activate a walk signal. Gee, thanks PennDot. After the construction was finished and West-Carson reopened and just a few days later, there's already a fatality.

Over 200 people showed up to ride, remember and protest.

Haley Nelson/Post-Gazette

Colin Deppen/Patriot-News

I'm not overly optimistic that the bureaucrats at PennDot will suddenly start listening.

OpenTubes

Thanks to a fire ignited by construction on the Liberty Bridge mayhem ensued with motor traffic trying to get to and  from the South Hills. The bridge was forced to be shut down due to the fire damage.

We witnessed the fire first hand while riding from work to a doctor's appointment:




We later learned that the bridge was 'minutes from collapse'. Wow.

Hearing that Vannevar wanted to ride through the Liberty tunnels while they were closed to motor vehicles, we jumped at the chance. How often does an opportunity like this pop up?

And so, we did.