Pittsburgh Police: failure to yield to pedestrian

Open Streets 2017

Open Streets is in it's 3rd year. There have been 3 different routes: the Strip/Lawrenceville route; the North Side/West End route and the South Side/Uptown route.
The South Side route seems to be the most popular, getting 25K attendees, while the other two routes 'only' gets 20K or so. That's a LOT OF PEOPLE either way.
The route is PACKED with people (lots of dogs and a snake or two as well), biking, walking, rollerblading, running, dancing...
We've decided that we like the South Side route best.

Here's video of Gus enjoying the view from his trailer during the last Open Streets:




 And now for some photos of rides I/we took in recent months:

My chain had dropped a few times before we changed the chain

 At the Keg Ride:

At the South Side Open Streets

The MS 150

The bike rack doubles for transporting home furniture we found on the South Side.

The Smtihfield Bride Switchback construction is coming along

 Open Streets West End:

DOGS GET ICE CREAM?

 This crazy huge boat docked in Pittsburgh. I read that rooms start at $7,000

Pittsburgh drivers: 2009- 2017

Back in  2009 Pittsburgh still touted a reputation for having courteous, well-mannered drivers.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2009/06/15/daily25.html

Today, that's different:


http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/04/26/pittsburgh-worst-drivers-by-city-us-everride-app-distracted-driving/stories/201704260102

Holy crap, yes. I started noticing this even before I became a regular cyclist. We've become a city of distracted, angry motorists.

Even the so-called 'professional' drivers have adopted that all-too-common attitude: "MUST GET IN FRONT." at all costs.

Fish Fry Ride!

Marko's been hosting this ride for several years. It's a slow, social ride... centered around drink, food and friends. We meet at OTB bar on the South Side (maybe have a beer and socialize...) and then ride via the trail to Holy Angels for fried fish.
We had 9 total riders, good weather brought more folks out.

More multi-modal transit

I've taken my bike on the T (our local Trolley system) a few times, but today I needed to use the bus to get home.
I've used the demonstration bus bike racks the Port Authority offers, I've watched videos of people using the bus bike racks, but I was still worried...

• "What if I take too long getting my bike on and off the rack?" 
• "Will someone steal my bike off the rack?"
• "Will my fenders interfere with the wheel hook?" 
• "What if my bike FALLS OFF THE BUS!??!"

All that worry for nothing, it was easy for the most part.

Adapting to change

Things are vastly different for both of us now that we live in Baldwin and have a dog. Marko kindly obliges me by offering to drive to the bottom of our horrendous hill in the evening and pick me up after work. I can't handle the hill that he was accustomed to climbing on an almost daily basis. I have neither the stamina nor the cajones to deal with the angry dangerous drivers.

Marko's adapted two trailers for Gus so he can cart him around town. He learned the hard way that taking turns at speed with a trailer that's been narrowed and carrying a dog that's shifting the center of gravity around is a really bad idea...
He's fine. I'm still amazed Marko stayed upright.

Viking Biking family!

I love this ride.

The new commute

I live out in the hinterlands with Marko now. My commute has doubled in mileage and altitude. I picked a really good day for my first attempt: Friday the 13th.  (cue the scary dramatic music)

Not only is this ride longer, hillier and chock full of narrow winding roads with plenty of opportunities for close passes, but there's a bonus: hauling the bike over active rail lines! Woo hoo!

Meet our new cycling partner!

Oh, Hi.I'm not dead or anything, just busy and not doing much cycling.


I moved out of my Polish Hill apartment and in with Marko waaaaay out in Baldwin. I've not done much riding because I've been using the car to shuttle loads of boxes from the apartment to the house.

Hi, I'm the new guy.

We also adopted a dog. His name's Gus and he's a Bugg (part Boston, part Pug). He came from a shelter in Texas. We made it a priority to get Gus outfitted in his very own trailer. Here's his maiden voyage:

We stopped at Thick to oggle the bikes

He did a fairly good job of not being a jerk in the trailer and sat quietly, enjoying his scenery from the backseat. He was surprisingly pooped when we got him back home.

Coffeenuring bonus, for good measure

I'd mis-counted our coffeeneuring trips and thought we still had one more to go... turns out we'd already completed our required trips and were all done! After a errand in Bloomfield we debated where we would go, but just would up meandering around Bloomfield and Shadyside in search of a non-chain coffee shop. We settled on Jitters. We learned later that it was, in fact a small chain of shops. Harrumph!

Coffeeneuring #6 and #7, spooky recumbents and Flocktober

Coffeeneuring #6 at Nicholas Coffee Roasters, Downtown

 

We encountered these Halloween decorated bikes... so much awesome here.

Coffeeneuring #7 was a Gasoline St Coffee Company, lots of bike themed stuff here, but no bike racks to lock to.

October's Flock ride was Halloween themed too, so again, Marko and I went as Nap Man and Wonder Woman, getting as much milage out of these costumes as we could.

Afterwards, we ended up at Wigle distillery where they were giving away free samples of locally-made whiskey, gin, absinthe (my first time tasting that spirit!) and vodka

Bike light giveaway, Underwear Ride and scavenger hunt

Bike Light Giveaway: Bike Pittsburgh has a program where they'll give away light sets to unlit cyclists. I'd volunteered us to help man this popup station on the North Side. We found 5 folks to give sets to on this chilly evening.

A former Ninja... riding off, now more visible!

 Our costumes for the final Underwear Ride of the year were Wonder Woman and Nap Man.
Naps are awesome.

Da na na na na NA... NAP MAN!

 Healthy Ride bike share held a scavenger hunt and hid 5 prizes (Aerotech cycling caps with a zombie theme) at their stations. They posted photo clues on social media and then the race was on to get to the station before someone else got the bag of goodies. We thought it good strategy to just hang out on the South Side and wait for a clue to be posted for one of the South Side stations. After the clue went up, we rode from 12th St up to the 25th St docking station and there it was!

While were posting the photo to Facebook, a woman drove up to the station and complained that this was her third Brucing of the game. She then angrily peeled out. Wow, so this woman DROVE from Lawrenceville, then to Downtown and then to the South Side to win a $20 cap? 

Neener, neener, lady!

Winning!

Coffeeneuring #5 at a florist shop

Looking to cofffeeneur at shops we'd not yet logged a ride to in previous rides (our rule is: "No repeats!") I'd found a shop in Bloomfield called 4121 MAIN and plotted a not-yet-taken route there via the sleepy single-lane backroads of Polish Hill and over the Bloomfield Bridge sidewalk. It was exactly one mile there and one mile back. We didn't enjoy the myriad of beg buttons we had to press to get across the street on the other side of the bridge, but we avoided a considerable hill by taking this route.

When we arrived and started locking up, I said "This doesn't look like a coffee shop!" Turns out it's a florist/coffee shop/event planner working out of a former 1800's bakery. Interesting place. It smelled of eucalyptus and other various dried flowers in addition to the coffee. I got a cappuccino and Marko got a pour-over.  Bonus bike rack right in front of the window. It's good to have the ability to keep an eye on one's bike.

Coffeeneuring... now with whiskey

Today was Coffeeneuring ride #4. We ventured into the realm of non-coffee drinks. Tea and ciders are permitted under the rules and the local whiskey distillery down in the Strip District, Wigle was debuting their fall-apple whiskey called Walkabout.
We had a maple hot apple cider and it was delicious. I was apprehensive about a hot alcoholic beverage but... wow, it was good. It truly warmed us on a chilly autumn day.