\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPittsburgh\u2019s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure plans to spend more than $800,000 in state grant funding to improve safety at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and North Dithridge Street in North Oakland. \u201cThere\u2019s no walk lights. So, especially I see that, and I\u2019m like, oh, am I supposed to walk, am I not? And I feel unsafe when I\u2019m walking because I could get hit, you know? So it\u2019s scary,\u201d Ryan Marini said.Many pedestrians say they often take risks just to get across.\u201cWe kind of just go when we want to and hope nobody hits us,\u201d said Alexis Helsel.\u201cOur roads need to be safe for everyone, whether you\u2019re on the sidewalk, in a car, on a bike, or on a bus,\u201d said Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor in a release. \u201cThanks to DOMI and PennDOT, the upgrades at Fifth and Dithridge will support our commitment to designing streets and intersections in a way that reduces the potential for crashes and injuries.\u201d The grant money comes from PennDOT\u2019s Automated Red Light Enforcement Transportation Grant Program, which funds road safety projects with money from red light violation fines. The intersection has seen multiple crashes and close calls over the years, including a 2020 incident in which a 94-year-old woman was hit by an ACCESS bus.\u201cI think that cars don\u2019t stop here as often as they should for pedestrians, so I think any improvement would be a good improvement,\u201d said Leena Nahlawi.Planned upgrades include LED street lighting, larger traffic signals for drivers, concrete bump-outs to shorten crossing distances, and countdown pedestrian signals with audible alerts.\u201cI think that\u2019s lovely. They just did that by Hillman, and it was really nice. It has a four-way cross, and it yells at us when we walk, and it\u2019s perfect,\u201d said Asha Vellody.\u201cThe weather\u2019s getting warmer, everyone\u2019s walking more, too. And that\u2019s like a big thing. In fact, these are such busy streets for the students. So I think 100% could save lives,\u201d said Aletha Gajula.Pedestrians told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 they are grateful for the improvements and hope similar changes are made across Oakland. The City said that it is on the way. “This award is a perfect testament to the ARLE program’s impact on mobility and street safety,\u201d said City Councilperson Erika Strassburger in a release. \u201cI am thrilled and grateful for the state’s contribution to the overhaul of this critical intersection in my district. I’m also proud to have helped bring ARLE to Pittsburgh, where we will implement the technology at high-risk corridors later this year and use the fine proceeds to fund more investments in life-saving projects.”\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure plans to spend more than $800,000 in state grant funding to improve safety at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and North Dithridge Street in North Oakland. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no walk lights. So, especially I see that, and I\u2019m like, oh, am I supposed to walk, am I not? And I feel unsafe when I\u2019m walking because I could get hit, you know? So it\u2019s scary,\u201d Ryan Marini said.<\/p>\n
Many pedestrians say they often take risks just to get across.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of just go when we want to and hope nobody hits us,\u201d said Alexis Helsel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur roads need to be safe for everyone, whether you\u2019re on the sidewalk, in a car, on a bike, or on a bus,\u201d said Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor in a release. \u201cThanks to DOMI and PennDOT, the upgrades at Fifth and Dithridge will support our commitment to designing streets and intersections in a way that reduces the potential for crashes and injuries.\u201d <\/p>\n
The grant money comes from PennDOT\u2019s Automated Red Light Enforcement Transportation Grant Program, which funds road safety projects with money from red light violation fines. The intersection has seen multiple crashes and close calls over the years, including a 2020 incident in which a 94-year-old woman was hit by an ACCESS bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that cars don\u2019t stop here as often as they should for pedestrians, so I think any improvement would be a good improvement,\u201d said Leena Nahlawi.<\/p>\n
Planned upgrades include LED street lighting, larger traffic signals for drivers, concrete bump-outs to shorten crossing distances, and countdown pedestrian signals with audible alerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s lovely. They just did that by Hillman, and it was really nice. It has a four-way cross, and it yells at us when we walk, and it\u2019s perfect,\u201d said Asha Vellody.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weather\u2019s getting warmer, everyone\u2019s walking more, too. And that\u2019s like a big thing. In fact, these are such busy streets for the students. So I think 100% could save lives,\u201d said Aletha Gajula.<\/p>\n
Pedestrians told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 they are grateful for the improvements and hope similar changes are made across Oakland. The City said that it is on the way. <\/p>\n
“This award is a perfect testament to the ARLE program’s impact on mobility and street safety,\u201d said City Councilperson Erika Strassburger in a release. \u201cI am thrilled and grateful for the state’s contribution to the overhaul of this critical intersection in my district. I’m also proud to have helped bring ARLE to Pittsburgh, where we will implement the technology at high-risk corridors later this year and use the fine proceeds to fund more investments in life-saving projects.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh\u2019s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure plans to spend more than $800,000 in state grant funding to improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55225,347,7561,8485,31322,55223,8972,55226,22969,7814,55222,55224,3431,73,75,74,1944,7363,7365,10406,2439],"class_list":{"0":"post-116069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-arle-program","9":"tag-crash","10":"tag-fifth-avenue","11":"tag-grant-money","12":"tag-improvement","13":"tag-improvements-to-walkways","14":"tag-intersection","15":"tag-many-pedestrian","16":"tag-mobility","17":"tag-oakland","18":"tag-okland-pedestrian-improvements","19":"tag-pedestrians-in-pittsburgh","20":"tag-penndot","21":"tag-pittsburgh","22":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","23":"tag-pittsburgh-news","24":"tag-release","25":"tag-safety","26":"tag-street","27":"tag-upgrade","28":"tag-way"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}