\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA plan to reduce part of Penn Avenue from two lanes of traffic to one is moving forward, with what business owners and pedestrian and bike safety advocates say isn\u2019t necessarily either side\u2019s first choice but feels like a compromise.”Simply reducing the number of lanes a pedestrian has to cross makes it safer for a pedestrian, unsurprisingly,” said Eric Boerer, advocacy director of Bike Pittsburgh.Boerer said safety wins remain in a new plan for right-sizing a nine-block stretch of Penn Avenue between 31st and 22nd streets in the Strip District.The plan, proposed by the city of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, will remove one lane of traffic on Penn Avenue and add an inbound painted bike lane.\u201cIt was going to be what\u2019s called a parking-protected bike lane, so they were going to move the parking lane out, and then the bike lane would be in between the parking lane and the sidewalk. That\u2019s no longer the case,” Boerer said. “The city has revised their design, so it\u2019s just going to be a standard bike lane like you see all over the city.\u201dThe changes come after a group of business owners filed a lawsuit against the city and DOMI that sought to stop the project.\u201cThe reason that we filed the injunction was because we felt that we wasn’t heard,\u201d said Jim Coen, owner of Yinzers in the Burgh.On concerns about losing a lane of traffic and keeping room for first responders, Coen said, \u201cIf we didn\u2019t get an extra five feet, a fire truck can\u2019t get through, it could be bad.\u201dDOMI said the revised final design \u201censures our first responders have the same roadway access as existing conditions.\u201d\u201cThe new proposal that they gave us \u2014 there’s some flaws in it. We\u2019re not 100% happy with it,” Coen said. “But we feel that it\u2019s better than it was.\u201dDOMI has not yet set a start date for the project.\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
A plan to reduce part of Penn Avenue from two lanes of traffic to one is moving forward, with what business owners and pedestrian and bike safety advocates say isn\u2019t necessarily either side\u2019s first choice but feels like a compromise.<\/p>\n
“Simply reducing the number of lanes a pedestrian has to cross makes it safer for a pedestrian, unsurprisingly,” said Eric Boerer, advocacy director of Bike Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
Boerer said safety wins remain in a new plan for right-sizing a nine-block stretch of Penn Avenue between 31st and 22nd streets in the Strip District.<\/p>\n
The plan, proposed by the city of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, will remove one lane of traffic on Penn Avenue and add an inbound painted bike lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was going to be what\u2019s called a parking-protected bike lane, so they were going to move the parking lane out, and then the bike lane would be in between the parking lane and the sidewalk. That\u2019s no longer the case,” Boerer said. “The city has revised their design, so it\u2019s just going to be a standard bike lane like you see all over the city.\u201d<\/p>\n