Pittsburgh, Strip District merchants compromise to resolve bike lane brouhaha

Pittsburgh’s bike-lane battle appears to be over.

The Strip District Business Association on Thursday struck a reluctant compromise with the City of Pittsburgh on plans to convert a portion of Penn Avenue to a one-lane road with a bike lane.

The city initially wanted to add a protected bike lane — one with a barrier separating cyclists from cars — to a stretch of Penn Avenue in the Strip District between 22nd and 31st streets. The road, which now has two travel lanes, would be reduced to a single lane for vehicles.

The business group sued the city, arguing the change could cause gridlock and leave little space for fire trucks and ambulances to get through.

“We were able to talk it through between the two sides and come to an agreement,” Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Alan Hertzberg said Thursday after attorneys for both sides spent nearly 2 ½ hours hashing out the new arrangement in place of an evidentiary hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday morning.

The judge’s order bars the city from installing a protected bike lane that would block access by vehicles. But the project will still include a bike lane, reducing that bustling stretch of Penn Avenue to one lane for traffic.

Hertzberg ordered the city to maintain at least a 20-foot-wide unobstructed roadway, which would include the bike lane and a buffer zone, and to remain open to the business association’s input regarding loading zones.

The city is allowed to move ahead with the project immediately, Hertzberg ruled. It had already begun milling and paving.

The existing parking lanes on either side of the road will remain.

Jim Coen, who heads the business association and owns Yinzers in the Burgh, said he felt the changes could still hinder merchants, with drivers potentially experiencing slowdowns in a single lane.

“Fire trucks will be able to get through,” Coen said. “Ambulances will be able to get through, which is important to us.”

But he worried that drivers swerving through a bike lane to get in and out of parking spots would still be dangerous.

And he pointed out that first responders would likely be using the bike lane to respond to emergencies, and drivers may use the lane to pass broken-down cars or crashes.

“It’s better, but it’s really, truly not safe,” he said.

Coen said the business association may look to fight the proposed changes further. He didn’t provide details.

BikePGH, an advocacy group for bicyclists, welcomed the compromise but lamented the rough road to reach it.

“Even after extensive outreach and community meetings, in addition to numerous traffic and safety studies, it’s unfortunate that the discourse around a road safety project got so ugly, seemingly pitting safety against business interests,” the group said in a statement.