Has anyone been out?
Road Conditions?
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I drove from McCandless to Cranberry and back around 7 a.m. Very slick. Saw one fender-bender. Closer to the city is likely to be worse, I'd bet. There's 23" on the ground in my yard.
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The roads in town seem passable enough. Very little appears to have been plowed, but there's been enough traffic to have ground down the snow into a thin layer. If biking, you want a mountain bike with low pressure tires still.
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I was out yesterday around the Oakland / Lawrenceville / Polish Hill areas, and with a mountain bike, I had a 50/50 succesful ride. While the roads are really not that plowed that much, the snow is indeed compacted enough to ride in some areas, but once at intersections, the criss/cross of car's slush will most likely get you down (but pretty fun since the snow softens the situation).
One cool thing about riding right now, is that there's not that many cars on the road, and many people are on the streets walking instead of driving to places! I had much pleasure yesterday to ride down Bigelow Boulevard sans traffics )or cars for that matter!) Also, I saw a bunch of cars stuck on snow, or people trying to clear with shovels enough street for their cars to roll out and drive, while I passed them down.
And at last, what I really got a kick-out of: three different people lifting their thumb asking me for a lift! I thought that was funny!
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that's the best thing about snowstorms...people take back the streets!
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Yeah, Oakland was pretty much 100% shared space the last two days. I have a lot of good pictures.
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Edgewood streets are clear but icy in spots. Planning on and looking forward to riding my mountain bike to work tomorrow!
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I drove from Oakland to Ross Park Mall. City is slick but most people are being courteous to everyone out. State roads are clear for the most part. As always, people on McKnight are being idiots.
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rode from uptown to bloomfield and back via oakland. streets are passable with a mountain bike cause the snow is packed down enough to be on top.
bikeygirl's description was pretty on point. definitely got a few dirty looks, but got way more thumbs up and smiles...but mostly from pedestrians.
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i'm actually not looking forward to the streets being plowed. this stuff is keeping cars off the road, and the ones who do, actually go slow
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@erok -I agree with you. I also do not look forward too much for things to go back to normal or mre plowed streets, but the way I see things out there, it's gonna take awhile for any normality to return. I really wonder how tomorrow is gonna be... don't foresee too many people making it to work...
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Stuff I saw yesterday:
A woman on her cell phone with a dude tailgating her. (pre plowed street)A woman honking at some guys walking up the street (they were taking up most of the street) and them promptly fishtailing when try to pass them.
The road here in Mt. Lebo seem pretty good and steadily getting better.
A guy going down at 15%+ grade while texting. (or updating FB? New status: crash imminent.)
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the best was walking down the middle of the street yesterday and having the few cars drive down the street with the sheepish "i know what you're going to say, don't say it, i know i'm an idiot" look on their faces. @pratt: people did take back the streets.
Back to my favorite motto: "roads are for people, not just people in cars" -
the sheepish "i know what you're going to say, don't say it, i know i'm an idiot" look on their faces.
ha ha. definitely saw that
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The streets around the east end are decidedly mixed. Negley has spots of pavement, and spots of thick, rutted ice. Most side streets are not plowed.
Today was the first time I've never seen a single bicycle at Whole Foods.
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the roads in somerset are clear now :D
back in town, i saw hot metal bridge and jail trail are untouched. most of the streets in the flats on the southside are packed snow turning to ice. 18th street is passable at 1-1/2 lanes. Many cars are still parked in the shoulder from Friday it seems.
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i saw hot metal bridge and jail trail are untouched
I can't imagine the city will get to these any time soon, given the state of most roads in the city.
I suspect this week will mark a shift in my commuting attitude. A few years ago, I ALWAYS rode, in anything, to prove to myself and to my coworkers that I was tough. After ten years of commuting (with the option now of working from home when I want to), however, I don't feel that I need to prove anything to anyone. I have no desire to fight two feet of snow on the trails, or deal with the untreated sidewalk on Fifth Avenue to get home.
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Cost of snow tires. 50 dollars. Facial expressions of stuck motorists as you pass them on your bike. Priceless.
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When non-bikers ask me if I get cold, I tell them the truth: "The coldest I will get this winter is when I get into an unheated car - same as you."
Unless I do something dumb - and most winters I manage not to - that is the truth.
I'm wimped out this weekend. Friday night I rode home - or rather rode and walked. Since then, I've bused.
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I rode from Uptown to the CMU Brontosaurus and back on these 700x25s. I followed tire tracks on Fifth and Forbes, no problems. Had a few looks from bystanders, though.
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I skied through Frick Park to Dee's for dinner tonight. I had to walk a little bit, to cross some spots where the rare civic-minded people had shoveled their walks, but really, how often do you get to ski to the bar? While I stood outside cooling off, one gentleman opened his car door and shouted "Hey, buddy! No offense, but, have you really been using those to get around?" I was proud to be able to answer "absolutely."
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Lyle: I saw some folks skiing right down the middle of Fifth Ave in Oakland Saturday afternoon.
Shared space x 100. It's been great.
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seems the roads are worse today. but when you throw in a gagillion single occupancy vehicles into the mix things get funny.
hey kids, the word of the day:
Can you say "Clusterfuck"
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i walked to work, because i saw flashing signals on carson and police blocking 12th street. the sidewalks are better than the city streets at this point. however, i just saw a cyclist ride pass my office along the alley between the busway and liberty in the strip.
the roads with packed snow/ice are perfect for studded tires, but the volume of cars testing the conditions just make it too dangerous in my eyes... so many cars running through stop signs and red lights, because braking will send them out of control.
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Unsurprisingly, the Eliza Furnace Trail is mostly snowcovered. The lot at Swinburne street is almost untouched except for one track by a plow. They made the attempt to plow the trail but only got as far as the pedestrian bridge between the lot and the Hot Metal Bridge where a tree is down blocking the trail.
From there to Bates Street there is a single track that looks like someone had a personal plow. Narrow but not too bad.
From Bates Street almost to the Birmingham Bridge has some tracks through the snow, slow going, where there is another tree down. They plowed from there to just the other side of the Birmingham Bridge and gave up there. It's snow covered with me and one other lunatic blazing a trail through the snow from there to the Second Avenue parking lot.
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I went out on my mtn bike today but turned around once I got to Forbes and Braddock. Too many cars and it just wasn't worth it when I can work from home.
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I usually see at least one bike while waiting for my 28X Downtown. This morning, in about a 15-minute wait around 8:30, none. A lot fewer cars, too. Lots more people on the bus, though.
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Saw a guy on a fixie come out of Forbes and turn onto Stanwix today at lunch. He was having some trouble getting a grip on the road, meanwhile a fishtailing mini-van comes around the bend behind him. The cyclist hit some sort of ice bump lost his feet off the pedals (no toe clips) wobbled. A slightly bigger bump and he might have gone down right in front of the van which wasn't giving him much space. Fortunately he didn't.
I abandoned the stopped bus and walked down Fifth avenue from Stevenson today to get to work. Crossing Chatham Square and Washington the two people walking in front of me fell on the ice. They got up and a car started beeping. It was sliding downhill, wheels locked, unable to stop. We got out of the way and fortunately traffic on 5th was moving slowly enough to stop due to the near gridlock that he got through unscathed but the roads are bad. It's more slush than ice downtown right now, but it will be icy again.
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I went out for a ride today. It wasn't much fun. Only the occasional street is cleared, and a lot of them are covered in nasty slippery slush.
I tried Ellsworth and had the bike come out from under me once a block or more. Stay well away from that one.
Moreover, all of the roads are wet, slippery, and uncleared, but people are getting overconfident, driving faster than is safe and passing closely. I'd honestly take a bus or walk if at all possible.
I did see a Public Works plow out clearing Overlook Drive in Schenley Park for no reason. Forbes and Fifth still look like they're more or less untouched. I'm pretty sure no one at the city has the slightest idea of what they're doing.
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^LOL! Can't wait to see what Old Man Winter has in store for us tomorrow.
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I rode in to work yesterday- Squirrel Hill, down Greenfield, and to town on 2nd Ave. It was hardpack, so very rideable. Only pickups honked at me- they could have given me a ride! On the way home I walked it through Panther Hollow and took my one fall approaching CMU.
Worrying about lots of cars today, I rode the bus- it took 1 1/2 hours to get sort of near town, so I bailed and ran the 2.5 miles to work on the north side. Should have driven- 376 was clear and not too slow, but wanted to do the right thing.
The pedestrian bridge and Point State Park was plowed to dry cement. Go figure. -
I have to drive tomorrow (!) but may take a shovel with me on the bus on Wednesday. Wouldn't be the first time. IME, anyplace that gets any sort of clearing off ends up being fairly nice to walk on after a day or so without snow. So I do a little clearing off, one shovel width wide, on the walkways not already being cleared, between Point A and Point B, and by the bus stop where I'm waiting. And if any shop owner wants to stick a $10 bill in my hand to do a good job, I'm prepared.
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Yep. Most of the sidewalks along my street are dry, and have been since Sunday. Given the sunshine and relative warmth, if the city could actually get the plows out to the secondary roads, they may have a shot at clearing some of them.
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But they haven't even managed to get them out on main roads. Pitiful.
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I've been told that side streets are bad...and I'll believe it from the way that mine looks.
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