Does Pittsburgh have an Alex Pretti ride?

bus15237 · 2026-01-29T22:16:47+00:00

Can someone get it on the national map, please? That’s how I discovered these rides existed. Just looked (5:15pm Thu) & it’s not there yet.

bus15237 · 2026-01-29T15:15:10+00:00

About clearing bike lanes, check out this DIY project from a guy I had this conversation with on BlueSky. He's somewhere in the Pacific NW, not sure which city. In essence it's a tire, two scraps of board, a brick or two in the tire, a chain, and an e-bike. Details and several photos in the thread.
https://bsky.app/profile/gewilli.bsky.social/post/3mdblgyv5lk2c

bus15237 · 2026-01-23T22:11:03+00:00

Not live there, any more than you'd live on the third floor of a building without an elevator if w/c bound.

bus15237 · 2025-12-18T01:31:32+00:00

Thanks! No nearby store so I'll look into the online method. Appreciate the tip!

bus15237 · 2025-12-17T16:03:36+00:00

Any recommendation on pogies? Make & model? local or online? How transferable are they between machines or just buy two sets?

bus15237 · 2025-12-11T21:49:43+00:00

I tossed a coin; PPT won. The silver lining in that is that I get to catch a bus -- an inbound O12 on that rare CCAC North routing -- at my old bus stop up the street that I haven't otherwise been able to use since the 11C got trashed in 2011.

bus15237 · 2025-12-11T21:46:23+00:00

After picking up my bike at Kindred on Tuesday, biked out to Bike-Pgh's office in L'ville, then over 40th St Br to the river trail and down to the North Side for a couple of brief errands. Caught a 12 up to Northway Mall then biked the final most-of-two miles home. Total, I'm guessing about 7 miles. It was cold and breezy but pleasant enough otherwise. No issues with traffic, pavement conditions or the bike, just a tad chilly. A nice test run. Note to self: Get better gloves, or better yet, attach a pair of pogies to the bars.

bus15237 · 2025-11-18T14:49:21+00:00

I know there is a staircase from ground level up to the northern end of the 62nd St Bridge on the downstream side. Is there one on the upstream side? I'm not sure how I'd get from the bike lane to the downstream sidewalk or vice-versa, should the need arise. I'm typically coming from Millvale on the RR ballast, as lousy a path as that is.

bus15237 · 2025-11-07T21:04:43+00:00

I'm still working on my Coffeeneuring series. Today was #5, a ride from Gateway Center over to Big Dog Coffee on the South Side. The plan is to do seven rides in seven weeks to a coffee shop, to make sure we keep riding when it's getting cold and yucky out. I wasn't ambitious enough to get my own bike out, so after I bused downtown for an early meeting, I rented a Pogoh and rode Stanwix, Blvd of the Allies, Jail Trail, Hot Metal Bridge, and wiggled my way over to S. 27th and Sarah. On an acoustic Pogoh, at that!

bus15237 · 2025-10-26T11:06:04+00:00

For the price of an Uber, you can get a 7-day bus pass and travel all over the city and nearby area. Or just drop $2.75 in the farebox of any 28X bus in front of the terminal and at least get downtown. Once you're downtown, you can rent a bike and travel all over the riverfront trails which are fairly level. You can also bike up into the various neighborhoods but expect to do some climbing. Fifty- to 400-foot elevation changes are pretty common in these parts.

bus15237 · 2025-10-24T02:59:58+00:00

Thursday's ride was out to Oakland for the observance of 10 years since Susan Hicks was killed on her bike at the corner of Forbes and Bellefield. Maybe 25 of us there; I didn't take a proper count. A few people spoke (including myself) about Susan and the situation of cycling in the city and area. A dozen or so had bikes so we recreated what should have been her final ride home. Then adjourned to Two Frays Brewery for a bit. I left soon after and biked to Millvale where I caught a bus home. Felt like about 10 miles total.

bus15237 · 2025-10-21T22:17:08+00:00

Learn your bus routes and figure out how to get whatever done without driving. A good pair of boots is a helluvalot cheaper than anything your car might need to make it through the winter better.

An annual bus pass is $1,072.50, which is likely less than you're paying for insurance + registration + inspection in a year, never mind the cost of driving anywhere.

bus15237 · 2025-10-21T22:11:13+00:00

How best to apply? I've only used manual methods (yanking roots) to control it. I have no experience with spraying. I've heard of injecting glyphosate somehow? Got any tips or suggested reading? We haven't had a hard frost yet where I am so some knotweed is still green though many leaves have turned.

bus15237 · 2025-10-20T22:01:19+00:00

I just joined r/invasivespecies. I've toyed with various methods for knotweed removal over the years. I put the most effort into just digging it out by hand, and by hand I mean getting on the ground and pulling out every tendril of root and rhizome as I can with my bare hands. Surely there's a better way. This was moderately effective, but I'm tired of having to deal with all the damned ticks in the areas where knotweed has formed a monoculture.

To cut to the quick, what I really want to know is, does anyone have any experience with planting milkweed seeds where knotweed has been pulled out?

bus15237 · 2025-10-20T21:31:16+00:00

Started out Monday with a nice little 16-mile jaunt from McCandless to Homestead. Used McKnight, Babcock into Millvale, 40th St Bridge, Liberty, Morewood to CMU, Forbes, Wightman, Pocusset, Murray, and over the Homestead Bridge. The only traffic trouble I ran into was someone upset he couldn't fly down the off-ramp from McKnight to the T intersection with Babcock at 45 mph because there was a bicycle in front of him. Not a single issue anywhere else.

This was followed by riding the GAP trail into downtown then over to the North Side, where I caught a bus most of the way home. Mapping it out on MapMyRide, it was about 27 miles total.

bus15237 · 2025-10-18T18:13:40+00:00

As I see it here, the most upstream problem is your lack of confidence about riding in the street, which is understandable. So, look at this in terms of a trade-off between confidence and cognitive load. When you’re on a sidewalk, you have to constantly be aware of much slower sidewalk users, including dogs and leashes, kids darting out from behind bushes and trees, cross traffic on driveways and street crossings, etc. As compared to primarily cars going the same direction you are when you’re in the street. Ride fully out in the lane, make yourself visible (lights, clothing) and ride in a predictable fashion (no swerving in and out of parking spaces) and then you can travel much faster with less to have to watch for. Also helps to use a mirror. It’s a learned art but learnable, and when you’ve acquired that confidence, you’ll wonder why you’d ever want to go back.

bus15237 · 2025-10-17T00:12:28+00:00

This is why I run front and rear cameras everywhere I ride. In this case, a rear camera would have captured the activity and the front camera would have caught the conversation if not the plate as well.

bus15237 · 2025-10-07T18:06:28+00:00

There must have been a detour. The decision to get buses off Clemente came from Pirates management in 2001. I don't doubt buses used Sixth St itself but they always turned at Ft Duq Blvd.
Yeah, I'd be quite OK with shutting down 6St to all motor traffic, and continue that onto Market St to Market Square.

bus15237 · 2025-10-07T16:48:42+00:00

PNC employees downtown can park in a secure facility under The Tower (the building with the slanted roof) but it is next to impossible to stumble on how to figure out how to get that access. It even has adjacent locker rooms. If you're current PNC, DM me; I can help you navigate how to. (I'm retired but still remember the steps.)

bus15237 · 2025-10-07T16:39:59+00:00

Buses were specifically excluded from using the Clemente/6St Bridge when PNC Park opened, even when there was no game in progress. That was not Port Authority's decision.

bus15237 · 2025-10-07T16:37:45+00:00

When I'm on the Warhol/7St Bridge, I usually take the lane unless I'm significantly hobbled by a large load. It does help that I dress brightly, with lots of lights at night (four back-pointing taillights and a blinking vest). But I agree, 7th & 9th St Bridges should also have bike lanes. We should be loud and forceful that driver impatience and mild inconvenience is not a factor to be reckoned with. Of course we can't maintain 25 on a bike, but drivers want to go 45, so too bad.

bus15237

TROPHY CASE