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Railroads to photographers: Stay away

Written by Jon Schmitz on .

We begin today with an unusual but eminently sensible plea from Operation Lifesaver of Pennsylvania, a rail safety organization, to professional photographers. It is asking them to refrain from shooting school, wedding or prom pictures on train tracks or trestles. From Don Lubinsky, executive director:

“We know that photographers seek creative portrait settings; however, using train tracks as a backdrop for photos is not only dangerous, it is illegal trespassing. This spring, as part of our mission to reduce deaths and injuries around trains, we are asking professional and amateur photographers to set the right example by staying away from train tracks.”

In December, a California high school art teacher and photographer was struck and killed by a train while taking photos on the tracks. In response, Operation Lifesaver has worked with Professional Photographers of America on rail safety education outreach. Here’s David Trust, CEO of the PPA:

“Trackside settings have become popular for senior, wedding, and family portraits. But photographers need to know the laws and the safety ramifications of staging a photo shoot near train tracks. PPA applauds Operation Lifesaver programs that educate photographers about the danger to themselves and their clients of working near tracks.”

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roadworkaheadTraffic restrictions for a major reconstruction project will begin Monday on Route 19-Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will hold an informational meeting for the public on Monday night. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the municipal building, 710 Washington Road. As the meeting begins, water line relocation by Pennsylvania American Water will start, closing the northbound lanes of Washington Road from Gilkeson and Connor roads to Terrace Drive. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in both directions using the southbound side of the road starting at 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and continuing until 5 a.m. the next day. The official start of the $5.6 million PennDOT project is April 22. It calls for milling and resurfacing Washington Road from the intersection at Connor and Gilkeson to Alfred Street in the heart of the business district. It also will reconfigure the Connor-Gilkeson intersection, adding a second eastbound through lane from Gilkeson to Connor to eliminate a bottleneck. Traffic signals will be upgraded through the corridor.

More Route 65 restrictions from Chestnut Street in Sewickley to the Beaver County line will occur weekdays starting Monday and continuing through the end of the month. Crews will paint crosswalks, do electrical work, repair guiderail, install ADA ramps, stain concrete wall and perform other minor tasks to complete the project. Short-term single lane closures will occur as needed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

The ramp connecting the Liberty Bridge to northbound Interstate 579-Crosstown Boulevard will be closed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday while crews place concrete to construct a drainage system above a retaining wall.

Fort Pitt Tunnel washing will close an inbound lane overnight starting at 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday and an outbound lane at 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Work wraps by 5 a.m. daily.

Maple Avenue in Wilmerding will be closed from Second Street to Middle Avenue from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing through early October during work on retaining walls.

Route 22 will have rolling lane closures between the Oakdale interchange and the Washington County line as crews continue research for a future project from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through April 26.

Expansion of the Route 19 intersection at Freeport Road in Marshall will begin Monday, with crews adding a right-turn lane from northbound Route 19 to Freeport Road, two left-turn lanes from Freeport Road to southbound Route 19 and a turn lane from Freeport to northbound Route 19. Other improvements include new traffic signals, signage, curbing, ADA ramps, drainage and widening. Lane closures will be possible weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. through mid-July.

DON’T GET BLINDSIDED ... there’s more! Read the previous post and stay out of harm’s way this weekend.

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My kind of town

Written by Diana Nelson Jones on .

 pedbike
 
The Chicago Department of Transportation now has Complete Streets Design Guidelines. 
 
From now on, in the design guidelines for every effort from major streetscape projects to minor roadside electrical work, she writes, transportation work must defer to a new ‘default modal hierarchy.’ The pedestrian comes first.
 
The article points out that city design for generations has bowed to the car as the primary means of getting around and that drivers have come to expect that. It’s encouraging to know that Chicago has put that practice in reverse. It is time for all municipalities and for national transportation policy to reflect on the role of driving in our culture and push it back in class.
 
Transit, bicycling and walking should all be elevated above the car and funding to do that should back the political will to.
 
In the article, Janet Attarian, the Chicago transportation department’s complete streets project director is quoted as saying, “We’re not talking about necessarily closing roads down, making them just for pedestrians. It’s about really understanding how you layer safety and placemaking and supporting economic development into this process of designing your roadway.”
 
From the article: “My feeling is that we have to swing the pendulum in the other direction,” says Gabe Klein, commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Transportation. “The fact is that the transit user is also a pedestrian, a cyclist is also a pedestrian, an auto user is also a pedestrian. You may not chose to do the other modes every day, but every day you’re a pedestrian.”

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Amtrak has best month ever as ridership growth continues

Written by Jon Schmitz on .

Amtrak continues to enjoy record-setting ridership, including the single-best month ever in March.

This week, the railroad reported a nearly 1 percent ridership gain for the first six months of fiscal 2013 despite service disruptions from Superstorm Sandy. Twenty-six of 45 routes saw gains and Amtrak said it expects to finish the fiscal year at or above last year’s record ridership of 31.2 million.

There was good news for the Pennsylvanian, the route that had been in jeopardy before the state and Amtrak reached a subsidy agreement recently. Ridership was up 4.3 percent.

Incidentally, at a hearing before the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee this week, PennDOT deputy secretary Toby Fauver, whose department agreed to pay $3.8 million to keep the Pennsylvanian running, said the subsidy amounts to $15 to $16 per passenger, and called the current fares “low,” saying they may have to be raised. Stay tuned.

The Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York Keystone route had a 5.2 percent ridership gain for the six-month period.

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All taxed out, bunky? The Gateway Clipper wants to give you a discount. For one day only, tax day, Monday, April 15, cruises will be 25 percent off. Visit www.gatewayclipper.com for more information.

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ICYMI: American Airlines will start nonstop service from Pittsburgh International Airport to Los Angeles on Aug. 27. Read the Post-Gazette coverage here.

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roadworkaheadInbound Route 28 will be down to one lane from the 40th Street Bridge to East Ohio Street from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. We continue to hear drumbeats from the work site that construction around the 31st Street Bridge will be completed early -- maybe a year ahead of schedule. PennDOT for now is sticking with the original projection of late 2014.

Piggy driver item: PennDOT will close the outbound left lane on Route 28 at various points between Etna and Fox Chapel from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through April 19 while its crews remove “excess litter and debris” from the side of the road.

A section of the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway will be closed this weekend for construction on the South Highland Avenue Bridge and East Liberty Transit Center projects, and repairs to the Neville Ramp, Port Authority announced. The closure will begin at midnight on Saturday and conclude by the start of service on Monday, causing detour of the P1 East Busway-All Stops route through East Liberty. The route will not serve Penn, Herron, Negley and East Liberty stations during the closure, and will instead use Bigelow Boulevard, Baum Boulevard and Penn Avenue between Downtown and the busway ramp at Port Authority’s East Liberty bus garage. Temporary stops will be located on local streets near the stations: Bigelow at Herron, Baum at Roup/Negley and Penn near the East Liberty Target. Additionally, the P1’s Downtown stops will change slightly during the detour. P1 riders should allow for extra travel time during the work.

Travel on Interstate 79 in Butler County is going to get more complicated starting on Saturday. Starting then, northbound traffic will be shifted to the southbound side of the highway, with single-lane traffic in both directions, at a bridge replacement project at the Route 422 interchange, Exit 99 in Muddycreek. Delays are likely from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday while crews make the transition. The two-year, $14 million project will replace both bridges. Next season, southbound traffic will be crossed to the northbound side. About 25,000 vehicles use that section of highway on a typical day. Also on Saturday, the ramp from eastbound Route 422 to northbound I-79 will close at about 7 a.m. and remain closed through late July.

Lane closures and restrictions are possible on Route 837-State Street from the Glassport-Clairton Bridge to New England Road in Clairton and on Route 148 from the Port Vue-15th Street Bridge to Lysle Boulevard in McKeesport from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing through June for resurfacing.

The bridge at the end of Duncan Avenue in Hampton, where it connects to Route 8, will close April 22 for replacement.

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BikePGH building a voting bloc

Written by Diana Nelson Jones on .

BikePGH reports that it has collected 1,700 signatures in its petition drive — the “I bike. I walk. I vote” campaign — to influence the next mayor’s policies on bicycle and pedestrian safety, including better infrastructure to make bicycling in the city more inviting to more people.
 
If that number of people cast votes with bicycling and pedestrian issues in mind, that’s a significant voting bloc that could determine the outcome of the election.
 
BikePGH hopes to collect 3,000 signatures before the democratic primary on May 21.
 
“Under Mayor [Luke] Ravenstahl’s leadership, biking became safer and more convenient,” BikePGH wrote in an email. “The city installed bike racks, on-street bike lanes, as well as the recently announced bikeshare program to launch in 2014. Additionally, in 2010, the League of American Bicyclists honored Pittsburgh as a Bronze Bicycle-Friendly Community. BikePGH calls upon our next mayor to continue to invest in policies and infrastructure that will lift Pittsburgh to a Silver-level award and higher.
 
“Cities across the country are investing in safe, bike-friendly infrastructure because they are competing with each other to be the greenest, healthiest, and best able to attract talent,” said Scott Bricker, executive director of BikePGH. “The best part is, these mayors are finding that these initiatives are not only popular. They save lives.”
 
BikePGH has sent a questionnaire to all the mayoral candidates and will be publishing the results on May 1. The non-profit will also participate in the candidates’ forum on greenspace April 24 at the Heinz History Center. 
 
May 17 is Bike to Work Day, when BikePGH will make a push to get out the vote for biking and walking.

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