Nice.  So cool.

• Cyclists accuse Toronto Mayor Ford of “war on bikes”
• The makers of walkscore.com finally released the beta version of bikescore.com.  Pittsburgh isn’t on it yet, but you can vote to have us included.
• Grid Chicago writes about how bike lanes went from being seen as a tool of gentrification to a community asset
• 26 ways to store your bike at your house
• Congrats to our neighbors in Morgantown, WV for becoming the state’s first Bicycle Friendly Community!
• Here’s a tear-jerking map of the proposed Port Authority Doomsday Cuts
• Don’t forget about the popular Venture Outdoors Fest on Saturday! Come visit us at the bike valet.

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership

Priory Hospitality Group is pleased and proud to be recognized recently as a “Bronze” “Bike Friendly Business” by the League of American Cyclists, a national organization based in Washington, DC dedicated to advocating for bicycle ridership and safety.  We won this award based upon our installing bicycle securing facilities, such as racks and bike shelters, on our hotel property.  We also invested in bike maps, and bike repair equipment for our guests.  For our staff, we created a changing area and shower for associates who would like to bicycle in to work in the morning.  This recognition comes on the heels of being recognized by Bike Pittsburgh as a “Bike Friendly Business.”  The Priory Hotel is the only hotel in the Pittsburgh region recognized as “Bike Friendly” by these two organizations.

Pittsburgh is host to an array of bicycling amenities, including many nearby bike trails, including the beautiful North Shore Trail on the Allegheny River, running by PNC Park and the Rivers Casino.  Pittsburgh is also a launch point for the Great Allegheny Passage, heading through the Appalachian mountains, along the C & O Canal, and into Washington, D.C.  We welcome guests with bicycles here at the Priory, and if you are interested in choosing Pittsburgh as a stop on your bicycling vacation, we would be delighted to host you.

Kick off another year of Car Free Fridays with a bag of SWAG

What exactly is National Bike to Work Day you ask?  Well, we like to think of it as an invitation, a chance, for you to try out the many simple benefits of bike commuting.  This Friday, May 18th, we’ll see hundreds (if not thousands) of Pittsburghers grab the handlebars to give biking to work a shot.  And as many of them will find, the commute is just more fun, and goes faster on a bike! In fact, more than likely you’ll arrive at work with a smile!

As usual, Bike To Work Day will kick off BikePGH’s Car Free Fridays initiative – programing meant to promote alternative transit and end rush hour traffic, one car trip at a time.  To celebrate our new season of programing, and the special Bike To Work Day holiday, May 18th will have plenty of giveaways, promotions and events for people riding bikes.  So rally some friends, family, and co-workers and get ready to ride your bikes to work!

Join Mayor Ravenstahl at a news conference

At 8:30 am on the County Office Building’s Portico a press conference will be held to give a chance for some of the city’s most influential bike advocates to speak a little about the future and importance of improving the climate of bicycling in Pittsburgh.  We’ll hear inspiring words from Mayor Ravenstahl and BikePGH’s Executive Director Scott Bricker.

What to Expect

• Hydration Stations

For Bike To Work Day, from 7:30-9:30am, BikePGH has collaborated with lots different businesses to bring you THIRTEEN hydration stations where they’ll have food, coffee and other treats to keep the ride to work filling and fun.  Each Hydration Station will be located on major bike commuting routes, so you should have no problem finding one on your ride to work.  See the map below of all the Hydration Station Locations.  Hydration Station visitors will also get a free SWAG BAG!

View 2012 Bike to Work Day: Hydration Station Locations in a larger map

• The Mysterious SWAG Bag!

Besides the joys of youthfulness and freedom that participating in Bike To Work Day will bring you, the free SWAG Bag is sure to be one of the day’s other joys.  Everyone who rides can get a bag at the hydration station. This year we have a number of  awesome sponsors who have donated some useful goodies to fill these beautiful Car Free Fridays canvas bags.  You’ll be even more happy you made the trip by bike!

• Bike To Work Day Passports

Also inside the SWAG Bags will be a Bike To Work Day Passport with discounts for a number of local businesses good until May 24th – one week after bike to work day.  We’re going to keep details a secret for now, but you can expect to see promotions from some the best places in Pittsburgh to eat, drink, and be merry.

• Bike to Work Day Evening Happy Hours

Just as important as the bike ride into work is the bike ride home!  To take care of your after-work thirst, Penn Brewery is hosting a special Bike From Work Day Happy Hour with $3 pints and half price appetizers from 5-7.

Over the Bar Bicycle Café will also launch their Car Free Fridays happy hour on Bike To Work Day, where they will donate 10% of all Happy Hour sales from now through October to BikePGH!

Take the Bike To Work Day Pledge!

Are you ready for a fun Bike To Work Day on Friday, May 18th! If you’re a first time bike commuter, give it a try!  If you’re a regular rider, get someone new to try it too!  Who knows, it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship between a bike and its rider.

Take the pledge to ride Bike To Work Day 2012 today!

Getting out on a bike

The strength of Bike To Work Day is in the fact that it’s a fun activity that brings us together as a community of people on bikes.  It is our sincere hope that you can join.  If it has been a while since you’ve ridden a bike, we’ve published a Bike Commuting 101 Guide to share some tricks and tips about urban riding meant to help you get back in the saddle. If you have any specific questions about biking that you’d like to be answered, we also host an on-line messageboard where hundreds of avid Pittsburgh bicyclists of all types are glad to share their experience and wisdom with you.

If you would like some company when you bike to work BikePGH will be more than happy to help you find a bike buddy too. Just send us an email at bikepool@bike-pgh.org, include your contact information, the intersection where you would like someone to meet you, and the time you want to arrive to work. We’ll do our best to make a match.

Bike to Work Day is a signature event of Great Outdoors Week.

Photo credit: Rob de la Cretaz

Sign up now for the National Bike Challenge

Represent Pittsburgh!  Invite your friends, form your teams, and help pedal PGH to the top of the national leaderboards!  Show people that the hills just make us stronger!

Frank Lenz on his bicycle in Washington, PA in 1890

Attend the dedication of Frank Lenz Day and the City’s First Bike Corral

From the PG:

When Frank Lenz left Pittsburgh in 1892 on what was then a newfangled “safety” bicycle, carrying little more than a camera, a revolver and a homemade umbrella, he expected to return to the city two years later, after completing a spectacular bike ride around the world.

He didn’t. Lenz and his bicycle disappeared in Turkey, after he made it roughly 15,000 miles across the United States and several countries including Japan, China and Iran.

Now, 120 years to the day after he pedaled away — with 800 onlookers wishing him well from the Smithfield Street Bridge — the city on Tuesday will officially commemorate “Frank Lenz Day.”

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will issue a proclamation at noon at the OTB Bicycle Cafe on the South Side. He will also be recognizing the opening of the city’s first on-street bicycle parking corral, as well as other advances that the city has made for bicyclists.

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Attend the dedication!

In addition to proclaiming “Frank Lenz Day,” Mayor Ravenstahl will be on hand to dedicate the City’s first Bike Corral, or on-street bike parking.

Show support for the new bike corral and attend the ribbon cutting and Mayoral proclamation!

From the Mayor’s Press desk: Installation of the OTB Bicycle Café corral is expected to be the first of several corrals that will be strategically placed within the City as a way to expand parking capacity in Pittsburgh’s business districts and accommodate City cyclists.

• Tues., May 15, 2012
• 12 noon
• OTB Bicycle Café (2518 East Carson St.)

Click here for complete details and a description of bike corrals

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership

Public input needed into the Draft TIP

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is the region’s forum for collaboration, planning, and public decision-making, and is responsible for planning and prioritizing the use of all state and federal transportation funds allocated to the region. The Commission has the authority and responsibility to make decisions affecting the 10-county region.

One of the ways that they prioritize what projects will happen is through a document called the TIP or Transportation Improvement Program. Currently, there is a draft of this document that is in need of public comment, according to federal law. This draft TIP identifies the priority highway and transit improvements programmed for advancement over the next four years.

Basically, if a project ain’t on the TIP, it ain’t gonna get built.

This is where you as a cyclist and part of the public come in.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT AND PUBLIC MEETINGS

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is seeking input from the public on the following important draft documents that will advance investments in the region’s transportation system:

• Draft 2013-2016 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which identifies the priority highway and transit improvements programmed for advancement over the next four years
• Environmental Justice Benefits and Burdens Assessment of Draft 2013-2016 TIP
• Air Quality Conformity Determination for the Draft 2013-2016 TIP
• Amendment to 2040 Transportation and Development Plan for Southwestern Pennsylvania (2040 Plan) to reflect project phasing and cost information included in Draft 2013-2016 TIP

Beginning Tuesday, May 15, 2012, these draft documents will be available for public review on the internet at www.spcregion.org, and at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, at the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning, at County Planning Departments, and at many public libraries in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

SPC’s Public Participation Panels encourage you to attend a public meeting to learn more about the draft documents. Meetings will be open house in format with an informational presentation approximately 30 minutes after starting time. There will be opportunities to look at maps, talk to representatives from SPC, PennDOT, transit operators, and planning departments, ask questions, and submit your comments.

Please note the time and location of your county meeting.  Individuals wishing to offer testimony should sign in upon arrival.

• May 15, 6:00 p.m., Lawrence County Government Center, Commissioners Meeting Room, 430 Court Street, New Castle
• May 16, 6:00 p.m., Butler County Government Center, 1st Floor, Public Meeting Room, 124 West Diamond Street, Butler
• May 17, 6:00 p.m., Westmoreland County Courthouse, Commissioners’ Meeting Room, 2 North Main Street, Greensburg
• May 22, 6:00 p.m., Greene County, Waynesburg University, Third Floor, Stover Hall, Waynesburg
• May 24, 6:00 p.m., Allegheny County/City of Pittsburgh, Trust Arts Education Center, Peirce Room, 805 Liberty Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh
• May 30, 6:00 p.m., Armstrong County Commissioners Conference Room, 450 Market Street, Kittanning
• May 31, 5:00 p.m., Washington County, Room 104, Courthouse Square, 100 West Beau Street, Washington
• June 5, 5:00 p.m., Beaver County Courthouse, Commissioners Meeting Room, 810 Third Street, Beaver
• June 6, 6:00 p.m., CareerLink of Indiana County, Conference Room, 300 Indian Springs Road, Indiana
• June 7, 5:00 p.m., Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, 65 West Main Street, Uniontown

Verbal and written comments will be taken by SPC representatives at each of these meetings.

Click to see the Draft TIP

Written comments can also be submitted online at www.spcregion.org; by mail to SPC Comments, 425 Sixth Avenue, Suite 2500, Pittsburgh, PA 15219; by fax to 412-391-9160; or by email to comments@spcregion.org.

All comments must be received by 4:00 p.m. Monday, June 18, 2012.

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership

We are pleased and honored, for the second year in a row, to have our Grand Hall at the Priory named one of Pittsburgh’s “Best Restaurants” by Pittsburgh Magazine. We came in first in the “best banquet facility” category. Hats off to our General Manager Walter Czapliewicz and chefs Pete Phillipy and Michael Henney.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have had the good fortune of vacationing in the Turks and Caicos Islands on a few different occasions. In the past I have visited close to the Christmas holiday with my family (see this post). This time, Ben and I planned a quick post tax season getaway. We left for Turks on Saturday April 21st and returned to Pittsburgh on April 25th.

(image from www.wherewhenhow.com)

We didn’t organize too much ahead of time. We rented a car through Grace Bay Car Rental and made a reservation at Coco Bistro for one night’s dinner. We also made a trip to Trader Joe’s, planning to cram some dried goods and snacks into our bags as grocery prices are high in the islands.  Our flight down was super easy, with a quick stop in Charlotte. By the evening of the 21st we were sitting on Grace Bay beach sipping rum punch.

We were staying at The Tuscany (c/o Uncle Dame - thank you!), on the island of Providenciales. Provo is one of  the most populated islands  of  TCI and contains most of the hotels and resorts.  We had fish tacos at the Ocean Club on the first night, watching the sun set over the ocean. Sigh.

The rest of our trip was extremely relaxing. Every morning involved a long beach walk. I was usually snapping photos and Ben was usually examining the local wildlife.

Here is Ben closely examining a conch shell. In TCI, conch is king. Or something like that. I think after this walk we wiki-ed conch to learn even more about it’s conch-ness. Did you know TCI is home to the only conch farm in the world? They are very proud of this fact. Ben and I actually spontaneously tried to visit the conch farm on one of our exploratory drives around the island but it was closing down for the day. And also looked super sketchy. Maybe next time Conch World.

Usually after our walk we would eat breakfast at our place and then lounge on the beach.  This is perhaps  my favorite beach activity.  (Books read on vacation: The Descendants: Dysfunctional but engaging, enjoyed it and have since seen the movie; Fifty Shades of Grey: Whyyyyy did I read this, horrible garbage writing, will not be continuing the trilogy; The Art of Racing in the Rain: Really beautiful and unique, very smartly written).

In the afternoons, we would grab a quick lunchtime sandwich, gather up our gear, and head out to explore the island.

This picture was taken while driving around Chalk Sound. Chalk Sound is located in the Southwest corner of the Provo island and is known for its turquoise waters. Beautiful.

(from www.turks-and-caicos-beach-vacation.com)

We ended up renting a tandem kayak from Las Brisas hotel/restaurant near Sappodilla Bay area of the sound and padelled around for an hour or two. We ran into no other boaters or kayakers on the sound. It was amazingly quiet and calm and relaxing.

The day we kayaked, we also hit up Da Conch Shack for dinner. This is a fun and super casual spot right on the beach in the Blue Hills area of Provo. We had fried conch (calamari-like) and conch curry. As some readers may know, my dad has a colorful history with his conch consumption and I hoped that I had not inherited his conch-hatin’ genes/stomach. No major issues to report although I’m not sure conch is something I will be craving anytime soon. A little too chewy for me.

On another day, we set out to find Smith’s Reef, supposedly the best ‘walk in’ snorkeling on the island. Smith’s Reef was somewhat near Turtle Cove (see map above). We used Tripadvisor directions and the help of a friendly security guard near a Turtle Cove residential area to navigate to some roadside greenery that apparently marked the spot of the reef. To our (my) relief, there was a pretty well worn path through the brush down to the beach and a few other snorkelers were in the water when we arrived. I have no pictures of this adventure but I saw lots of cool fish and a turtle. The turtle being the most awesome of course.  I had previously snorkeled off a boat while in TCI and this experience was a bit different. The waters at Smith’s Reef were not as clear or calm (also could have been the weather) and it can be a little disorienting to be 100 yards off shore swimming around by yourself. Also the reef was much closer to the surface than it had been while snorkeling from the boat. I did have one minor freakout as the coral got closer and closer and I couldn’t figure out what direction to swim in or where Ben was. He claims he was behind me during this ordeal and just saw a ton of bubbles and flailing limbs in my general vicinity. Fortunately, I lived to tell the tale and did not ram myself into any coral.

On our final afternoon in Turks, Ben provided entertainment for Grace Bay beach by setting up his slackline.

slacklinin’ all over the world

I provided encouragement and a cold Turks Head lager to this crazy/nimble man. I still can only walk on this thing by having Ben walk beside me  on the ground and allow me to claw at his shoulder/hair for balance. 

After slacklining commenced, it was time for our final night out in Turks. We had casual dinners or ate in most of the other evenings so decided to go to Coco Bistro on our last night. I devoured a lobster tail and Ben crushed some mahi mahi. We then joined forces and demolished fried bananas with ice cream for dessert. So good. I could eat lobster and fried bananas every day for dinner and be a very happy lady.

 We had a few remaining glorious hours on the beach on the morning of the 25th before catching our flight home. We walked and lounged and soaked in as much sunlight as possible. Until next time Turks… 

• 83% of Americans support Fed Funding for Biking and Walking
• Bicycling follows up on the NY teen who wasn’t allowed to ride his bike to school
• While the Atlantic reports that kids who get driven everywhere don’t know where they are going
• Surprise, the gas tax is unsustainable
• Pittsburgh’s transit doomsday gets some national press
• Our neighbors at the West Virginia DOT are looking to improve the state’s bike-friendliness
• More than 530 kids biked to Bay Middle School in Northeast Ohio — that’s 65 percent of the student body!

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership

Here’s an interesting old picture that I received from one of our neighbors, Bette McDevitt. She had received the photo from her cousin. It shows Lockhart Street up to our Grand Hall (then St. Mary’s Church) from the East, around Madison Avenue. Our Grand Hall is the church with the Bavarian onion domes, which were subsequently removed. The photo looks to be from the 1930′s or so. If you were to look at this view now, all of the buildings would have been demolished up to our Grand Hall, and all you would see would be ribbons of highway. We have a shot from a similar angle in our blog archives, if you look under the tab “Priory History.”

Get ready for the ten day weekend!

11th Annual Great Outdoors Week slated for May 11-20, 2012.

Whether you’re new to the outdoors scene or a seasoned veteran, you’ll have plenty of activities to choose from during this ten day celebration! Great Outdoors Week showcases our region as a hub for outdoor recreation activities – biking, hiking, paddling and much more. Grab your friends or coworkers, pack up the family – get ready for some fun that’s close to home!

GOW activities include bike rides, hikes, paddling/rowing, orienteering, running, bird watching, and much more.

Signature Events

Friday, May 11 – Learn to Row and Paddle

Friday, May 18 – National Bike to Work Day/Car Free Fridays

Saturday, May 19 – 2012 Venture Outdoors Festival Presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield

All this and more on the Walls are Bad website

Promoted by the nonprofit Sustainable Pittsburgh and its outdoor recreation partners, Great Outdoors Week (GOW) highlights opportunities to participate in a variety of nature-related activities while showcasing the many outdoor amenities available in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership