On the other side of the Trailblazer (which is a nearly permanent fixture) is a sorrage box/dumpster. It only extrends about a quarter of the way into the bike lane. But that is not so egregious as this because, as has been stated innumerable times before, the Trailblazer is blocking the bike lane right where the street narrows aroun d the corner, making it dangerous for any cyclists.

Black Chevy Trailblazer LT
PA HDZ-7070
6747 Wilkins Ave.
Wed 18 Jan 2012 06:01:40 AM EST

An oldie but a goodie. Overflow from people parking to go to St. Bede Parish on Sunday. When the bike lane in front of the church is completely full, people find themselves another place to park illegally.

Silver Mercedes S550
PA EHG-9619
Sun, 04 December 2011 01:15:42 PM
Wilkins Ave

For your visit to St. Bede Parish on Sundays you wouldn't think to park a block away or on a side street. Oh, no. Your salvation is so important that you have to park right out front. In a no parking zone. In a bike lane. Right on top of the symbol marking it as a bike lane.

Good job.

Green Jeep Wrangler X Unlimited
PA DVV-1226
Sun 04 Dec 2011 01:15:12 PM EST
South Dallas Ave at St. Bede Church

I see that you have children. I see that you have an expensive Yakima bike rack to carry your kid's bikes. So why are you teaching them to be selfish by parking in the bike lane? Why are you teaching them that it's OK to break the law so long as you get a parking spot in front of your church? Why are you teaching them that the safety of other cyclists isn't important?

Or are you so self-absorbed that you don't realize what you are teaching them?

Grey Mercedes R350 BlueTEC
PA EKA-9941
S. Dallas at St. Bede Church
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:09:15 PM

You have parked right next to a sign that says "No Parking". It doesn't say you can ignore the sign on Sundays. It doesn't say you can ignore the bicycle symble painted in the street because you have to get to church. It doesn't say you can park wherever you want because you have a new $39,000 convertable.

It says "No Parking."

Black Audi TT Coupe
PA HVH-6759
S. Dallas at St. Bede Church
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:09:00 PM

I know you're there to go to church but I would think that with an expensive Thule bike rack on top of your car you might, as a cyclist, be more sensitive to parking in the bike lane.

I guess you're too self-absorbed to recognize the irony.

Dark Grey Toyota Prius
PA EHJ-5418
S. Dallas Ave at St. Bede Church
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:08:47 PM

Those who go to church tend to think they can park anywhere they want because being chruched is so important. And society tells them it's ok because no one ever questions this privlidge. Cetrainly not the police who should be ticketing these people for parking in the bike lane. But because the police think that being churched is more important than the law and more important than the safety of cyclists, this behavior continues.

Blue Hyundai Sonata
PA GYD-2895
S. Dallas Ave at St. Bede Church
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:08:27 PM

I am particularly irked by people who park nearly on top of the bike lane symbol. Would they prk on top of a street marking that said "No Parking?" Would they park in a place marked "Fire Lane?" Would they park in a handicapped slot when they were not handicapped?

If it was convient for them to do so, yes, I believe they would.

White Subaru Legacy
PA EVY-8612
6749 Wilkins Ave.
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:07:34 PM

Actually, I thought things had been going very well. I had been by numerous times over the past months and seen that the Trailblazer had been parked further up the street. I thought that perhaps he had learned is lesson and was no longer parking in the bike lane. Well, either he has forgotten this is a bike lane or doesn't care to make the effort anymore. Which is, I think, the reason most people park illegally, they just don't care that it is against the law or dangerous.

Black Chevy Trailblazer LT
PA HDZ-7070
6747 Wilkins Ave.
Sun, 06 November 2011 12:07:04 PM

"Excuse me but are you aware that it is illegal to park in the bike lane?"

Thus began my conversation with Adam Kirk, employee of KDKA Radio and self-absorbed bike lane parking moron.

I don't usually have the opportunity to talk with the people who park illegally in bike lanes because, well, when people typically park they then walk away from their vehicles. Because of that, I can only speculate on their reasons for parking illegally based on the typical autodominionist whining that hits the newspaper and website mailboxes whenever a bicycling issue comes up. But on the Eliza Furnace Trail underneath the Liberty Bridge, the news media sit in the vans with the engines idling waiting for the broadcast queue to leap out and film their segments with the Municipal Courts Building in the background. With Mr. Kirk sitting in his vehicle, I had an opportunity to actually interact with him and I am sad to say, he employed all of the excuses for parking in the bike lane that I had heretofore only assumed.

"It's not illegal."

Yes. It is. "No motorized vehicles are permitted" and your vehicle is parked right in the middle.

"All the other stations park here."

Yes, they do. And I have seen as many as four vehicles from various media outlets parked here and yet not parked actually on the bike lane. Honestly, they used to park in the bike lane but I was involved in a conversation with one of them online and after that they cleaned up their act. I have not seen a media vehicle actually parked on the bike lane itself for years.

"The cops told me to park here."

"Here" is a very large place and I am sure the cops didn't tell you to park on the bike lane itself. Move fifteen feet forward or fifteen feet back and there is plenty of space to park that is not on the bike lane.

"I don't see any cops here telling me to move."

Just because you haven't been caught doesn't make something legal. It only means you have gotten away with a crime. Do you think this way all the time? Do you only obey the law when a lawman is watching? I should hope not.

"I don't see any signs."

There used to be a sign just fifteen feet to your left but one of your media compatriots ran it over with his vehicle. It was subsequently pulled from the ground and chucked with the other garbage and debris against the Parkway East abutment. Removing the sign saying this is a bike lane does not make it any less a bike lane and does not make parking on the bike lane any less illegal. The asphalt also clearly distinguishes the bike lane from the concrete of the not-bike-lane area. And you should have probably taken the clue from the cyclists that no doubt had been riding by while you parked there.

"You could have gone around."

Yes, I could have gone around but it would not be safe to do so. Going around presents the same line-of-sight dangers as if you had to drive into oncoming traffic to go around someone who is double parked. That's why double parking is illegal. That's why parking in the bike lane is illegal. That's why there are bike lanes in the first place.

"You came up to me and was rude. You could have just asked me to move."

OK, now your self-important, passive-aggressive response is just bullshit. My opening statement was "Are you aware that it is illegal to park in the bike lane?" How is that rude? Really, how? If I had come up to you and as you suggested said "Could you please move your vehicle, it's blocking the bike lane" tell me, would you have reacted any differently? Would you have thought that was so much more polite and moved your vehicle? Hell, no. You continuous and varied excuses prove to me that you wouldn't have simply moved no matter what I said. You would have reacted with the same privileged arrogance and disdain as you heaped upon my question in the first place. To you, my mere act of confronting you was rude. An affront to your perceived right to do whatever you want because you are a newsman. Or a guy in a car dealing with 'merely' a cyclist.

And, even if I was rude, that doesn't make it acceptable to illegally park in the bike lane.

So, here's the thing. When you are sitting in a KDKA vehicle, working on a KDKA laptop, phoning in a KDKA news story to the KDKA desk while on the KDKA clock, you are representing KDKA. When you show a blatant disregard for the law and for safety and then dig in your heels to justify your actions, you do so as a representative of the company you work for. When you literally roll your eyes at me, you represent your company as having a complete disregard for my safety and for the law. You do your employer a disservice and, in so doing, you have earned yourself a letter to your employer informing them of how poorly you represent them and a letter to the Mayor's office requesting that the local police do a better job of enforcing the laws and a posting on the Internet telling the entire world who you are and what you think about the law and the safety of cyclists.

This could have been easily avoided. Firstly, by simply not parking illegally in the bike lane. But, even if you were ignorant of that (and remember that ignorance of the law is no excuse) a simple "sorry" and a moving of your vehicle would have avoided the entire thing. Instead, you came up with excuse after excuse. Each one reinforcing your belief that not only had you done nothing wrong but that I was the one wrong in pointing it out to you. My objective is not to insult you or embarrass you or get you ticket or rat you out to your employer but to make the situation safe for myself and other cyclists by clearing the bike lane. But when you set yourself above the law and the safety of others then I feel no remorse in proceeding with insult, embarrassment and other techniques necessary to educate you and ensure my own safety.

White Chevy Tahoe
PA HPP-7369
Fri 04 Nov 2011 06:31:50 AM EDT

Half on the curb but completely blocking the bike lane. There is a driveway right there. And parking on side streets. Plenty of room to park legally, why do you choose to park illegally and unsafely? See that bus? See how there isn't room between your car blocking the bike travel lane and the bus? That's why the lane is there.

Silver Ford Escape Hybrid
PA HPT-1409
Thursday, 27 October 2011 06:07:38 AM
442 South Dallas Ave.

See this big symbol painted on the pavement? It designates a bike lane, a lane of travel for bicyclists. See the white line to the left? That's a line that separates the bicycle lane from the lane for automobiles. It is there to separate the two for the increased safety of the cyclists. Do yoy see that sign on the utility pole just next to where you're parking? It is a very comon symbol of a capital letter P with a red line through it that indicates that parking is not allowed. So, with all these obvious signs, why are you parking there, blocking a lane of traffic? I know why. You're church is right there and you are too lazy or too self-important to park around the block.

Grey Volvo S80
PA DHE-5524
Sunday, 23 October 2011 12:12:00 PM
S. Dallas Ave at Edgerton Ave

This bike lane was just painted a day ago and already it is being used for parking. Probably should have kept the sharrows through the business district. Just as I was taking a photo of the semi, the Hostess truck pulled in. There were a half dozen others in front of the semi parked properly but Mr Hostess couldn't be bothered.

It's a Sunday morning on South Dallas Avenue which means that the pious are parked in the bike lane. I was there late so there were only a few but, had I been there earlier when services were full swing and the faithful were with safety withing the walls of the chruch praying for their souls, out here the entire block would have been fully obstructed with their cars, endangering the cyclists who use this street.

Unfold your hands, raise your heads, get off your knees and actually do something that helps other people. You could start by driving around the block and parking somewhere legal, freeing up the bike lane for the safety of the people they were built for. It's not a great sacrifice like being nailed to a tree or anything, you only need to spend an extra minute or so, walk an extra few hundred feet from where you parked and you can get right back to praising the lord who blessed you with enough wealth to be able to afford an automobile rather than a bicycle.

Red Hyundai Elantra
PA EGX-9017
Sun, 11 September 2011 11:24:19 AM
S. Dallas Ave at Edgerton Ave

One might think that having an Obama/Biden 2008 bumper sticker might imply that the liberal who drives the car might be interested in other so-called liberal causes like bicycling and the support of bicycling infrastructure. Apparently, though, the convenience of parking in front of the St. Bede church on Sunday morning instead of driving around the block and perhaps walking another few hundred feet to get one's prime pew seating is more important than the safety of cyclists.

How liberal is that?

I was there late. I have no doubt that if I were here an hour earlier while services were still in progress, the whole block of the bike lane would have been obstructed by the pious.

Silver Toyota Highlander
PA FGN-3658
Sun, 11 September 2011 11:23:50 AM
S. Dallas Ave at Edgerton Ave

I actually did have to stop because of on coming traffic.

What else are they supposed to do, their driveway is already being used.

Some major storms rolled through the area but that is no reason to park abandon your car on a shared use trail. The lights were on. The engine wasn't running. The windows were open. The vehicle was empty. A bit of a mystery.

Second Generation (2003-2008) Dodge Durango
PA FBS-9493
Fri 19 Aug 2011 05:42:12 PM EDT

I was tempted not to ding KDKA's Unit 80 for parking on the bike trail bujt then saw that they had their camera set up to block half the trail. They could easily have moved it three feet and still had a decent shot.

You will also notice the bike trail sign that has been pushed half over. That happened quite a long time ago, not long after it had been installed, no doubt knocked over by the driver of a news van, the only people that ever park here.

White Ford S-350 Van
PA YMV-5092
Thu 11 Aug 2011 06:23:40 AM EDT