Quick Build Projects are Making Pittsburgh’s Streets Safer – Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Ed Blazina
Pittsburgh is putting an extra emphasis on improving the safety of the streets in its neighborhoods, and the effort is beginning to show positive results.
The city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure is using its discretionary funds to pay for relatively inexpensive improvements such as sidewalks, speed humps, crosswalk improvements, parking restrictions near intersections, and bump-outs to shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians at intersections. Since the beginning of the year, the city has announced more than a dozen projects from Highland Park to Homewood and Mount Washington to improve safety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.
“You don’t always need millions and millions of dollars to improve safety,” said Panini Chowdhury, a planning manager at DOMI.
The department has developed a system it calls “quick build” to make immediate neighborhood improvements for a small investment. For example, in some neighborhoods where pedestrians have problems seeing to cross the street because motorists park too close to intersections, the city painted lines on the street to make it obvious that no one should park there.
