Lawrenceville urged to improve pedestrian safety

Jason Lovett sits waiting for the bus in front of The Abbey, a restaurant at the intersection of Butler and Home streets — named Lawrenceville’s most dangerous intersection in the 2023 State of the Streets report.

In the two years Lovett has worked at The Abbey on Butler Street he’s never seen an accident or a pedestrian struck at the intersection, although he has heard brakes squealing as a car comes to a fast stop.

“Even going all the way up there past the Arsenal School [on the opposite end of Lawrenceville], I don’t see much happen,” Lovett says.

Lovett’s opinion aligns with a slim minority in Better Streets Lawrenceville’s report, which synthesized data on the neighborhood’s safety and top mobility issues.

“We learned a lot about how people get around Lawrenceville,” says Armin Samii, Better Street’s chair.

Samii says the survey has been conducted for many years, but contributions from a new volunteer made efficient organization and analysis of the data possible.

“Going forward, we can compare year-over-year how people feel and actually have data to show that people are feeling safer or less safe,” Samii says.

Of the 216 respondents, 186 identified as Lawrenceville residents, with the rest — in groupings of six to 10 — identifying as visitors, business owners/workers, other, or a combination of categories.

At least once per week, 99% of respondents walk or use a wheelchair in the neighborhood, 94% drive and 43% bike.

“What that tells me is that there’s a huge overlap between people who use the sidewalks and the streets,” Samii says. “A lot of times it’s portrayed as drivers versus others, and it’s not that at all, at least in Lawrenceville. It’s really all of us — we’re all drivers, we’re all walkers.”

As problematic as cars speeding through pedestrian pathways can be, parked cars pose a broader set of issues for the neighborhood’s walkers, Samii says.

Sidewalk parking not only blocks sidewalks and curb cuts but also creates cracked and uneven pavement. Both obstructions make wheelchair and stroller mobility challenging.

With a now-quantifiable view of how heavily utilized sidewalks are, Samii hopes that within five years, sidewalk parking will become “such a social faux pas that nobody will feel comfortable doing it.”

Tom Brown, a Lawrenceville local who was walking Butler Street during a weekday lunch hour, said the neighborhood’s main streets are in relatively good condition, but “on the side streets, I worry for the less dextrous people.”

As it stands, though, sidewalk parking is caught in a vicious cycle Better Streets wants to break.

“It makes the street look wider, and with a wider-looking street, people drive faster,” Samii says. “When people drive faster, they’re more likely to hit your car and knock off a mirror. With people’s mirrors getting knocked off, they’re going to park on the sidewalk.”

A driver’s awareness of their speed and surroundings is also a concern for pedestrians.

At the Butler and Home intersection, 78 respondents said they felt unsafe or very unsafe, 69 were neutral and 54 felt safe or very safe. The remaining 15 had no opinion.

Inside The Abbey, barista Haley Danforth relates to the concerns. When the bus drops off Danforth across the street, it’s hard for her to cross.

“No one stops because no one thinks it’s a pedestrian walkway,” Danforth says. “There’s no button — there’s nothing. You just have to go for it and hope you don’t get hit.”

A lack of safe crossings was also a major issue reported by 132 participants.

To Lovett, street obstructions were the most dangerous occurrences.

“Things like that,” Lovett points to a large black van parked right by the corner. “That’s dangerous. You can’t see the intersection past it.”

Construction projects that take Butler Street down to one lane lead to impatience and recklessness, he adds, which cause accidents.

The report’s most mentioned priority was the creation of a separate, protected bike route from Lawrenceville to the Strip District and Downtown. An underpass installed beneath the 40th Street Bridge at Willow Street in mid-2023 received the most positive responses.

Samii — also the founder of dashcam.bike, which is both a ride-recording app and a bike advocacy group — thinks the positive feedback came not just from the 43% of respondents who bike weekly, but the drivers with whom they share the road.

“I live on 46th,” Samii says, describing his route into town from Lawrenceville. “I’d have to go down from 46th to Hatfield, across Hatfield, under the 40th Street underpass, down Charlotte, turn on 36th, turn onto Smallman. At 16th — I think — turn up to Penn, and then continue on Penn Avenue in that bike lane.”

“It is so complicated to get Downtown safely from Lawrenceville. Even that network that I just drew out is the way I feel safest, but most of it doesn’t have a bike lane.”

The report’s proposed route would be a connected set of infrastructure improvements. Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility & Infrastructure is currently seeking public engagement on a Smallman Street bike lane project, which would bring about some of the desired improvements, but only reach as far west as 31st Street — a few blocks short of Lawrenceville.

“People who live in Lawrenceville and are trying to visit the Point or go to the grocery store deserve a safe way to visit the Strip District, visit Downtown, and that doesn’t exist today,” Samii says.