Four miles of streets on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, Downtown and South Side will be closed to motor vehicles from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday for the city’s first Open Streets event this year.
That means bikers, walkers, skateboarders and others will have free rein to use the open streets. And coordinator Bike Pittsburgh (BikePGH) also has scheduled a number of activities along those open streets, ranging from live music and wall climbing to dressing like a bird or attending yoga classes.
The free program, which will have two other sessions over the summer on different courses, is designed to get people moving in a safe environment. There will be three activity centers established along the way, restaurants and other businesses on the course typically have sidewalk sales, and inevitably pop-up games, entertainers or other activities spring up during the event.
Sunday’s course will begin at North Shore Drive and Art Rooney Avenue on the North Shore near Acrisure Stadium, meander up West General Robinson Street and cross the Andy Warhol Bridge at Seventh Street to Market Square. From there, it will follow Forbes Avenue to the Armstrong Tunnel, go through the tunnel and across the Philip Murray Bridge to South 10th Street on the South Side and down East Carson Street to South 21st Street.
The course will feature three main activity hubs: kids activities at North Shore Drive and Art Rooney Avenue; health and wellness in Market Square; and arts and culture at East Carson and South 21st. The full list of 21 activities is available on the Open Streets website.
Streets used for the event will be closed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., but many intersections will be open for traffic to cross the closed streets.
The other Open Streets events this year will be June 25 and July 30, but the courses haven’t been announced yet.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.