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Pittsburgh groups to celebrate bike lanes' 10th 'birthday' with free cake | TribLIVE.com
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Pittsburgh groups to celebrate bike lanes' 10th 'birthday' with free cake

Megan Guza
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James Knox | Tribune-Review
Cyclists roll down the bike lane along Liberty Avenue as the snow starts to fall Thursday January 16, 2014 in Bloomfield.
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Jasmine Goldband
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BikePGH

BikePGH and neighborhood groups from Bloomfield and Lawrenceville will be giving away free cake Monday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of bicycle lanes along Liberty Avenue.

“We wish happy birthday to the Liberty Avenue bike lanes that connect our communities,” BikePGH, Bloomfield Livable Streets and Better Streets Lawrenceville said in a joint news release.

The groups will give free cake to any bicyclist riding in the bike lanes at Liberty and Millvale avenues in Bloomfield between 5 and 7 p.m. Monday.

“A decade later, it's hard to imagine our Liberty Avenue with no bike lanes, no bike racks or no bike share stations,” said Bruce Chan of Bloomfield Livable Streets.

When the Liberty Avenue lanes were created in 2007, the only other bike lanes in the city were loops in Highland and Riverview parks and a lengthy lane on Beechwood Boulevard created in the 1980s.

Today the city has about 77 miles of dedicated and protected bike lanes and streets with shared-lane markings or “sharrows,” according to BikePGH.

“The story of the Liberty Avenue bike lanes parallel the story of Pittsburgh's bike lane development,” said Eric Boerer, BikePGH's advocacy director. “It was the first on-street infrastructure project that BikePGH advocated for and won.”

Since then, the organization has pressed for more — and safer — bike lanes in the city. In 2013, the city began implementing green pavement markings in particularly dangerous areas.

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8519, mguza@tribweb.com or via Twitter @meganguzaTrib.