Volunteer 10 minutes to refine routes for the Northside trail

Over the past four months, GTECH and One Northside have been working on a plan for a neighborhood trail system that would connect all 18 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s Northside and show off the amazing destinations in each. Opinion polls done by One Northside showed that Northsiders want safe connections between neighborhoods, and want their side of the city to be known as a hub for arts and culture. Once you get visitors walking around the Northside, it’s easy to show that’s exactly what it is!

Progress to date

To determine the route for the trail, we started with mapping the location of 1,800 unique assets in the Northside. This information came from a project we did last year in which student researchers walked every street in the Northside and talked to hundreds of neighbors to catalog assets like incredible views of the city, secret gardens, historic mansions, and more. Next, we looked at all existing bike and pedestrian infrastructure like public steps and bike lanes and all infrastructure proposed by the Northside Bike/Ped Committee. We also read through each neighborhood’s community plan to pull out any proposed trails. From there, we took our maps to the Northside Bike/Ped Committee, partner organizations, and two public meetings. Northsiders added unmarked trails to the maps, noted which assets were most important for the trail to pass, and helped to refine the trail routes. Input from residents has been enormously helpful for choosing routes that show off the character of each neighborhood.

Now it’s your turn to help!

If you’re familiar with the Northside, take a look at current draft routes linked below and let us know what you think. Write down your notes as you go through it, and be sure to fill in the form below to let us know about any changes you think should be made. Suggestions could include assets that are missing, redirecting routes, adding additional roads into the trail, or adding connections between neighborhoods. You’ll notice there is one main loop (in dark green) for the whole Northside and small loops (in light green) for each of the 18 neighborhoods. Each dot on the map represents an asset. The first page of the PDF shows the full trail, and the following pages show the trails for each neighborhood. Please give us your input by May 31st so we can get to work developing the maps.