Challenge

The transportation network in Pittsburgh’s predominantly Black Homewood neighborhood needed to support a higher quality of life for residents and businesses. Neighborhood safety audits identified several high-crash locations along Homewood Avenue, Frankstown Avenue, and key intersections along Hamilton Avenue. Speeding posed concerns for children walking to school, people accessing frequent transit services, and patrons of businesses.

Solution

Kittelson led the initial planning study for the active mobility and safety improvements in the Homewood neighborhood. Our team developed transportation solutions for Homewood, advanced by the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI), during a neighborhood-wide safety and mobility study focused on creating multimodal connections, addressing safety concerns, building out the active transportation network, and improving access to high quality transit. As part of the analysis, the Team conducted a comprehensive survey of sidewalk conditions throughout the neighborhood and identified concentrations of crashes and vehicular speeding. We also gathered public input throughout the planning study to help develop evaluation criteria to determine project priority for implementation. Recommended improvements from the planning study included traffic calming, spot safety improvements, signal upgrades, sidewalk improvements, transit stop upgrades, and bicycle connections. 

Kittelson then prepared preliminary and final signing and marking plans for safety improvements on four priority corridors identified in the planning study. Quick-build improvements such as speed humps, intersection daylighting, and high visibility crosswalks were designed to be installed quickly to address safety and speeding concerns in Homewood.