association of bicycle and pedestrian professionals

Written by: Crystal Witt, Riverlife

Pittsburgh Walks had a great showing at the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) conference this summer. Members led tours, presented panel discussions and were able to highlight all of the great work we are doing to promote walkability for Pittsburghers.

Seth Bush gave a 7-minute "quick shot" presentation about Pittsburgh Walks’ collaboration with City of Pittsburgh, Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to survey sidewalk quality across the City. We just surveyed our 6,000th block, and DOMI is already using the data we're collecting to guide sidewalk improvement projects for 2027.

We also took a group of bike/ped professionals from across the country on a walk in the Hill District to show off the Safe Sidewalks Crew + DOMI's awesome work to address critical sidewalk gaps and improve equitable access to safe mobility.

Kudos to Alisa Grishman (Access Mob Pittsburgh) for showing people what it actually takes to get around a broken sidewalk in a wheelchair, Breen Masciotra, AICP (Mobilify) for co-organizing the walk, and Avocet Greenwell + Steve Auterman, AICP NCARB for sharing about their great work to make sidewalks and active transportation more safe and accessible.

Crystal Witt and Public Art Intern Miles Stoops from Riverlife shared their art-forward placemaking work all week long. They hosted a walking tour featuring ArtWalk on the Allegheny, an expanding project to bring public art to the riverfront of the Allegheny River. Riverlife also hosted a bike tour of Pittsburgh’s riverfront “Loop,” highlighting current and future infrastructure aimed at expanding ADA access to the trail system in Downtown, the South Side, North Shore and West End.

Crystal said, of her panel discussion with youth programs, “I was so proud to be able to invite my partners from the community and share our joint work on murals, shade structures, and especially the podcast led by students from Manchester Youth Development Center, Voices Across the River.”