By SHANNON O. WELLS
The Nov. 4 Campus Utilization, Planning and Safety committee meeting featured discussions of increased car thefts around Pittsburgh and efforts to improve pedestrian safety along Terrace Street. The introduction of three new food outlets at the Recreation and Wellness Center added a little lightness to the agenda.
Julie Bannister, assistance vice chancellor for auxiliary services, discussed the three new dining facilities at the recently unveiled O’Hara Street fitness facility the day before they opened on Nov. 5.
The three dining facilities — Squeezed, Recharge, and Edamame — are clustered together on the ground floor concourse that is open to the general public and not just students or paid members.
Bannister described Squeezed, a fresh-press juice bar, as “lots of fun (featuring) different concoctions of juice (that are) very good,” she said. “Recharge is more of a healthy diner (with) protein pancakes, omelets — really focusing on the healthy options to go along with the overall wellness center that it’s in.”
Those two open at 7 a.m., while the third option, Edamame, which she called a “poke concept,” opens at 11 a.m. At Edamame, “you can build your own and have fresh green bowls — your design. We’ll have regular items, but then you’ll also be able to customize things.”
Mobile ordering is available through Dine on Campus and customers also can order at the counter.
“We’ve been able to get small groups within so (they’re) just getting a taste of it and (going) through some of the process,” she said of the pre-opening period last week. “The team was doing really well today. We’re half up today, so that was exciting. So please, take a chance.”
Dine on Campus, Pitt’s overall website for dining, has the eateries’ hours listed, along with menus for all campus dining locations.
David Salcido, CUPS committee chair and assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, seemed to like what Bannister described.
“That sounds like great variety,” he said. “I am powerless against fresh squeezed orange juice, as my wife will tell you.”
Bannister replied, “Just wait till you try this!”
“I’m gonna stop by,” Salcido promised. “When we took our tour … that area was still very much under construction, but there were hints at a very interesting layout, so I’m curious to see how that worked out.”
Vehicle and pedestrian safety
Moving on to other CUPS topics, Ted Fritz, vice chancellor for public safety and emergency management, reported that the city of Pittsburgh noted numerous thefts and break-ins of Kia and Hyundai model cars this year.
“Just a reminder to everybody, especially if you have one of those vehicles, to be sure and lock your vehicle,” he said, adding to use a steering-wheel locking device like the Club for greater protection. “That’s a great preventive measure you can take. Those aren’t really hitting Oakland at the moment, but they’ve been making their way in different neighborhoods throughout the city, and I think Brookline (in South Hills) is the latest.”
Fritz encouraged members of the Pitt community to practice basic security steps, including “don’t keep any valuables out in your car that can be seen, even if it’s change (in the console). That probably indicates there may be more money in there (and is) more likely that your car is going to get broken into. Or just put those things that are valuable in the trunk out of sight.”
Fritz and Salcido introduced Brad Keefer, Pitt Police commander, who leads the University’s pedestrian safety effort through the Community Relations Office, for a pedestrian safety presentation.
Keefer said the Pedestrian Safety Traffic Committee meets quarterly to talk about areas of concern.
“We go over the ever-changing lane restrictions in Oakland as up to date as we can, provide vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents within the Oakland community over that last quarter and usually have a guest presenter,” he said, including Pitt partners from AAA and PennDOT and PRT. “It’s a good way for us to get the information out, but also take in some information and feedback.
A social media toolkit that University Communications and Marketing helped create is part of a pedestrian safety, traffic and driver-safety campaign.
“We’ve been working and collaborating with them as well to share that information, any traffic updates and restrictions that we find out about, we’ll share on social media,” Keefer said. “If we have (information), we’ll make sure that folks have a timely notice.”
For features and more information, visit the Pitt Police website.
Red light cameras coming
The police department is continuing its traffic enforcement details at different days of the week and times. “They’ll be conducting traffic stops. You may end up in a citation, or it might just be a warning,” Keefer said. “The primary point of it is education.”
Pitt Police also are conducting pedestrian-safety blitzes about twice a year, where they’ll distribute information to 500 to 1,000 people within a two-hour period. “It’s a multi-layered effort there,” he said, highlighting the importance of shared responsibility. “Road safety is a shared responsibility between the drivers, pedestrians and bikes and everyone.”
One current city of Pittsburgh traffic safety initiative Keefer shared is red-light cameras to capture photos and license plate information of drivers who run red lights. He said plans call for installing them at six locations in the next couple of months, with the closest to Oakland at the Fifth and Negley avenue intersection.
“Their plan is to add six cameras per year. These locations are submitted by the city of Pittsburgh in conjunction with PennDOT, for which they believe are the most dangerous intersections,” Keefer said, noting that locations are based on crash data and number of violations at each intersection.
“If it’s determined that the police cannot safely monitor the intersection, it might be better suited to enforce it by a camera,” he added. “Our pedestrian safety coordinator will be working with the city of Pittsburgh’s local representatives and definitely advocating for Oakland for their next round of installs.”
New ways of crossing
Regarding the safety-challenged Terrace Street corridor on Oakland’s upper campus, Keefer said some traffic-calming measures were added earlier this semester around the Terrace and DeSoto street intersection, including new signage and “linears” to delineate parking and bike lanes.
“It does not allow you to park too close to the intersection, so the roadways and intersections aren’t obstructed,” he said. “The third crosswalk on Terrace was removed to make it safer there and less confusing for pedestrians.
“The traffic light at the intersection of Terrace and Darragh has been upgraded so it’s brighter lumens, and then there’s no turn-on-red in all directions. It used to blink yellow at certain hours of the night. That’s been changed to no-turn on all directions.”
Halket Street between Forbes and Fifth avenues is now open two ways, “which should help alleviate traffic after being closed for a building construction,” he said, adding that a diagonal crosswalk, similar to one at Craig Street and Fifth Avenue, was added on Bigelow Boulevard.
“You can cross (the streets) on a diagonal. The signals are red, everything is shut down. Basically that happens every cycle,” he noted, with the feedback so far “pretty positive” from pedestrians and drivers. “So, that’s something new.”
Responding to a question about how the community was notified of the new diagonal crossing, Keefer said it was announced via Pitt Police’s social media sites, including Instagram and X, and signs were posted.
“We worked with Student Affairs to help amplify that message (around) the last week of August,” he said. “We actually had officers stationed there for 12-hour days to just help notify the public and let them know, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening.’”
Agreeing that it initially looked “a bit chaotic,” Keefer said, however, that “it seems to be working.”
David Salcido acknowledged that seeing a mass of pedestrians diagonally crossing an intersection can appear “a little shocking, and then you’d worry about the kids crossing in the wrong direction if you didn’t know.
“But yeah, I’ve used the one over Fifth and Craig for years, and I’ve always appreciated it, because it just feels a little safer knowing that cars aren’t moving in any direction when you’re crossing.”
Shannon Wells is a University Times reporter. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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