The Ultimate Pittsburgh Bike Lane & Trail Guide

The four trails worth building a ride around are the Montour Trail (46-plus car-free miles through the South Hills and western suburbs), the Great Allegheny Passage (150 miles from Point State Park to Cumberland, Maryland, continuing another 184.5 miles into Washington, D.C. on the C&O Canal Towpath), the Three Rivers Heritage Trail (a 33-mile network along both banks of all three rivers), and the Eliza Furnace Trail -- locally nicknamed the "Jail Trail" -- a flat 5.7-mile commuter route linking Downtown to Oakland and Hazelwood. This directory maps every access point for all of them, plus every on-street bike lane and POGOH bike-share station in the city.

The Montour Trail runs about 46 continuous miles from Coraopolis, along the Ohio River, to Clairton, on the Monongahela -- passing near Pittsburgh International Airport and through Cecil, McDonald, Muse, Bethel Park, Peters Township, and South Park along the way. With its branch trails, the full network covers more than 60 miles, almost entirely on a smooth crushed-limestone surface fully separated from traffic. It's one of the longest rail-trails in the country, and it connects to the Panhandle Trail at McDonald and to the Great Allegheny Passage via the Clairton Connector.

The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) starts at Point State Park, right where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio -- there's a mile-marker medallion at the water's edge marking mile zero. From there it runs 150 uninterrupted miles to Cumberland, Maryland, on crushed limestone, where it connects directly to the C&O Canal Towpath for another 184.5 miles into Washington, D.C. -- about 335 miles total on a single connected trail, without ever riding on a road.

Yes -- Pittsburgh holds Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community status from the League of American Bicyclists, up from the Bronze rating it held back in 2010, and the city is working toward Gold. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon both hold Silver Bike Friendly University status of their own. Pittsburgh also ranks 12th among the 60 largest U.S. cities for the share of commuters who bike to work, according to BikePGH's annual commuting analysis -- ahead of plenty of cities with an easier reputation for cycling.

POGOH is Pittsburgh's bike-share system -- scan a bike's QR code with the POGOH app to unlock it, ride, and dock it at any POGOH station when you're done. A single ride starts at a $1 unlock fee plus a per-minute rate (19 cents a minute on a pedal bike, 32 cents on an e-bike); a day pass runs $16 with unlimited rides; and an annual membership is $150 a year with unlimited rides under 30 minutes included. More than half the fleet is e-assist, built specifically to handle Pittsburgh's hills. Stations are thickest Downtown and through Oakland, Shadyside, the Strip District, and Lawrenceville.

Pennsylvania drivers are legally required to give cyclists four feet of space when passing -- stricter than most states' three-foot rule -- and to slow down while doing it. It's one of the toughest passing laws in the country, and it applies on every public road, not just where there's a marked bike lane.

Legally, only if you're under 12 -- true for a regular bike or an e-bike. Nobody's required to wear one past that age, but on Pittsburgh's hills, it's still the easiest call you'll make all ride.

Yes. Pennsylvania skips the national "Class 1/2/3" e-bike system entirely -- state law just defines an e-bike as 750 watts or less, capped at 20 mph on motor power alone, for riders 16 and up, with no license or registration required. That's exactly why more than half of POGOH's fleet is e-assist: built to handle Pittsburgh's hills on the same lanes and trails as any other bike. A 28-mph "Class 3" e-bike doesn't meet Pennsylvania's definition, though -- that one isn't treated as a bicycle here.

Yes, both. Every Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus has a front rack that holds two bikes, and up to two bikes can ride the "T" at once -- though you can only load or unload at a high-platform station. E-bikes are fine on both. It's a normal way to stitch together a bike commute here, not a workaround.

A protected bike lane is physically separated from car traffic by a curb, planters, or parked cars, and it's the safest type on Pittsburgh's higher-traffic streets like Penn Avenue and Schenley Drive. A painted (or buffered) bike lane is a lane marked with paint, sometimes with an extra painted buffer strip, but no physical barrier. A sharrow -- short for "shared lane marking" -- is a painted symbol reminding drivers and cyclists to share a full travel lane; it's not a dedicated lane at all, just a lower-traffic street where you're expected to take the lane. This directory notes which type you're getting at every on-street access point.

The suburbs along the Montour Trail -- Moon Township, Cecil, McMurray, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, and South Park -- have some of the best trail access in the region, and it shows up in how homes get built there now: new-construction developments in South Fayette have gone up specifically along the trail, with trail access as the selling point. In the city, Shadyside, Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, Highland Park, South Side, and Oakland sit closest to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail and the Eliza Furnace Trail, with the shortest ride from door to trailhead.