New GAP Bike Trail Duquesne to Waterfront

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GAPTrail
Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Montour-Trail/message/4288

PLEASE JOIN US TO CELEBRATE!
The opening of the newest section of the Great Allegheny Passage. Friday, June 17, 2011 at 10:00 am.

The amazing 3-mile section of the Passage includes two new bridges, a rolling ride along the scenic former U. S. Steel coke gas pipeline, and an exciting view of two of Kennywood's Coasters.

There will be an brief ceremony at the Whitaker Bridge to thank the funders, landowners, contractors, and volunteers. Bring your bicycle and ride the new section after the event.

RSVP to admin@atatrail.org or call 724-537-6905.

DIRECTIONS: Please enter at Guardian Storage (1002 East Waterfront Dr. Munhall, PA 15120) and you will be directed to parking for the event.

---

The new trail section is depicted in bright green in this hacked map:

• Note that the Sandcastle segment (due to open 11/11/11) is the remaining significant barrier to DC riders getting to downtown
• Notice how the Montour Trail is poised to connect to the Pittsburgh-to-DC Great Allegheny Passage
• Observe how the Panhandle Trail is poised to develop into an Oakdale-to-Oakland trail
• After Sandcastle, the remaining last bit of unfinished trail will be connecting Point State Park, the Mon Whorf Trail, and the upper level of the Smithfield Street Bridge for access to the Jail Trail

---

A report of an overnight Pittsburgh bike trip from this last week, West Newton to Rockwood and back.

The Ben Roethlisberger Performance Metric: New Data Points

An earlier post described the Steeler's performance before and after the return of prodigal player Ben Roethlisberger and quantified the "Ben Gap", which is the difference in the team's performance with and without Ben.

Generically, you'd think that a team would do much better with the multi-million dollar franchise player than they would without the key player. So far, the Steelers do just as well without Ben as they do with Ben. If I was an Owner, I'd be wondering what I was getting for my annual cost of 12.75 million (even if I did save 1.6M in salary during the four-game sabbatical).

Week 1: Atlanta	WIN	No Ben	75% WIN WITHOUT BEN
Week 2: Tennessee	WIN	No Ben
Week 3: Tampa Bay	WIN	No Ben
Week 4: Baltimore	LOSS	No Ben
Week 6: Cleveland	WIN	Ben	75% WIN WITH BEN
Week 7: Miami	WIN	Ben
Week 8: New Orleans	LOSS	Ben
Week 9: Cincinnati	WIN	Ben
Week 10: New England	LOSS	Ben
Week 11: Oakland	WIN	Ben
Week 12: Buffalo	WIN	Ben
Week 13: Baltimore	WIN	Ben

The table below identifies impending data points.

Week 14: Cincinnati	---	Ben
Week 15: NewYork Jets	---	Ben
Week 16: Carolina	---	Ben
Week 17: Cleveland	---	Ben

The Ben makes 250% of what Troy Polamalu is paid. Is that justified? If the team does as well without Ben as it does with Ben, is any of his salary justified? Because earlier in the year, when questions were asked, the Rooneys said it was all about winning football games.