Businesses in the Strip District are pushing back against a proposal that would remove a lane of traffic from most of Penn Ave in the Strip. 

Businesses have created a petition asking the city to change course, and if you walk along the Strip you'll see signs that are part of the effort.

The changes, which include adding a bike lane, would impact Penn Ave from 22nd Street to 31st Street. Two lanes would remain in the most popular part of the Strip, where Yinzers in the Burgh, Wholey's and Penn Mac are located. 

Jim Coen, the owner of Yinzers in the Burgh and President of the Strip District Business Association, says the future of the Strip is at stake. 

"It will hurt every business here," Coen said. "I mean it's already congested, and we have 3,300 new residents who just came in, I mean why would you take lanes away, you'd think you'd add lanes if they could." 

Coen and other business owners he says he's spoken with are concerned that the portion of Penn Avenue which would lose a lane would become clogged up whenever someone stops to park or make a delivery. 

"I believe that the traffic will be overwhelming, and our customers won't come back," Coen said. 

Drivers, he said, could face the same issues if the city moves forward on a separate proposal to make changes to Liberty Ave, reducing it from two lanes in either direction to one traffic lane in each direction along with a turning lane. 

Ninety-five percent of business owners they have spoken with are against the plan, he said. 

Jerome Turner, the owner of Leggings Boutique, said he's against the changes to Penn Ave, but says he does think his customers will find a way to get to them even if the area is more congested. 

Bike Pittsburgh Advocacy Director Eric Boerer said city data shows the concerns that some of the business owners have are exaggerated. 

"The data shows it will not cause major problems, but what it will do is slow people down to actually do the speed limit," Boerer said. 

That's important, he said, because of how dangerous the street is.

A city spokesperson told us there is a disproportionately high number of injury crashes along Penn Ave in the Strip District. 

"Cars tend to go really fast, and the reason they go really fast is because the streets are a bit overbuilt," Boerer said. "There's too many lanes for the number of cars."

The city agrees with that sentiment, with the spokesperson saying rightsizing the street with a single travel lane is sufficient to meet the demand of vehicle trips even in the growing district. 

The way Boerer sees it, allowing people to walk to businesses safely is good for business. 

"We care about the safety of our customers," Coen said, "It does get busy here, absolutely it gets busy, but listen, we haven't had any fatal accidents on our street." 

He said they are also concerned with how the lane reduction could impact emergency vehicles as well as the ability for businesses to load/unload vehicles. 

A spokesperson for Mayor Gainey told us he attended a public meeting about the project last year where they had a healthy discussion.

Coen said they sent a letter to Gainey expressing their concerns a month later and did not hear back. 

A pre-construction public meeting is being held in late spring.