Nearly every night, Winnie Bobbitt falls asleep to sounds of revving engines and squealing brakes.
Bobbitt, 26, lives in Mt. Washington, where residents are raising concerns about people partying and drag racing along Grandview Avenue, a popular stretch that overlooks the Pittsburgh skyline.
Bobbitt — who also works as a bartender at Gordo’s Tacos & Tequila a couple blocks off Grandview Avenue — said she’s seen motorcycles and cars speed up and down the road and watched people fix their cars on the street at 1 a.m.
The noise has gotten so bad, she said, that she no longer sleeps with her window open.
“It feels like you’re in GTA,” she said, referring to the Grand Theft Auto video game.
Councilwoman Kim Salinetro, who represents the neighborhood, said racing, donuts and burnouts are common on Grandview. It’s a problem officials have struggled to control for years.
Recently, Salinetro said, there’s been a spike in reckless driving and racing that is putting neighbors on edge.
“It’s out of hand,” she said.
Salinetro teamed up with public safety officials to share a QR code that allows people to digitally — and anonymously — send the police complaints or photos and videos of the illegal activity.
Public safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said police have similarly used QR codes and online portals in other neighborhoods that have seen an uptick in crime or during large events like St. Patrick’s Day or Independence Day.
In Mt. Washington, police are following up on about a dozen submissions that have been submitted through the QR code so far, Cruz said.
“This is one tool in a broader strategy,” Salinetro said. “We just felt like folks’ voices weren’t getting heard.”
Salinetro said she hopes the QR code will help people feel empowered to share information with police. She said she’s working with public safety officials to explore additional strategies but declined to provide details on those plans.
Anthony Panza, 41, of Mt. Washington enjoys walking along Grandview Avenue — where thick black tire marks streak up and down the road — with his dog, Rocky. He hasn’t seen any egregious issues on the stretch himself, but he described the scene as “rowdy.”
“They can be really disruptive,” he said, adding that he’s sometimes uncomfortable taking his seven-year-old daughter to the area when crowds are forming.
Cruz said people racing cars, motorcycles and dirt bikes tend to congregate there more frequently on the weekends. Residents said it’s typically at nighttime.
The speed bumps along Grandview Avenue don’t seem to slow racers down, Dean Kelker, 74, of Mt. Washington, told TribLive as he walked along Grandview Avenue Wednesday afternoon.
Kelker said the racing isn’t just a nuisance for residents. It’s also a safety concern. He worried someone could be injured while recklessly driving up and down Grandview.
He called for a larger police presence to deter such risky driving.
“We need some kind of enforcement,” he said.