In PA, you can kill someone after you're dead

What happened to me this morning was one of the most bogus things I have seen in a while.

I was driving down Braddock and approaching Forbes. There was a car in front me and a car to the side. There were also cars in the other direction. As I approach the light, it turns to protected green. So I start making my left turn after the guy in front of me. The guy to my side also begins to proceed.

The cars coming down Forbes don't stop.

Brakes and honking ensue.

The cars coming down Forbes STILL don't stop.

I eventually follow the guy in front of me by hitting the gas and getting out of these jerks way.

Turns out, it was a funeral procession of about 30 or so cars. And PA law allows them to drive through a red light. (Refer to 75 Pa. Cons. Stat. 3107) Oddly, it NOT state that they have right-of-way, it just states that if the lead car went through legally, the others may follow during a red light. They have to have their lights on and a little "funeral" flag. If you have not seen said flags, they are about 4 inches across, purple, and say "Funeral". Michelle has noted that given how many people around here have Steelers flags, they aren't very obvious. Less so on a rainy day. I usually don't make a habit of checking every window of a car to see if it has a purple flag. Of course, it doesn't specify where the flag has to be, and at least one car (the one that nearly ran me over) did not have one. Presumably they ran out give that this was a large funeral procession.

Let's get this straight now. The only other vehicles allowed to run a read light are ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. These are highly visibly marked vehicles with lots of flashing lights and loud sirens. And they are driven by professionals with training. Even still, an ambulance driver slows down when approaching a red just in case, and that's even when he's racing to the hospital.

Yet the geniuses of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have decided that an UNTRAINED driver with an UNMARKED car and NO lights or sirens can run a red light at normal speed.

Does this seem stupid to anyone else? Yes, you lost a loved one. But that person is dead, and they are not getting any deader. There is no need to run a red light and nearly kill other people in the process. Dying should not allow your family members to commit vehicular manslaughter.

New Transportation Blog

Josh Sunshine (also of CMU) has started a blog on new forms of transportation, including mass transit and personal transit. The focus is on transportation that is safer, more economical, and more eco-friendly than our current forms of transit.

blog.newtransportation.org

My Map of Pittsburgh!

I have created a map to help new drivers to Pittsburgh navigate the perils of the Pittsburgh roadway! I've actually had it ready for a while, but there were some bugs in Google Maps which have since been fixed.


Ciera's map of Pittsburgh

Enjoy! I'll post here when I make an update to it.

The new freeway entrance in Oakland

There's a new ramp for getting into 376 from Fifth avenue. This is a good idea since that entrance is frequently blocked up.

Unfortunately, it was designed by Pittsburgh engineers. Saul and I got lost the first time we tried to use it and ended up somewhere in Uptown rather than on 376.

Luckily, they have created a video to show us how to use the new entrance! Isn't that helpful?! Yeaaay!

http://www.otma-pgh.org/project_sr885/default.aspx

My favorite part is they are calling this a "slip ramp". Makes it sound super easy to use. You just slip right on the freeway! Watch how many wrong turns you can make in the video. There's four; see if you can find them all. For reference, at the end of the video, you are not yet on the freeway. There's still one more ramp.

Note to future civil engineers: if your citizens must make a video to show how to get on the freeway, you should have been fired.

OMG, we have a plow

I was expecting a one hour commute to work today. Apparently the city of Pittsburgh found their plow, so we got in in 10 minutes. Or at least, they found a pile of salt and a truck. It's not clear whether they plowed before salting, as there was no pile of snow on the sides of the road.

I think I'll take the cats out in the snow later this week. It's funny to watch them walk in it. :) Plus, they'll stop begging to go outside.

My commute to work

Normally, it takes about 15 minutes; most of the drive is on Braddock and Forbes.

Today it snowed.

My street, in Edgewood, was plowed by 8:30. The main streets of Pittsburgh? Not so much. Apparently it's easier to just let all the cars crush and melt the snow with the friction from their tires.

Today's commute took 45 minutes, and it would have been longer if Saul hadn't taken the side streets through Squirrel Hill. The weird thing was we left at 9:15, which is way past the rush hour time, but the streets were all packed. Didn't seen an accident though.

Trust the Prius Driver

Attention to the three drivers on Forbes this morning who were jerks:

My Prius has a real-time view of my energy consumption. So, when I'm coasting towards Shady at 20 mph, there's a reason. Mostly that the light at Shady is RED. My car is not slow, it actually can go fast and has more torque than yours. I'm coasting to keep my mileage above 50mpg.

In particular, do NOT cut off the Honda on my right, pull into the right lane, cut me back off in the left lane, and then slam on your brakes. Cause that makes you a jerk.

Thanks.

Navigating like a native

Saul and I were driving back from Sears appliance outlet. It's in Lawrenceville on 51st St. I highly suggest checking it out for appliances; we got a $1300 fridge for $400.

Anyway, I was driving on Penn, which is close to the outlet. We also live near Penn (take Penn to Braddock, and we live off Braddock). I turned off Penn when I hit Main, got on Liberty, took that to Center, and took Center back to Penn.

I realized on Center what I was doing. I said to Saul "You know, it's weird the shortest way back is to get off Penn and then get back on it."

Saul said "Yeah, I noticed that, and I don't even think anything of it any more."

The 837/885 Junction

Saul and I went to the Century III Mall on Saturday. For the first time ever, we didn't get lost on the way. I wondered, why is it we always get lost on the way there?

To get there from the CMU area, you take 837 (in this stretch of road, the Blue Belt) to 885 S.

Here's the junction of 837 and 885, courtesy of Google Maps. I dare you to get from the upper right corner to the lower right corner with out getting lost. BTW, for scale, the top to bottom of the map is approximately 1000 yards. (Counted with my fingers pressed up to the monitor.)

Forbes

I swore I'd find something to blog about other than driving, but it's like Pittsburgh is just begging me to do so.

We all know that Forbes and Fifth are two way at CMU and eastward, but at Bigelow they change to one way streets. Forbes goes away from downtown, and Fifth goes to downtown.

So, if one were in downtown and wanted to leave, one would take Forbes out.

Now refer to picture.




...my parents wondered how I got us lost downtown.

Beechwood Boulevard

A month after moving to Pittsburgh, we were getting furniture on Craigslist. The people we were getting our couch from said they lived on Beechwood Boulevard and provided an address. "Great!" I think. "I know where Beechwood is! I don't need to get directions!" So we drive to Beechwood (a few blocks away) and start looking at numbers. I didn't get directions because:

1) I believed this was either the fastest way or fairly close to it.
2) I believed this to be the simplest way to get to their house without getting us lost.

Both were false.

1) Fastest path.
Here's my starting location (green), and the location where I knew Beechwood to be at (blue). Presumably, the fastest way to get to our destination would be to drive to the known spot on Beechwood and turn the car in the appropriate direction, as indicated by the house numbers.



Here's the map of Pittsburgh with Beechwood highlighted. WTF. I bet you can guess where my ending location was.



Here's the actual shortest path to the destination, as provided by Google Maps.




2) Simplest path.

Ok, so maybe it's easiest though to get on Beechwood and go, so we don't get lost. Let's zoom in on the map.



That's right. That's TWO intersections with a street that turns 90 degrees. Guess how easy it is to miss those turns....Actual path taken by me and Saul:



It's hard to see, but that is us backtracking three times.

And finally, some sample directions provided by Google Maps, to help you navigate this #!&*#@! street.

Emissions standards

This is the kind of thing that makes me miss California.

EPA asked to OK California Emissions Law
Lead or step aside (Letter from Schwarzenegger and Rell)

The other ten states are: Vermont, Conneticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Washington. Apparently Maryland, Arizona, and New Mexico are considering legislation. Notice that it is New England and the West Coast.

Pennsylvania, of course, hasn't bothered. This place is really not New England. It's Midwest, with all that it entails.

We're getting bids on the hybrid today though, so hopefully we'll be doing a little part by the end of the week.

Directions again

I had to go to Cranberry this weekend to pick up a rocking chair from craigslist. Here are the directions I got in email. This is after I explained that I am coming from the city and I have never been to Cranberry before.

Right when you get off on Rt. 228 there is a big hotel - Marriott if you continue past that towards Mars - there is a shopping center with Target (first store).

I call her and explain that I don't know where Rt. 228 is; I'm coming from the city on I-279. Here's the phone conversation:

"So, you take the exit off of 79 (to husband) Which exit does she take? The new one or the old one? (To me again) Take the new Cranberry exit off of 79. There's a Marriott right there, Target is down the street."

Thankfully, I know where 79 is, so we take 279 to 79. There is a sign that says "Cranberry next 2 exits". One exit is labeled Cranberry, the other is labeled something else. Since we're taking the "new" Cranberry exit, we assume that is the one that says "Cranberry". We take it and see a Marriott. Cool. There's lots of big box stores, so now we look for Target. We drive half a mile, no Target. There is a sign to "Mars", but it's turning toward the right, which is odd since based on the directions, Mars should be away from the highway, not towards it. We call her and tell her where we are: Marriott, Giant Eagle, Toys R Us, and Walmart are all here. We give a street name at the intersection. We get these directions:

Them: Ok, just continue until you see the Olive Garden and turn left.
Us: Is there a street name?
Them: Umm, Cranberry Commons Drive or something.

We see no Olive Garden, but there is a "Cranberry Drive". So we turn left. Nothing. We go back and pull into the Toys R Us parking lot. Call again.

"Ok, we'll just meet you there at Toys R Us. Give us 5 minutes to get over there."

WTF? 5 minutes? Where in the world is this Target?

We find out later from a friend who lives there that there are TWO Marriotts. Also, the other exit, the one that was labeled something else, was the "new" Cranberry exit. "New" is a relative term apparently; the exit is at least 20 years "new".

Getting directions in Pittsburgh

Never ask for directions from a native. People here don't give street names. They give directions in terms of local landmarks which you may or may not know of, may or may not be duplicated throughout the city, and may or may not even exist. Here's some examples of what to expect:

"Take the Liberty Tubes"

No, the tubes are not a subway. It's a tunnel. Translation: "Leave the city via the Liberty Tunnel"

"Go four stoplights and turn left."

Go 3-5 stoplights. Remember that a stop sign may or may not count as a stoplight. Also, your left might be on a one way street going the wrong way, so plan accordingly.

"take the narrow street down the hill."

This was actually 6 narrow streets down the hill. Don't worry when you think you're lost because you keep ending up on dead ends. Orient your car in a downward fashion and drive, always turning so you keep moving down. There's a main street running parallel to the bottom of the hill.

"Make a right at the Sunoco"

Pittsburghers like to orient themselves according to the nearest Sunoco, a gas station. There's one in every neighborhood, so if you're more than 4 blocks lost, you're going to be really confused.

"Turn between the Sunoco and the Karate place/Take the soft right/Take the straight-right"

Actually, this makes sense when you see some of the 5 way intersections.

"Get on Parkway East"

The trick here is to orient yourself from downtown. The Parkway is actually 2 highways. 279 runs N-S through downtown. 376 runs East from downtown. The 376 part is known as Parkway East. The 279 parts are either Parkway North or Parkway West (the southern part actually runs pretty westerly, hence the name). The trick here is that to get to your destination, you might not actually go east on Parkway East if you are already in the Eastern boroughs of Pittsburgh. So, the above direction might actually mean "Go West on 376". Of course, the person giving you the directions somehow assumes you magically know which way to go to the place where you're asking for directions.

"Take the Blue Belt/Yellow Belt/Green Belt/Beechwood Ave"

Go get a map and have a second person in the car. You're going to need someone to watch for all the signs telling you when to turn. The belts are NOT main streets, and they will switch quickly from one street to the next. Beechwood is even worse than a belt since there aren't any signs telling you that you need to turn to stay on your street.

"Make a left at the top of the hill."

Another fun one. Pittsburgh is covered with hills and ravines. I never know what hill we're talking about. I lived in the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill for 2 years, and I still don't know which hill is Squirrel Hill.

"Turn right where the ol' bus station usdabe." (Usually said within 5 minutes of me saying "I'm new to the city...")

...see, this is how I get lost. Looking for large buildings that might have usdabe a bus station.