Pittsburgh is for Garmin lovers

One thing about da burgh is that you will get lost when you drive.  It’s inevitable.  And though we don’t own a Garmin, yet, we do consult google maps on a daily basis. 

I must also preface this post by mentioning the fact that I do have a keen sense of direction.  I worked as a pizza delivery driver in college.  I drove into cities and town all over the U.S. as a children’s theater tour manager.  It’s an odd phenomena for me to find myself lost, even in a new city.

It’s not so much that the roads are all that confusing in da’ burgh, though they do twist and turn around hills.  It’s just that the route to your destination is rarely the same route back.  And once you get lost on the way back, there can be this compounding effect and the next thing you know, you’re in Cleveland.

For example…

The Doctor and I are heading out for a late night theater show downtown.  We give ourselves plenty of time to get there (a ten minute drive) and find parking.  I’ve looked it up on the map and the route seems easy, so off we go.  I drive down the 376 heading east and get off downtown, heading towards Liberty.  Only problem is there’s construction, and it’s dark, and I have no idea which of the five intersecting streets I end up is actually Liberty.  So we end up going on a different road and the next thing I know I’m driving up a ramp and I’m on a bridge headed to the north side.  This isn’t good, I think.  So I get off the bridge and try to figure out where I am. 

There’s a big building that says PNC park.  Ah, that’s helpful.  I turn the car around and think to myself, “I’ll just get back on that bridge and get right back downtown.  How hard can that be?”

But there doesn’t seem to be a way to get back on that bridge.  We end up driving under it.  Then I end up on another ramp, which although the ramp was leading south to downtown, turns us around and now we’re driving north on the 279 freeway in the HOV express lane, the nearest exit 12 miles away.  We finally get off the freeway god knows where and consult the map.  The Doctor and I switch places so she can drive and I can navigate.

I figure out how to get us back on the 279 and I think how to get back downtown.

You’re probably thinking, wow, that’s rough.

But it gets worse…

Because of construction, we can’t access the bridge we needed to take (well, we could’ve taken a different route or different bridge but I didn’t know that at the time), and so we end up on the wrong bridge and are now on the other side of the river from downtown, following the most bizarre trail of detour signs.  Finally, we arrive to the entrance of the tunnel to the Fort Pitt bridge, get across the river,  and at last, are driving down Liberty, where we are met with more construction signs and it seems we can’t drive down Liberty at all, so we have to think fast and go around and around, until finally, we just park the car.

The ten-minute drive turned into forty-five minutes of anxiety where we got to traverse not one, but all three rivers.  Luckily, we still made it to the show.

My father-in-law says he’s getting me a Garmin for Christmas.  I think that might be too late to prevent any other mishaps.

Pittsburgh is for left turns

Driving in the eastern part of the U.S. has always been an adventure that I relish.

A few weeks ago, we were giving someone a ride home from a show and he jokingly said, “Were you ever a New York taxi driver?”

I shrugged because although I never drove a taxi, I did have to drive in and out of Manhattan often for the theatre tour I managed. I loved the mania of it all, the feeling that “whatever you do, don’t stop, just keep it moving”.


Pittsburgh is not as crazy as the big apple. Drivers here are far more aggressive, though, than on the west coast. This doesn't mean that yinzers aren't accommodating at all, though.

Case in point: the “Pittsburgh Left”.
 

If you’re stopped at a red light and the car across from you has the turn signal on, you have to assume that car will turn immediately when the light turns green, whether it has the right of way or not.  Cars won’t always take the Pittsburgh Left, but you just need to watch out for it.  It's better to assume they're turning. 

This maneuver has become such the unwritten rule that now cars that have the right to go straight will often stay stopped and let the oncoming car turn left, usually waving them on.  

The first time a car turned left at me, I was coming right at it and had to stop (see diagram courtesy of www.boringpittsburgh.com for my thoughts).  

And the first time a car waived me on so I could turn left, I was confused by the generosity and an action that seems the exact opposite of the aggressive idealogy of driving in this town: "Is he waving me on?  But...its his right of way, I...uh, okay..."

But now I take the Pittsburgh Left all the time, whether I deserve it or not.

Hey, I’m just trying to blend in. 

Pittsburgh is for exceptions to the rule

I don't think I've ever seen a sign like this before.  I mean, I know they must exist somewhere else, right?

"You stop...but yunz, turning right?  You're okay.  Keep movin'."


I just have to say, though, that even if the "Except Right Turn" sign isn't there, many folks don't stop when turning right.

I think that's a 'burgh thing.