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Getting Around: Want to help PennDOT with image?
Sunday, February 06, 2000 By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A modern image - and a better one, I hope - is the latest thing on the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's mind.
PennDOT wants to hire a design or advertising firm to develop an "institutional branding and visual impact program." Translation: PennDOT wants a new logo. Maybe even new colors.
Companies interested in the logo contract have until Feb. 14 to submit a proposal. PennDOT, a government agency, doesn't want something "too governmental." Hmm. The Pennsylvania Highway Information Agency, an advocacy group, said PennDOT was looking for something progressive, contemporary or visionary.
The new logo is to appear on PennDOT publications, signs, licenses, forms, hard hats, equipment, buildings and maps, just about everywhere but on detour signs and orange-and-white barrels.
No cost estimate of the logo design contract was available, but it will be minuscule compared with the cost of changing everything.
The present logo was introduced in 1970, when our "Department of Highways" became multimodal and, therefore, the "Department of Transportation." A triangular-shaped symbol superimposed on a commonwealth keystone is meant to represent air, land and sea. Hmm.
Many PG readers - like PennDOT - are mindful of precious gas tax dollars. I think some will be glad to suggest a new PennDOT logo, maybe even a new name and acronym. I have a hunch they'll work for free.
If you want to participate, e-mail or send your logo idea(s) to me, c/o the PG, pronto. I'll need to send them off to PennDOT by Friday in order to beat the deadline.
We're publishing a copy of PennDOT's present logo. Also, you'll see the logo that I'm suggesting. I propose to change PennDOT's colors - and construction barrels - to lime green-and-white. The "art deco" look, you know.
Snow jobs. A k a, transportation media releases salvaged out of the rat's nest on top of my desk.
Due to extreme snow and ice conditions during winter, the Port Authority's road operations people sometimes find it necessary to put buses on "snow emergency routing." That's when buses stick to main roads with the highest priority for plowing and salting. The snow routes can be found on the authority's Web site, www.ridegold.com. Or, you can call customer service at 412-442-2000.
There's one place in the Pittsburgh area where motorists are virtually guaranteed not to encounter snow or ice: on a Route 28 overpass near the Allegheny-Armstrong county line. When pavement sensors detect problems at the Harrison Township site, they automatically activate electric pumps that spray a magnesium chloride liquid onto the bridge deck. Computer chips determine the quantity of de-icing solution to spray and the spray pressure.
Most Pennsylvania Department of Transportation trucks you see plowing and salting have been fitted with $450 high-tech thermometers, which use an infrared beam to determine roadway surface temperatures. The information is being used for the first time to help the truck drivers determine the type and amount of material to spread on the road to fight snow and ice.
28X Airport Crusher. The Port Authority's 28X Airport Flyer has become a victim of its own success.
Joyce Waslosky of Sharon Hill Manor, Moon, said the minibus service linking Oakland, Downtown, Robinson Town Centre and Pittsburgh International Airport becomes so crowded at times that not all riders can squeeze into the 20-passenger vehicles.
On a recent morning, she said, "38 people squeezed on the 7:37 [a.m.] at Robinson Town Centre, but three were left standing at the stop to wait for the next 28X. A lot of us have e-mailed, written and phoned this in, but the Port Authority has done nothing."
There's some good news to report. Authority spokesman Bob Grove said service frequency would be increased from three minibuses per hour to four sometime next month, putting 28X service at 15-minute intervals. "It's a very popular route and we're doing what we can to move people efficiently," he said, including using full-size buses to handle "spikes" in ridership around holidays.
Average weekday ridership on the 28X was 1,544 in November 1999, the latest month for which figures were available.
Waslosky and others want to know why the authority doesn't just replace the minibuses with full-size buses all of the time if the ridership is so good.
It's not that easy.
The 28X was initiated as a low-cost alternative transit to the airport, not necessarily only for airline passengers, but also for people employed at the airport and at Robinson Town Centre. But commuters have discovered the 28X provides convenient rush-hour service to and from Pittsburgh and are using the sprawling shopping center as a park-and-ride lot.
Without going into the complex details, the authority can't replace minibuses with full-size buses for reasons that include special funding, lease and maintenance arrangements for minibuses and union labor provisions that permit hiring some new operators at 60 percent of the top wage.
Meanwhile, a major park and ride facility is being developed at Robinson Town Centre in cooperation with the Airport Corridor Transportation Association. When finished, the authority will run regular buses for commuters who will travel to and from town via the new West Busway that is to be finished later this year.
Plate du jour. A van traveling through the Highland Park area carried the Pennsylvania license plate IDLVR 4U. Next time, I'll call it instead of UPS.
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