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Sunday, January 27, 2002

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Three years ago, the Port Authority stripped most of the usable parts off 30 old-style streetcars it deemed obsolete and paid $9,000 to a private scrap company to get rid of them.

Several weeks ago, Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority awarded a contract to a Jefferson County firm to rebuild 18 of the same style streetcars, called PCC cars, manufactured more than a half-century ago.

"Once again, it goes to show how wrong we are," declares Bob Abraham of Monroeville, a lifetime advocate of passenger trains and light-rail transit. He continues to question the Port Authority's decision not to hang onto the old streetcars and Pittsburgh boosters' failure to put them to good use.

The historic streetcars would be a nice tourist draw and provide convenient, practical transportation over short distances -- day and night -- in popular places with heavy pedestrian traffic, at a fraction of the cost of extending the authority's light-rail transit system.

A few possibilities quickly come to mind in Pittsburgh: Smallman Street through the Strip District; East Carson Street between 10th and 30th streets; a loop around Allegheny Center to and from General Robinson Street, linking up with the proposed new T extension next to PNC Park; Fifth Avenue between Oakland and Shadyside; and a Downtown-crosstown line using Smithfield Street.

How about a streetcar loop covering Eighth Avenue, Sandcastle and The Waterfront in Homestead-West Homestead?

I have ridden PCCs and other vintage trolleys in San Francisco; Toronto; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; New Orleans; Galveston, Texas; and places I don't remember. I'm sure many of you have ridden them, too, maybe as close as Chartiers in Washington County, where the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum maintains one of the world's great collections.

The PCC cars being rebuilt by Philadelphia will keep their old shape and style, but modern electrical, mechanical and creature comforts will be installed. Cars will be air-conditioned, seats will be new and wheelchair access will be provided.

Starting late next year, the rehabilitated streetcars will become transit workhorses again, reviving east-west service along Girard Avenue. SEPTA says the $37 million project "revises a part of the city's history while using modern equipment."

Pittsburgh, in cooperation with the Port Authority, should be so smart.

The Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project, a group dedicated to keeping young people in Pittsburgh, said last week it had decided to focus its efforts this year on transportation and politics.

I can't think of a better project that addresses the group's efforts, makes the city more livable and provides links with existing transit, apartments, lofts, jobs, schools, theaters, parks and party spots.

Dumb move. Brickbats to PennDOT for at least one lousy traffic plan conceived for the upcoming Fort Pitt Bridge-Tunnel reconstruction.

A round-the-clock ban is to be placed on drivers descending McArdle Roadway from Mount Washington and wanting to turn right into the outbound Liberty Tunnel.

PennDOT's strategy is to allow an uninterrupted flow of traffic from the Parkway East to detour to the Boulevard of the Allies, Liberty Bridge, Liberty Tunnel and Route 51 to the Parkway West while the outbound Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel are closed. At the expense of Mount Washington, of course.

I guess engineers assume the right lane of traffic crossing the bridge won't have any gaps, or drivers won't be courteous enough to let people coming down McArdle jump in line.

I doubt they took into account how little traffic there is at 10 p.m., or 1 a.m., or Saturday or Sunday. Maybe the engineers don't come Downtown. They certainly didn't ask Mr. Know-it-all.

More than 100 Mount Washington residents warned PennDOT and other officials at a Jan. 17 meeting that plans will create a traffic nightmare in their neighborhood.

Keep fighting 'em, folks. You're right. And so is a right turn.

Smart move. Kudos to PennDOT for acquiescing and erecting lower barriers, and barriers with "see-through" railings, preserving the "skyline drive" along the outbound lanes of the Boulevard of Allies. They were rebuilt last year from the Liberty Bridge to South Oakland.

Why, then, did PennDOT install hundreds of anchor bolts on the top of sections of 32-inch-tall barrier made of concrete, as if one expects screens, rails or posts to be erected atop the barrier in the future? Is the nice view to be ruined?

Not at all, PennDOT project engineer Bill Marszalek said.

"The bolts are there because the contract called for them, he said, for reasons not even he knew. "I'm not aware of any plans that would add to the barrier" and block the unique sightlines.

Runaround. Last week, I mentioned senior citizens were unable to renew "retiree" motor vehicle registrations on PennDOT's Web site.

Gordon Leaf of Monroeville asks, "Could you explain what this is and to whom it is available?" (Yes.)

Sidney Hoffman of Mt. Lebanon asks, "Has this 17-year veteran of the retirement wars been mistakenly paying the full price for registration renewal?" (Maybe.)

Some of you may be paying $36 a year to renew your license plate and get the little luminous sticker to affix to the corner when you could be paying $10.

Here is the rule: If you're retired and your total income from all sources doesn't exceed $19,200 a year, including Social Security, you are eligible to register your car or small truck for free. The $10 is a "processing fee."

(When PennDOT says "free," you knew a string would be attached, didn't you?)

You'll need PennDOT Form MV-371, "Application for a Retired Person's $10 Processing Fee on a Vehicle Registration." They're available at AAA offices and some PennDOT driver license centers. PennDOT's center in Downtown Pittsburgh had the forms; a woman at the center in East Rochester, Beaver County, said I would have to go to a "messenger service" that charges its own fees.

Be prepared for recordings, touch-tone phone options, call-monitoring and enough of a runaround to confuse you or make you say the heck with it. But don't give up.

You also can go to PennDOT's Web site, www.dot.state.pa.us. Go to "Driver and Vehicle Services" and then to "Browse All Forms" to find the MV-371. You can't renew or sign up online. If you do not have a computer, ask someone who does to print out the form. Then Xerox them for friends.

Plate du jour. Lynne Soltis of Shadyside spotted a sharp-looking Ford sport utility vehicle in North Versailles bearing the Pennsylvania personalized license plate YNV ME. For now, most of the football world NVs the Steelers.

Send your transportation questions, complaints and suggestions to Joe Grata c/o The Post-Gazette or e-mail him at jgrata@post-gazette.com. Include your name, address and a day phone number. Not all transportation questions, suggestions and complaints are addressed due to volume.