It is that time of the year that is commonly referred to as the holiday let down. That period in the calendar when we go from ushering in a new year to hiding eggs. People start looking forward to the Summer and vacation time it will bring.
It is also that time of the year when the trucking industry magazine, Overdrive, releases the results of their latest "Worst Roads" survey. For most of the 1990s, Pennsylvania held the dubious distinction of "Worst Roads" in the United States. The state's fortunes began to change in the late 1990s when Pennsylvania slid down to second place. For the past decade, the number one slot has been relinquished to newcomers such as Arkansas and Louisiana but Pennsylvania has taken the top, or bottom, billing 13 out of 19 years the survey has been conducted and takes it again in 2009. I find this distinction particularly amusing this year, considering all of the structurally deficient bridges that are being replaced or rehabilitated thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In fact, a Congressional committee named Pennsylvania as the top-ranked large state, third overall, for starting and completing projects funded by the ARRA.
The states are not just judged by the conditions of their highway systems, but other things related to truck traffic. Interstate 80 still retains the title of "Most Improved Road" from last year, but in 2008 it was second under "Best Highway Segment" and forth under "Worst Highway Segment." Pennsylvania still retains third place, but shares it with Maryland this year, for "Toughest on Truck Inspections and Law Enforcement." The strangest change is our truck stops have gone from third best to being tied with California and New York for third worst. Now that's some swing!
You're probably wondering how something like that, or the aforementioned I-80 ranking, or the one year Pennsylvania was second under "Worst Roads" and fifth under "Best Roads" can happen. As I learned from an editor with Overdrive, when the votes are tallied, instead of averaging the good and bad, the good and bad are separated then averaged.
Unfortunately no shout out this year for me or the website, which is just as well since Pennsylvania highways (the ones made of concrete and asphalt) are back on top, or bottom.
When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced in May that the next G-20 Summit would be held in Pittsburgh, there was more than a few snickers from the White House Press Corp. And why not, what does anyone there know about finance and banking or surviving an economic downturn? After all, it is an area where people pay a fair market value for a house. How quaint!
The reason "City of Champions" was chosen by President Obama was due to the trips he made through the area during his 2008 presidential campaign. He saw how it had morphed from center of steel production to one with a more diversified economic base focused on bio-medical (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Pennsylvania Health System), financial (PNC Financial, Bank of New York/Mellon), and high-tech (Carnegie Mellon University) industries. Fortunately, the industrial fore-fathers of the city were not misers and gave back to their community in the form of institutions such as libraries and universities from which Pittsburgh could pull it self up by its bootstraps and start over.
Dignitaries began to arrive on Wednesday which prompted rolling roadblocks on the Parkway West between Pittsburgh International Airport and Downtown. The motorcades passed through the US 22/US 30-PA 60 interchange project, which is partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which was passed to dig (no pun intended) the country out of the global recession which would be discussed the following two days.
While the leaders of the 20 largest economies and the European Union were arriving, so were the protesters.
Members of Greenpeace repelled off the West End Bridge with a banner protesting the lack of attention paid to the environment by these leaders. Five others tried to do the same on the Fort Pitt Bridge, but were quickly apprehended. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl deputized 1,000 men and women from police departments as far away as Miami and as close as Johnstown, which in addition to National Guardsmen and state police troopers, made up a force of more than 3,000 officers.
The world's leaders had an easier time getting around the city than the denizens. Only residents, with a driver's license with proof of a Downtown address, delivery trucks (with deliveries made between 5 AM and 7 AM), taxis, hotel shuttles, armored cars, ACCESS vehicles, and medical suppliers were allowed into the Golden Triangle. Three police checkpoints were established on the Smithfield Street Bridge at PA 837/West Carson Street, Fifth Avenue at Ross Street, and the Roberto Clemente Bridge and Isabella Street but motorists could exit anywhere. Ramps from I-279, I-376, and I-579 and other bridges and street were barricaded.
The two-day summit went off without a hitch, and Pittsburgh was able to do something no other city could: host a bloodless G-20. Police arrested only 193 people, a few minor fires were reported, and some minor damage to stores occurred. Only about 5,000 protesters came which were outnumbered by the nearly 6,000 law enforcement personnel. Needless to say crime dropped steeply, as did the need for paramedics which for times every ambulance in the city was idle. Perhaps the most surprising was the thousands of police vehicles, being driven by mostly out-of-towners, managed to navigate the labyrinthine of city streets without a single accident.
VisitPittsburgh hopes that the G-20 Summit helps tourism and attracting conventions. The city was awarded another international gathering not long after the conclusion of the summit. Pittsburgh will be the North American host city for the 2010 United Nations World Environment Day. Perhaps the highest praise came from the Italian-born songwriter, singer, former model, and current French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy who said, "I think I wish I could stay a little longer because we only stay one-and-a-half days," and added "But I think it's beautiful." I don't think VisitPittsburgh could have asked for a better spokeswoman.
This past weekend I stopped at the welcome center on I-70 at the Maryland state line in Warfordsburg and picked up a copy of the latest official state highway map. Here are the changes since 2007's edition:
Berks County/Chester County
PA 82 removed between Elverson and Birdsboro
Blair County/Centre County/State College Inset
I-99 completed from Bald Eagle to State College and indicated from there to I-80
Fayette County
PA Turnpike 43 completed between Exit 15 and Exit 22 and shown under construction between Exit 22 and PA 88
Lehigh County/Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Inset
US 222/Trexlertown Bypass completed from PA 100 to I-78
Tioga County
US 15 finished from PA 287 to New York and PA 287 extended along old US 15 to Lawrenceville
New Castle Inset
US 224 extended eastward on State Street and Falls Street
It has the same dimensions as the the previous years and this year's cover is of an Amish buggy driving on one of the newly designated Civil War Trails. You can see the cover on the Official State Highway Maps page and view the map at PennDOT's GIS page.
If the Departments of Transportation and Tourism would have waited, they could have given a shout out to our three professional sports teams that won championships in the past year much like NCDOT did on their 2007 cover for the Carolina Hurricanes.
How appropriate is it that Super Bowl 43 is won by the team from the city where PA Turnpike 43 will end...someday...hopefully. Many will debate whether this was the best Super Bowl of all time, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. I would say it was, but then again I am partial because my team won. Although, I would have much rather seen that 20-7 score last until the game clock read all zeros instead of the roller coaster ending.
Congratulations goes to the team, staff, and especially Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II, both of whom I have had the chance to meet. Art II was the commencement speaker at my college graduation which is also the summer home of the now six-time Super Bowl Champion Steelers. They were only four-time champions when I attended and lived in the dorm named after the family.
The win gave the team that was the "first to win three" and "first to win four" the title of "first to win six." Not only that, but Mike Tomlin becomes the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and did it sooner than his predecessors Bill Cowher and the great Chuck Noll who delivered two-thirds of the total.
Unfortunately, we were denied a chance for a "Turnpike Bowl" when the Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. I congratulate them for a great game and also Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt and Assistant Head Coach Russ Grimm (both former Steelers coaches) for what they have done with that organization. I would have rooted for Arizona if they were playing anyone but Pittsburgh.
Only four months removed from that celebration, the Penguins stepped up to the challenge. The 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs saw them take on their rivals from the other end of the Turnpike, the Flyers, then the Washington Capitals, and the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Eastern Conference for the second year in a row. However, it was déjà vu all over again when they went on to face the Detroit Red Wings who knocked them out on home ice to win the Cup in 2008.
No one figured this team to make it into the playoffs, let alone to the Cup Finals, as they manged to fall five points out of the playoff hunt until a little-known coach by the name of Dan Bylsma was hired to right the ship. Some way, some how, he managed to unite the "young bucks" and the "old hands" for a common goal (no pun intended). While this year's series began the same way, with the Wings up 2-0, the end was much different. The Pens became the first visiting team to win a decisive Game 7 in one of the four North American major professional sports leagues since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. It provided a little payback as the Pens hoisted the Stanley Cup at the Joe Louis Arena.
Pittsburgh became the first city to win a Super Bowl and Stanley Cup in the same calendar year, Dan Bylsma became the second rookie head coach to win a Cup, and the team was the first since the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning to come from down two games to win the series. While this was playing out in Detroit, the Hershey Bears of the AHL were winning the Calder Cup in Winnipeg. To steal a line from "Badger" Bob Johnson, who led the Pens to their first Cup win, "It's [was] a great day for hockey [in the Commonwealth]!"
So in three-quarters of a year, Pennsylvania can lay claim to the 2008 World Series Champions, the 2008 Super Bowl Champions, and now the 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Champions. Going back a year, the 2008 Arena Bowl Champions in the Philadelphia Soul. So who is next in the Commonwealth?
There is a lot of talk the days about the newest revolution on the Internet: Social Networking. It started with this blog which I use to write not just about the roads across the Commonwealth, but musings about Pennsylvania. However, other means of social networking have come along since blogs were all the rage. I began to think how these new tools could benefit Pennsylvania Highways. So today, the ninth anniversary of when I purchased the pahighways.com domain, I created a couple new avenues of communication.
Twitter
The new cultural buzz-word. Everyone seems to be Twittering, from Oprah to Senator John McCain. I've seen other Twitter pages such as CNN's and the Washington State Department of Transportation's and thought how it could work for my site. PennDOT and the PTC do have a system where people can receive text messages; however, it doesn't have the immediacy of a Twitter post. So using the WSDOT "template" I created an account that will be used for news items pertaining to the highway system from the respective agencies that oversee them.
Facebook
Another phenomenon that seems to have come out of nowhere and taken the Internet by storm is Facebook. It seems that everyone from 9 to 90 has a Facebook page, even people's pets! So I figured why not create a Pennsylvania Highways presence on this platform as well. The page will be used to share news articles as well announcements of upcoming road enthusiast meets and other events.
YouTube
No doubt you have spent time on this site, probably at work trying not to get caught by the boss while watching a clip of a skateboarding bulldog. YouTube is nothing new to the road enthusiast community as others have been taping their journeys and uploading them to this popular website. So now Pennsylvania Highways has entered the fray, but trying to find its niche will take a little longer than it took to get the page set up. One issue is that PennDOT has saved me the work by going ahead and videotaping all state routes. Another issue is that I need a newer videocamera than my family's circa 1991 Panasonic camcorder that is as big as a half loaf of bread, or just buy the A/V dongle from Hauppauge so I can record the video from it onto my computer's hard drive. Basically this idea is still on the burner.
