Blue belt? orange belt? yellow belt? etc. belt? What is that? (Pittsburgh: home, trailer)

[greg42]

It makes no sense to someone who knows how to get around. And, well, for someone new I guess it makes no sense because it makes no sense to anyone else. For someone like me though who reads maps, I got it immediately. It helped that I had gotten a Pittsburgh area map from AAA, and they had highlighted the belts on it. It was obvious: these routes trace circles (or portions thereof) around the city, on different roads, without them having the same route numbers or names. An interesting solution to what some would term is not really a problem that needed solving, I guess. My non-native boss refers directly to the belts sometimes with directions. I don't typically because I know the natives I might be talking to have no idea what that means.

Basically, it's an attempt to help people get around better than "Turn left where the Wimpy's used to be".

[Impala26]

The colored beltway system is Pittsburgh's perfect "highway kitsch". It deserves mention along side "Burma Shave" poetry signs and middle America tourist traps. I hope it's never done away with. My only lament is that even today, decades after, they still haven't "finished" the incomplete sections of the loops so that each and every belt is a complete circuit.

[Sideblinded]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Great concept...Pittsburgh is a very easy city to just end up on some random road as well...winding every which way...

I recall spending my first hour alone driving in Pittsburgh. I had dropped my son of at school, (squirrel hill) in the middle of a mild snowstorm and spent the next 50 minutes or so on Beechwood Blvd winding all over town while trying not to cry!

All I know is blue belt is Shady ave near me.

[AnneWest]

Originally Posted by Sealtite

I've always just ignored the belt system. When my dad was teaching me to drive, he told me that they created it back in the 70's, that it made no sense, and to ignore it.....which I have. To this day I haven't the slightest clue what the belts are for, nor do I care because I can find my way around Pittsburgh and surrounding areas just fine.

The belt system was developed in the late 1940's. It pre-dated the interstate system by a long shot and was very helpful back then, when Pittsburghers were afraid to cross the Ohio.

Allegheny County belt system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Edit: Just saw the post Benzman made with the same link.)

[Craziaskowboi]

Basically, Pittsburghers use different colored belts depending on what mood we're in when we whip yo' ass.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by Caladium

What's the Brown Cow?

My mother, who died June 2010 at the age of 82, had the WORST sense of direction ever. She drove by landmarking things -- good for when you have to take a left at the library and a right at the gas station to get to the grocery store, when we lived in the city.

But we moved to Cranberry Township back in 1964, when it was just Fernway and farmland. The closest grocery store was in Baden, at or near Northern Lights Mall, and outdoor mall which had a Sears and a Penny's.

To get there, Mom had to drive down country roads, which scared her because she learned to drive in the city. She drove down Freedom Rd, Crossed Lovi Rd, and stayed on Freedom until she hit 989, turned left till she got to Conway Wallrose Rd and then down to Northern Lights.

The first stop sign at Lovi, Mom landmarked the red barn that sat nearly on the road across the street. When she saw the red barn she knew she had to go straight.

At the corner of 989 there was a farmette (very small farm) and they had a brown cow. The cow was always in the pasture at corner of 989 and Freedom Rd. My mother landmarked the cow.

She knew when she saw the cow she had to turn left.

She would actually give directions to people to turn left at the brown cow.

Then the cow died. Mom got hopelessly lost, and wouldn't go to Baden anymore.

Thankfully, North Hills was building up and she started going down there to grocery shop, which was far suited to her driving anyway.

As a side note, my mother's aunt Grace just died a few weeks ago, at the age of 103.

[greg42]

Great story Tallys, both the directions and with the history of this neck of the woods. We see how fortunes and populations shift: now Northern Lights is mostly empty and there's a grocery store effectively in Fernway on Freedom Rd as well as all the other stuff in Cranberry and surrounding area.

BTW, since I'm in technicality mode this morning I will note that Northern Lights is in fact in Economy Borough although AFAIK you can't get there from here without going through Conway (the way you used to go) or through Baden (on the other end). The fortune of Northern Lights may turn again as the undeveloped land behind it is slated to get a new Walmart Supercenter. There's very little in there now, the Giant Eagle is left and there are some small shops, the entire trio of dollar-named stores (Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree) and a state store. The former JC Penney building in the center was demolished several years ago and ultimately this will serve as road access for the Walmart. Giant Eagle fought this in court and lost; clearly they would rather have a decaying center with no competition vs a new draw behind it that would compete with them....

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by greg42

Great story Tallys, both the directions and with the history of this neck of the woods. We see how fortunes and populations shift: now Northern Lights is mostly empty and there's a grocery store effectively in Fernway on Freedom Rd as well as all the other stuff in Cranberry and surrounding area.

BTW, since I'm in technicality mode this morning I will note that Northern Lights is in fact in Economy Borough although AFAIK you can't get there from here without going through Conway (the way you used to go) or through Baden (on the other end). The fortune of Northern Lights may turn again as the undeveloped land behind it is slated to get a new Walmart Supercenter. There's very little in there now, the Giant Eagle is left and there are some small shops, the entire trio of dollar-named stores (Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree) and a state store. The former JC Penney building in the center was demolished several years ago and ultimately this will serve as road access for the Walmart. Giant Eagle fought this in court and lost; clearly they would rather have a decaying center with no competition vs a new draw behind it that would compete with them....

My dad's French Tailor is gone? (He always called it J. C. Penn-nyays)

I know about the Shop and Save. Where I grew up is right across the street.... on Freedom Rd. We used to ride our snowmobile around all the land that that whole shopping center is on. And Freedom Rd at one point had a one lane bridge. The closest place to pick up a loaf of bread was Evan's Superette... and Freedom was slow enough that I could ride my bike up to it for candy (although we preferred to ride down to the Fudge Stand -- which is still there).

Once, during a heck of a blizzard, my dad called up our local friends and asked if they needed anything from Evan's -- and took the snowmobile up to pick up supplies for everyone, and delivered it to them. He had a blast.

And once -- a husband and wife wrecked at the one lane bridge, and she walked almost half mile to find us home and get help..... because after Fernway (which would have been closer, but she was in shock) there were only four houses till you hit LaPorte.

The bucolic rural/suburban Cranberry I grew up in is SO not what it is today.

[greg42]

You do know there hasn't been a one-lane bridge in ages, right? I don't even know where that would have been. Oh, unless you mean the tunnel on Rochester under the turnpike, think that used to be one lane (and I don't think they made it any bigger, they just decided it was wide enough for two cars, still doesn't work if there are two trucks, etc). It's been arranged as two lanes for several years though.

I keep meaning to stop at the fudge stand one of these days. They're there most weekends.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by greg42

You do know there hasn't been a one-lane bridge in ages, right? I don't even know where that would have been. Oh, unless you mean the tunnel on Rochester under the turnpike, think that used to be one lane (and I don't think they made it any bigger, they just decided it was wide enough for two cars, still doesn't work if there are two trucks, etc). It's been arranged as two lanes for several years though.

I keep meaning to stop at the fudge stand one of these days. They're there most weekends.

The one lane bridge was long gone before I left... in 1984. It was on Freedom Rd. They rerouted Brush Creek underground and now it doesn't look like a bridge at all, but it would be after Haldeman Dr (which I think is the road to a housing development called Freedom Commons?), and before Commonwealth Drive. The old road, curved around a bit more and sloped downhill to the one lane bridge that crossed the small Brush Creek, which goes behind Fernway, and then up a small steep hill more sharply to the top of the hill to Commonwealth.

Coming the other way (from 19 to Laporte/Haine School Rd), the bridge was dangerous -- because it sort of came out of nowhere, even though it was well marked. A number of cars smacked into the side of that bridge. And -- at that bridge on the right, where the development is, was a small operating oil well, very near the creek.

That's why they straightened the curve and infilled it to pave it. So the hill is gone, and the bridge is gone. And so is the rope swing that was over the creek -- that was cool for a while, until a friend really screwed herself up on it -- she lost her grip and didn't want to fall into the mud and get dirty, so she hit the rocks and ended up in the hospital instead.

I wish had mad computer skills -- I'd mock up a map and show you.