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Wednesday, November 27, 2002

A visual obstacle for motorists and pedestrians in Bloomfield and some new fine print for Sears customers are the problems of the day.

Aaron Chaney of Bloomfield stands at Mathilda Street and Liberty Avenue near his home. He says the large advertisement on the bus shelter there blocks the view of drivers turning left on Mathilda onto Liberty. "It's dangerous. Someone is going to get hurt," he said. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette)

Let's start with the vision-blocking bus shelter at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Mathilda Street in Bloomfield. It sits in front of The Western Pennsylvania Hospital.

The shelter, erected in February by Adshel, is one of 165 shelters the company has installed throughout the city at no cost to the city or the Port Authority. The shelters feature advertisements on the side panels.

The problem with the shelter at that corner is the side closest to the intersection. It has top-to-bottom ads on the inside and outside.

Motorists making a right turn from Liberty onto Mathilda can't see if pedestrians are crossing Mathilda because the pedestrian crosswalk is angled to the right.

And motorists making a left turn from Mathilda to Liberty can't see vehicles coming down Liberty toward the Bloomfield Bridge because the ads block their view.

"This corner is really dangerous because one has to creep out into the middle of the intersection before one can tell if it is clear to go or not," Aaron Chaney said in an e-mail to Post Your Problems.

Chaney, 22, of Bloomfield, a senior political science major at the University of Pittsburgh, said the ad-filled side of the shelter has caused problems for him as a pedestrian and as a motorist.

"It's dangerous," he said in a telephone interview. "Someone is going to get hurt."

I spent about an hour at the busy intersection and watched pedestrians scramble to cross Mathilda and frustrated motorists alternately use their accelerators and brakes to turn on to Mathilda or drive through the intersection.

"Maybe they could move the advertisements to the back of the shelter," said Betty Blackwell of Swissvale, one of several Port Authority patrons I spoke to. "People need to be able to see, whether they're driving or walking."

I asked Adshel spokesman Tom Christ about moving the ads to the back of the shelter.

"This is the first time I have heard a complaint about that shelter," Christ said. "The Port Authority had an existing shelter there and we replaced it."

Christ said he would check it out and get back to me.

When Christ didn't return my calls, I called Deputy Mayor Sal Sirabella because Adshel gives the city a portion of the revenue the shelter advertising generates.

"I'll review this with [Adshel general manager] Dave Lamberger," Sirabella said. "Adshel might have to remove the shelter if it's a safety hazard."

I also tried to reach Lamberger, but he is on vacation this week.

Adshel plans to install a total of 300 shelters with advertising panels in business districts in the city and 50 more without advertising in residential areas.

The shelters, which include bench seating, are well-made and attractive. But the company should double-check to make sure the advertising doesn't make the shelters a traffic hazard.

Sears' New Fine Print -- In a five-paragraph letter to customers urging them to use their Sears Gold MasterCard for "great holiday savings," Sears waits until the next-to-last paragraph to relay the following information:

"While we're writing, we also wanted to let you know we've enclosed a change to the terms of your cardholder agreement. Please read it carefully and keep it for your records."

The notice of the change in terms, effective Jan. 1, is stated in smaller type on a narrow sheet of paper. After 17 lines of lawyerly language, the notice concludes:

"Depending on the circumstances and usage of the account, and our exercise of discretion, this will result in cases in which [customer] payments are allocated to balances with lower [annual percentage rates] before balances with higher [annual percentage rates, and/or to balances with longer promotional periods before balances with shorter promotional periods."

Translation: If you can pay off your Sears account in full every month, do so. If you can't, you may have to pay more interest on the amount due.

Lawrence Walsh can be reached at 412-263-1895. His e-mail address is pyp@post-gazette.com.