New buses can speak but . . . not Pittsburghese

   Tuesday, February 22, 2000

   By Ann Belser, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

   Does this bus go "Dahntahn"? Not anymore.




   It goes "Downtown," as perfectly pronounced by one of those canned,
   recorded voices that seem to be turning up everywhere.

   Hop on one of the Port Authority's 160 new low-floor buses, and
   instead of hearing the stops barked out by the driver -- or not
   announced at all -- you'll be guided to your destination by the
   recorded dulcet tones of Sarah Weaver.

   Weaver, like any other newcomer to town, doesn't quite have the local
   dialect nailed yet. Some of her pronunciations sound like those of an
   out-of-town newscaster who doesn't know the territory.

   For instance, when the 61 and 67 buses approach Carnegie Mellon
   University, Weaver's voice delivers a New York-style "CAR-ne-gie"
   instead of the locally preferred "car-NAY-gie."

   Weaver, recruited by a company called Clever Devices to be the voice
   of Pittsburgh's buses, hails from Toledo, Ohio, and lives in New York,
   on Long Island. She is a possessor of unaccented English, which is
   what the company wants in its announcers.

   The new system is part of Port Authority's compliance with the
   Americans With Disabilities Act. Stops are announced by Weaver for the
   blind and displayed on a lighted, written sign, for the deaf, said
   Laurie Andrews, a Port Authority operations officer.

   Weaver has help from above in the new system. After she records the
   names of the stops, they are fed to a computer. It features a location
   finder hooked to a global positioning satellite that tracks the buses
   on their routes, ensuring that Weaver announces the correct stop.

   But high technology can't replace local knowledge, which is why
   Weaver, on the 77D, announces the Winebiddle Street stop as
   "winna-biddle." And Ligonier Street in Lawrenceville comes out as
   "li-GOAN-ee-er."

   Steve Bennett, eastern regional sales manager for Clever Devices, is
   planning to have some of the bus stop calls re-recorded. Weaver said
   she already has redone "Carnegie" in Pittsburghese.

   Weaver, 34, also is heard on buses in Boston and in Dallas, where she
   recorded the stops in both English and Spanish.

   Her voice also emanates from slot machines and elevators, and she soon
   will speak from an escalator on the Long Island Railroad.

   The Clever Devices people said they will bend pronunciations to match
   regional dialects, but they don't want to slaughter the language.

   In developing the Boston system, for instance, Weaver pronounced
   Quincy Market as "Quinzy" in a bow to Bostonians.

   "Going as far as 'Hahvahd Yahd,' we just won't do that," she said.

   The bus announcement system is different than the one used for years
   in Port Authority trolleys (where the recorded voice, quite
   incorrectly, still says "Mount LebaNON.") That system is activated by
   the operator, with a button.

   Previously bus drivers were supposed to make the stop announcements
   themselves, but traffic and forgetfulness made it an inefficient
   system.

   Andrews said the new satellite-controlled system has won praise from
   handicapped riders. Drivers are still getting used to it.

   Buses don't seem to want to announce the stop at Seventh Street and
   Penn Avenue, Downtown, possibly because the configuration of
   surrounding buildings blocks the signal from the satellite.

   One driver last week spent a good part of her run on an outbound 67A
   trying to reprogram Weaver so she would say the bus was going to Boyce
   campus of Community College of Allegheny County, rather than Downtown.
   It took three stops and two red lights to get the code into the
   computer.

   Andrews said the authority and the company are working to simplify the
   system.

   "It's not easy to find time to make 10 keystrokes when you are driving
   a bus Downtown," she said.


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