Letter: City should ‘test’ road diet on Bus. 51 prior to implementation
To the Editor-
There are solutions to the Business 51 rebuild and roundabout that don’t start with paying AECOM $30,000 for yet another “study.”
The self-appointed (maybe self-anointed?) city folks who claim to be researchers, engineers, street rebuild experts, specialists, master road builders, ad nauseum, need only look at a “free” way to find out if any of their ideas to remove lanes from an existing arterial road are prudent, including an additional roundabout that will cause gridlock and safety issues for the residents (and visitors?) of this city.
I propose that the city street department get all the orange barrels and cones out of storage and use them to close one lane (in both directions) from the underpass at Church and Patch Streets all the way north of the roundabout at North Point Drive, including the roundabout.
Keep the barrels and cones on the lanes going in both directions for three weeks. If the city doesn’t own enough orange barrels and cones, perhaps they could borrow from outlying communities, such as Plover, Whiting, Hull, Junction City, Amherst, etc.
I would think there are enough city street department workers who haven’t had much work to do this winter to keep the barrels/cones on the selected lanes and then watch what happens to this dedicated main artery when school buses, SUV’s, fire trucks, sedans, city buses, and all sorts of motorized vehicles want to get from point A to point B in a timely and safe manner.
I suggest this “test” so that we don’t keep spending taxpayers’ money for studies and possibly build a gridlock that is dangerous to all for years to come. Please use some common sense and keep our city welcoming to all.
Ruth Pfiffner
Stevens Point
