Again, some of our city leaders are considering spending taxpayer’s money, not to solve a problem, but to pacify their desire to impose their will on us. I’m talking about spending $40,000 to re-stripe South Broadway from Main Street to Seventh Street. That is taxpayer’s money being spent on top of all the other money already spent on a variety of studies done on this section of roadway. The City Council will vote on this issue Monday. Make your voice heard. Let your councilor know what you think and want to happen with this stretch of roadway, because once they vote, that is what we will be stuck with for a long time.

I believe to re-stripe this street from four lanes to three lanes after it has been milled and overlaid is taking a step backward and creates more problems than it solves. It does not solve the water issues; it does not seem to be what the majority of property and business owners along this corridor want; it does not instantly beautify the area like some would like us to believe and it does not address today’s driving public. We need to seriously consider today’s driver’s speed, and they are more aggressive and less courteous. Taking that into consideration, why would we want to take two driving lanes away and put bike lanes in their place along such a busy street into the city? We will possibly go from property accidents to personal injury accidents or even worse, possible fatalities. I don’t think that’s what we want either. If you have ever observed the biking public of our community, they don’t always observe the rules of the road and it is their responsibility to know and follow the rules, as it is the driving public’s responsibility to know and obey driving laws and share the road with bicyclists.

 

Gary Hagen

Albert Lea