Connie Beckers wrote, in part:
The speed limit on our city's parkways is 25 miles
per hour and do you know that as I kept that pace, I was tailgated and
passed ... illegally, I think ... and not once or twice but by four
different vehicles! I was at the speed limit, not over and not under.
Randall Cutting wrote, in part:
So, be careful what you say to the city or we'll end up with 50 MPH
speed
limits on our parkways.
Your point is well taken, Randall, but it lets the city off the hook
for a couple of bad behaviors. One is that the Minneapolis traffic
police do a LOUSY job. I can say this from two personal experiences,
one that involved serious bodily harm and one that involved serious
vehicle harm, and also the routine sightings of cops ignoring people
who run red lights. In the 9 months I've lived in Seward and commuted
to Dinky Town on the River Road by bike or by car, and walked along the
Road once or twice a day in addition, I've seen a cop monitoring
traffic exactly ONCE. The monitoring in my old neighborhood was
slightly better, but only because the Park Police headquarters are
right there on King's Highway.
The second bad behavior is that more people have started to use the
River Road and Minnehaha to commute because the timing on the Hiawatha
lights still isn't as good as it could be. European countries have been
doing this for decades, folks. It's not rocket science to realize that
there should be a green light in at least one direction at all times,
and it's not useful if the green light is on for the direction that's
blocked by the flashing red safety arms.
I want traffic cameras, so I hope someone on the City Council will
remain committed to moving gradually forward on that once Niziolek is
gone. Based on six years of living in Germany, I can tell you that they
work by conditioning people with the expectation that they will get
caught for excessive speed or running a red light.
Having vented, I'll now be proactive. If anyone is interested in
organizing some traffic calming activities along the River Road between
Franklin and Lake or 46th, contact me. There are some pretty well
proven methods to draw on, so we wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel,
just organize some events.
Becca Vargo Daggett
Seward
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