July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Change needed for Portland's traffic lights (04/29/06)
Letter to the Editor
To the editor:
The small town of Portland contains seven stop lights. That’s right, my home town is so tiny that counting the stop lights is actually possible. All of which are perfectly sequenced to cause everyone who drives through town to stop at most of them. This makes perfect sense during normal daytime hours. It would obviously help prevent people from speeding and reduce multiple-car accidents. However, is it necessary to continue this when there is no traffic or better yet in the wee hours of morning?
My father has driven a truck for Coca-Cola for almost 30 years. He leaves for work by 3:10 a.m. in order to arrive at the Coke plant by 3:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday. While driving across town he does not come across a lot of traffic — none at all, to be exact — but yet he is still forced to stop at nearly every light in town.
Why is this?
Isn’t there something that the local authorities can do to help late night and early morning drivers that travel through Portland?
My father drives to Marion, which is double the size of Portland, on nearly a daily basis and he can’t help but notice that they have done something about this.
They have programmed their stop lights to blink yellow for the main roads and red for the side roads. This saves a lot of time when you are on a tight schedule, my dad says. He also says that stopping at every light in Portland is ridiculous when I drive to Marion and don’t have to. Portland needs to do something.
According to the state of Indiana, “local authority shall place and maintain traffic control devices among highways under the authority’s jurisdiction ...”
This means that local authorities need to do something about the annoying stop light situation in Portland. U.S. 27 and Ind. 67 are major highways that run through Portland, and there should be no reason why something can not be done. It would allow the police department to patrol the city more, and possibly even catch more traffic violators. However, wouldn’t it be worth saving Portland citizens an extra 10 minutes from their already hectic lives?
Miranda Tingley
Portland[[In-content Ad]]
The small town of Portland contains seven stop lights. That’s right, my home town is so tiny that counting the stop lights is actually possible. All of which are perfectly sequenced to cause everyone who drives through town to stop at most of them. This makes perfect sense during normal daytime hours. It would obviously help prevent people from speeding and reduce multiple-car accidents. However, is it necessary to continue this when there is no traffic or better yet in the wee hours of morning?
My father has driven a truck for Coca-Cola for almost 30 years. He leaves for work by 3:10 a.m. in order to arrive at the Coke plant by 3:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday. While driving across town he does not come across a lot of traffic — none at all, to be exact — but yet he is still forced to stop at nearly every light in town.
Why is this?
Isn’t there something that the local authorities can do to help late night and early morning drivers that travel through Portland?
My father drives to Marion, which is double the size of Portland, on nearly a daily basis and he can’t help but notice that they have done something about this.
They have programmed their stop lights to blink yellow for the main roads and red for the side roads. This saves a lot of time when you are on a tight schedule, my dad says. He also says that stopping at every light in Portland is ridiculous when I drive to Marion and don’t have to. Portland needs to do something.
According to the state of Indiana, “local authority shall place and maintain traffic control devices among highways under the authority’s jurisdiction ...”
This means that local authorities need to do something about the annoying stop light situation in Portland. U.S. 27 and Ind. 67 are major highways that run through Portland, and there should be no reason why something can not be done. It would allow the police department to patrol the city more, and possibly even catch more traffic violators. However, wouldn’t it be worth saving Portland citizens an extra 10 minutes from their already hectic lives?
Miranda Tingley
Portland[[In-content Ad]]
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