Solve problem by syncing the lights

To the editor:
In the past few weeks, several letters to the editor and editorials have appeared in The Commercial Review concerning traffic on U.S. 27 (Meridian Street) in downtown Portland.
Randy Fisher thinks we could re-route Indiana 26 onto Water Street and Tyson Road to accommodate angle parking in the downtown area.
Daniel Chase thinks the traffic on Water and Tyson would be far too fast for a residential area.
Jack Ronald thinks all the traffic on Meridian Street is too fast.
Actually, they’re all right.
The fact is that we blew all chances to achieve all of the above by not routing U.S. 27 South at an angle along the old Pensy tracks to a point where the library now sits, then straight south across the bridge and back to Meridian Street along the Nickel Plate tracks just north of Jay County Antique Mall. This would have made Meridian northbound to be one way with two lanes running north and angle parking on both sides.
That’s water over the dam.
Federal laws dictate what can and can’t be done on federal highways, and U.S. 27 is subject to these laws. This, in effect, rules out angle parking on Meridian Street. Sorry Randy. Your intentions were for the city’s good.
Chase stated the only way Randy’s ideas would come to fruition would be a complete bypass of the city. An unlikely scenario, but possible. See Winchester.
J.R.’s problem was merely a speed issue. In my humble opinion, the best answer to this problem would be a complete synchronization of all traffic lights on Meridian Street. The way it stands, a driver coming from either direction sees a row of nothing but green and their first instinct is to speed up to make them all green. Not gonna happen.
Properly synchronized lights would allow drivers to hit them all green at a moderate rate of speed. I’ve driving from Portland’s Seventh Street to DuPont Road in Fort Wayne, and the only time I had to stop was right in Portland.
Thank you for your time.
Larry Chittum
Portland