Letters

This was an excellent article ("Slow Down on our Street," Star Tribune, April 14) and is addressing a real problem in our state. We are battling this issue on our street also, in the Jordan area.

We live in a neighborhood of 10 acre lots on narrow gravel roads and the state is forcing our speed limit to be 55 mph. Our gravel roads have no shoulder, no sidewalk, no bike trails. In some places the road ditch is mowed, in many it is not. There also happens to be a housing development alongside one of our roads, with the residents spilling out onto the road. Our roads have a lot of pedestrian traffic: people pushing strollers and walking their dogs, kids on bikes, and horseback riders. We have asked our local township to reduce the speed limit to 30 mph, but they tell us that the state of Minnesota has mandated that it be 55 mph and their hands are tied.

This situation is ridiculous and is an accident waiting to happen.

SUE SEVERSON

JORDAN

Get it right the first time on 169-494 After reading a recent article ("Highway to Expressway," Star Tribune, April 16) about a proposed upgrade to the 169/494 interchange, I would like to offer an opinion. Do it right the first time!

The 169 bypass was a great success limited by the stop lights at Pioneer Trail and Bloomington Ferry Road in addition to the stop lights at 494 and Highwood. My understanding is that stop lights at Pioneer Trail and Bloomington Ferry Road were implemented as way to reduce the costs of the intersections. I would guess that inflation after what, 10 years, had driven the cost of redoing those intersections far past what they would have cost 10 years prior. Plus the original cost of building and tearing down the less expensive although still usable intersections. The 169/494 exchange has only very recently been redone and here we are talking of redoing the exchange with a possibility of another redo at a later date. Concerns over costs should always be one of the priorities but, so should the cost of implementing a less expensive or less ideal plan now in hopes of returning in the future to redo a project. Implementing a less expensive, soon-to-be-redone plan surely must have costs far greater than if the ideal plan would have been implemented the first time around.

DAVE GREENING

SHAKOPEE

NWA is least of our transit problems NWA has not been the best partner for Minneapolis, and its departure should cause Minnesotans less worry than one would believe from reading headline after headline in the Star Tribune. NWA's high fares, endless fees, poor customer service and low employee morale have not been an asset to MSP. What Minneapolis does need to worry about is how we are going to move the Twin Cities beyond 1960s vintage transportation choices and into the 21st century. Under our pseudo-progressive beliefs lies a city that is decades behind many cities we would normally snub our nose at. Peak oil is here and prices for fuel are not going down. The obvious choice is investment in high-speed rail and electric rail transit. These methods of transport are good for the environment and represent sound investments, unlike a claustrophobic flying tube.

ADAM AUXIER

EAGAN

If it's red, call it red In response to the April 11 piece on Crayola renaming crayons with naming input sought from children: Is it too much to ask that children learn the correct name for colors? "Super Happy" is a ridiculous substitute and only serves to further devalue fact-based learning.

CM BLAKE

EAGAN