May 13, 2006
Saturday

An open letter to residents and driving tourists. PLEASE BE COURTEOUS!!! I ask this that traffic, which is terrible at best, be improved even a little bit, and I offer these tips to enable such improvement.

The first and I feel most important; is let left turns from traffic lanes to parking lots that abut 2-lane streets happen. Instead of letting traffic build up behind some poor driver trying to enter a parking lot or street with a left hand turn, STOP!! if you're in the oncoming lane and let them turn in, PLEASE!!!!

I'm sure everyone is in a deathly hurry to get somewhere, so think about it... so is that person trying to cross oncoming traffic. And cars are piling up at the rate of one per second behind him/her. So if you don't stop and let them cross, nobody will, and we'll end up with traffic jam with no end.

Remember our streets and roads were not designed for this population of cars. Our streets were designed back in the 1950's, and were overloaded as soon as done.

Another tip, don't speed up to fill a hole in a line, or what will become very quickly, a long line of cars. Let it flow at the speed limit or even a little below the posted limit. That way you give cars and their drivers a chance to enter the traffic pattern, and avoid a build-up of cars at cross street intersections.

I do know there are many courteous drivers out there, that do do the above, but the reason I wrote this is for all those drivers that think they need do nothing but drive from A to B with no thought of anyone else trying to do the same thing.

Sincerely,

Alan R. McGillvray
rmcgillvray[at]kpunet.net
Ketchikan, AK - USA

About: Alan R. McGillvray writes that he is a "long time resident of Ketchikan, I learned to drive here."

 

Write a Letter -------Read Letters

E-mail the Editor

Sitnews
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska