Highway 20 problem: Speed

If there are any studies correlating the speed of highway travel vs. accident frequency, then perhaps the “destruction derby corridor” between Spring Hill Drive and Scenic Drive is due for a speed limit reduction — or at least more radar patrols.

Driving at the designated speed along this section of highway seems to be a magnet for tailgating. Then for sheer excitement, try turning off Highway 20 onto one of the lanes between North Albany Road and Scenic Drive.

Stephen M. Rusk, Albany

A suggestion for ‘Snowball’

Why can’t the money ($80,000 so far) be saved for caring for “Snowball” by giving her finder a permit and sending her back the finder?

Doreen Eagy, Halsey

Let’s make this path work

Thirty-five years ago, as a student at Oregon State University, my senior project was to design bikeways for the city of Albany. The result is what is known as the Periwinkle Creek Bike Path. I hope you are all familiar with it and the service it provides.

The goal was to provide an alternative route to travel with minimal competition with motor vehicles. The existing path falls far short of its potential, and that is the purpose of this letter.

We all face the fuel crisis and pursue alternatives whenever possible. It is my belief that finishing the pathway and improving it would do this.

The system should:

1) Go from the South Albany area all the way to the Willamette River.

2) Be completely separated from, or controlled when crossing, surface streets.

3) Be sufficiently expanded to accommodate electric vehicles as well as bicycles and pedestrians.

This is all possible. The path stops at Ninth and Pacific. Periwinkle Creek does not. The route is already defined but obstacles exist, the biggest one being the high traffic area at Ninth and Pacific.

The only way to separate traffic would be to go over this area with an overpass. Once that area is crossed, the remaining streets have low traffic, or could be crossed underneath.

Imagine being able to cross the city from the Mennonite Village area to Monteith Riverpark, go shopping, or out to a restaurant without getting your car out of the garage. A small electric-powered golf-cart-type vehicle could be the answer, but it would require this system to separate that kind of traffic from cars and trucks.

Phase 2 could even be a river crossing. The existing piers on the railroad bridge could be used without compromising rail use. This would of course add the desirability of accessing the golf courses and connecting North Albany residents to reciprocal access.

The economic impact would be difficult to imagine, but certainly any property with access to the path system would increase in value. This would also make more people want to live where a system like I have described existed.

If this letter is printed, I hope you will respond to the Democrat-Herald with your opinion.

Tom Uppstad, Albany

Any fault will do

Mary Brock’s Aug. 14 liberal rant against President Bush living it up at the Olympics with a bikini-clad American woman volleyball player was liberalism at its finest.

We all know that the liberals hated the fact that despite China’s human rights history President Bush chose to go to Beijing to support our country’s finest athletes, even the bikini-clad women’s volleyball team.

It does not matter what action President Bush does or does not take, the liberals will find fault with him.

Jeani West, Sweet Home

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