To the editor:
Ladies and gentlemen of Greenfield, are you experiencing and benefiting from our road diet that was installed on the west side of our fair city?
I tell ya, folks, my car is running better, looking better, tires are fit and looking perky. I drive a 2006 Honda Accord, and it loves driving down the road diet. There is something magical going on, and the state road planner that got this road diet going should be promoted. Another thing I have noticed is the businesses along the road diet route are looking better. They are standing more erect and just paying better attention. It’s quite evident they feel better.
With the above positive things taking place, please, please don’t let the east side of our fine city go to rack and ruin. Road diet all the way to Blue Road. Heck, just extend it out to where the Pennsy Trail ends out east.
In case you did not get my sarcasm, I am no fan of this clamping down of the traffic movement and especially putting a bike route on U.S. 40, where a mere quarter-mile to the south is a dedicated rails-to-trails path. I do ride bikes and decided to ride on the U.S. 40 path just for kicks. I can say I would much rather be on the Pennsy Trail watching birds, squirrels and rabbits and fellow like-minded bicyclists and walkers than on a major road with cars whizzing by. I would love to see the Pennsy go to Charlottesville and Knightstown.
My attitude about this road diet is it’s a mistake. I liken it to the Soviet Union disaster where some veritable genius Soviet planner who most likely had no clue about agronomy decided to use the Aral Sea as a water source to grow cotton. The Aral sea has a salinity of 10 percent, so you get my point: Salt water and cotton plants don’t mix, so the people are left with a sea that is almost gone and toxic land as far as the eye can see, a total, unmitigated disaster.
Fortunately, our little road diet experiment pales in comparison and can be easily removed.
In an op-ed column published Aug. 6, 2019, in the Daily Reporter, Andrew Smith wrote the road diet will choke U.S. 40 traffic. He stated the road diet will extend as far west as Cumberland and that the volume of cars exceeds 16,000 per day near the Mt. Comfort Road intersection. Our county is growing by leaps and bounds. New homes and entire neighborhoods are being built. It is vital our main artery, U.S. 40, be kept open as a four-lane highway and not reduced to a two-lane road. I consider the little bit of road diet that was installed as an experiment, and as an often-driver on the section, I see no benefit to it. The price tag for this two-mile section was quoted at $385,599. If it is extended all the way to Cumberland, we are talking about a price tag of upwards of $5 million.
The citizens of Greenfield and the greater surrounding Hancock County have bigger fish to fry. What about the importance of connecting interstates 70 and 74 with a bypass that takes the pressure off State Road 9? That’s not something that people want to look at but needs to be planned for in the next 20 years. State Road 9 from U.S. 40 to I-70 and beyond moves well now but is going to require some attention in years to come as our town has grown and will only continue to grow and move to north of I-70.
It’s only a matter of time, folks.
George D. Stultz
Greenfield
