TRAFFIC: Left turn off highway is dangerous

This letter is in response to a letter I received after my presentation regarding left-hand turns into the shopping center near Kohl’s off of Prairie Avenue. As they stated in their letter, the turn into a private driveway across solid double yellow lines is not illegal. However, it is extremely dangerous! To be making left-hand turns into a private driveway so close to an intersection, where there is no dedicated left-turn lane, and crossing over three lanes of oncoming traffic, some of which can’t be seen while making a left-hand turn into the driveway.

While this is not an illegal turn, I would like to state that driving a car without a seatbelt at some point in time was not illegal either. However, people in government decided that it was a safety issue important enough to save lives to make it now illegal to drive without a seatbelt on. But the Lakes Highway District in their infinite wisdom has decided that they cannot afford to put in a barrier down the median to keep people from turning left at that point, when they can drive down a few feet farther in a turn lane and do so much safer.

Instead, they have chosen to plead poverty with the money that’s given them and bow to corporate pressure instead of being more concerned with the public safety. Even though they did so on Ramsey and Prairie, just a few miles west of there. But I guess one small little coffee shop doesn’t hold the power that corporate stores like Kohl’s and Starbucks do. This would not be a monumental expenditure, but they want you to believe that they’re being fiscally responsible.

The city of Hayden found it prudent to put one of these barriers on the east side of Hayden Avenue and 95 in front of Super 1 Foods. Likewise, the city of Coeur d’Alene felt it wise to put one on the east side of Kathleen and Highway 95 for the very same reason. But Lakes Highway District has refused to do the right thing. I encourage everyone to write a letter to the Lakes Highway District expressing your disappointment with their decision and eventually remove them from the board by using your vote. 

GEORGE PETERSON 

Hauser