Traffic in Jax...

(Song of the moment: "Gollum's Song" by Emiliana Torrini off the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers soundtrack)

A letter to the editor of the Florida Times-Union:

In a town with an average of six to ten traffic accidents a day, it would seem a foregone conclusion that the local media would write articles or investigate why such accidents so frequently happen. After all, articles have appeared arguing why long stops at red lights make people upset, the length of cycle time between green lights, and fatalities caused by road rage and cell phones.

Yet nothing on why people so habitually get in accidents, even when such an article could support the measure to add surcharges to traffic-related fines.

Here's a summation of what I've seen in the one year-plus that I've lived here:

1) Cars and trucks constantly running red lights - turning or straight. Philips Hwy, Beach Blvd, University, Arlington, downtown;

2) Cars downtown using right-turn only lanes in order to pass people on their left;

3) Tractor-trucks running red lights (not yellow), honking their horns to keep people from going on green. (An Explorer followed this example through the red light);

4) School buses running red turn signals;

5) People driving 70+ on Southside Boulevard, where the speed limit is 45mph;

6) A group of motor cycle riders stopping traffic so that their group could stay together (running two cycles of a light); and, last but not least,

7) Police sitting at intersections or facing red-light runners, and not pulling them over.

When the esteemable Mayor Peyton and others talk about adding $15 to traffic fines, one would expect a great increase in the funding of our public projects, whether highway maintenance or the courthouse. But given the number of violations (accidents are a small percentage of total violations) in a given day, there either aren't enough police to enforce the laws, or something new (cameras at the lights, perhaps?) needs to be tried, especially if the courthouse is going to get its funding."

TTFN-

NO MORE BU--SH--