Letter: Texas shows way to maintaining safe roads

Monday, May 14, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun's May 11 editorial, "Gridlock governor rides again":

Although our new governor's ideas to improve our valley's congested freeways might be debatable, a possible approach might be to attack the problems that we have with our existing roadways first.

Traffic death figures, lack of enforcement, broken windshields and chipped paint on our private vehicles due to construction and rock trucks on Las Vegas highways are infuriating! NASCAR wannabes fly down the freeways, weaving from the slow lane to the fast lane doing 10 or 15 mph over the limit, scaring the heck out of those doing the speed limit, while the seemingly apathetic or non-existent "traffic cops" are nowhere to be found!

Our representatives should think that this problem would be on top of their priority list, especially in a valley where all the liquor you want is given away free nearly everywhere you go.

We just returned home from a 10-day driving vacation to San Antonio and Austin, Texas. One thing that really impressed us on our visit was that while we were driving the speed limit daily on all of their many city freeways and beltways, nearly no one was passing us! And no stop-and-go, even during rush hours! We looked for clues as to why.

There were large signs on every three-plus lane freeway saying "No trucks in left lane." All the trucks were in the right lane, and the middle lane when passing. And more signs all over these routes saying "drive friendly!" There were periodic signs saying "Safety corridor - speeding fines doubled." These corridors lasted 3 to 5 miles, and they were everywhere. And there was a speeder getting a citation up ahead nearly every time one passed you. But most drivers drove at the speed limit. What a pleasure!

With that said, how about it, Governor? Let's try what works in San Antonio. Doing something has to be better than what we're doing now!

Frank Musaraca, Henderson