Safer barriers

To the editor:

With regard to the concrete barriers installed on Louisiana near Lawrence High School to slow traffic, please understand that I approve of slowing down teen-age drivers (my son is 18). However, as they now exist, they present more of a problem than a solution. The two barricades are not visible at night. They should be emblazoned with reflective paint stripes and/or yellow blinking caution lights. As they exist now, drivers proceeding down Louisiana must be careful not to damage their automobile and must navigate around these difficult-to-see structures. I worry in particular about the poor pedestrians trying to cross Louisiana at this juncture: They could easily be hit.

Perhaps what is preventing those structures from being painted is the same city policy that states that the city will only white-strip a crosswalk next to a school if there are 10 students who cross it. Any crosswalk with nine students is out of luck, go figure!

If we are going to build these concrete barricades, let’s do it right: add the reflective paint and yellow blinking lights, and make them an addition to the safety of our city, and not a detriment to it.

D. Wayne Parkinson,

Lawrence