Energy costs

To the editor:

News articles in the Journal-World April 7 about how drivers are feeling the pinch of rising gas costs should tell us we need to do something to reduce our total gas costs.

We all spend too much time in our cars shopping for household needs because most of our retail stores are located near the edge of our city limits. This means we spend less time for physical activity, which results in our obesity problems.

As we continue to live in this environment, we see how urban sprawl destroys more than 1 million acres of parks and farms every year. Building more new roads, such as the highway project along the south edge of Lawrence, will make the problem worse.

The April 9 Journal-World carried an important Saturday Column which raised important questions about energy. It said too few legislators and national leaders are making a strong case for greater oil exploration and faster research and development of nuclear and solar energy and coal.

We need to see greater public involvement in the transportation and land-use planning processes. The first step is to write a letter to our politicians.

Lester C. Marsh,

Lawrence