To the editor:

Roads are built to bring more traffic and development, not reduce it. The South Lawrence Trafficway will do nothing to relieve traffic congestion on 23rd Street. It will, however, turn K-10 into a cross-country truck route, and when U.S. Highway 59 gets linked up, then Lawrence will be a truck hub north/south and east/west.

Count the semis you see now on K-10 on your way to work, and then imagine all the Lenexa warehouse plus Interstate 70 trucks on that road with you on your frantic commute in the future. Trucks will go that way if for no other reason than to avoid the turnpike costs.

We should eliminate the I-70 tolls to encourage trucks to stay on that route east/west, and keep whatever road the developers insist we need as far from Lawrence as possible. Without that boondoggle of a turnpike, the north side of Lawrence would have developed a long time ago. It has been an impediment to growth along its entire route and we should get rid of it now!

And speaking of an impediment to growth, if we don’t immediately build several more parking garages downtown, it will continue to lose out to the free giant parking lots on the west/south sides. We’re drowning in a sea of cars and trucks and need to choose carefully how we deal with them. Survival on several levels is at stake.

John Bowden,

Lawrence