To the editor:

Kasold Drive between Eighth and 14th streets needs to go on a diet, because slimming Kasold from 4 to 3 lanes is the best way to make the intersection of Kasold and Harvard Road safe and efficient and meet the needs of all users.

Option 2 — traffic signals and an increase from four to five lanes on Kasold — may seem a logical solution, but it doesn’t really help anyone, and it costs more. Cars on Kasold must still negotiate the oddly angled intersection at Harvard. Cars on Harvard have difficulty turning left onto Kasold, bicycles and pedestrians must cross a five-lane arterial, and everyone is slowed by the inefficient signals. This option costs $1 million more, and current and projected traffic loads on Kasold and Harvard do not justify it.

Option 1 — a roundabout and three lanes — solves the problem of the intersection for every user, including cars merging to one wider lane and moving smoothly through the roundabout, and bicycles and pedestrians crossing two lanes instead of five. This section of Kasold becomes a complete street, three lanes wide, safer, more efficient, welcoming for all users, properly sized for the load, less expensive to build, operate and maintain. The neighborhood benefits from a calmer Kasold, the city saves money, traffic of every type moves more efficiently and every user is safer. In a very short time we will wonder why we hesitated.