To the editor:

The Journal-World recently reported that the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department gave final approval to a Casey’s General Store on the condition that a traffic light be installed at Sixth and Wisconsin. From downtown to Wakarusa Drive, Sixth Street is already strung with traffic lights like a Christmas tree. While the current lights are nominally timed with the goal to keep traffic moving — if the first light you hit is green, it may be clear sailing– the flip side is that if you hit one red light you will probably hit 12 more red lights driving between East Lawrence and Free State High School, adding 10 or more minutes to the journey.

Is there a pattern here? An additional traffic light lodged on Sixth Street between Folks Road and Wakarusa Drive a few years ago resulted in a sweet perk for businesses like Burger King and Dillons and a headache for anybody traveling east or west on Sixth Street. Today we see a proposal to encumber lower Sixth Street to accommodate a convenience store and gas station. And for future indignity and inconvenience on the other side of town, an idea has been floated to indulge a big-box developer with his own dedicated traffic light on south Iowa, 300 feet from the new SLT light.

While we all deal with other, more important, issues, let’s also keep our eye on the small issues that drag down our mobility and efficiency. Let’s not permit another Sixth Street traffic light.

Nora Murphy,

Lawrence