Paul Scott comment: The Locust Road curve is throwing me a curve

After my recent comment that the City of Decorah should at least get bids on the price of straightening the sharp curve on Locust Road, we received a lot of comments.  Some of them were intriguing.

For instance, my long-time friend Jack e-mailed, "those curves tend to slow down people quite a bit.  I don't think taking them out would be a positive move, since I'm sure speeds would increase quite a bit!"

I have heard this argument used before.  For instance, I've heard some people living on East Main Street say that the terrible condition of their street keeps drivers from using the street and forces them to use East Water or East Broadway instead.

I agree that there's something to this argument.  But if I take this argument to its most extreme--and you know I will do that--I'm left with the argument that it's good to have streets in poor condition!  There's no use reconstructing Locust Road because drivers currently slow down so they won't lose a tire or a muffler.  See, we have your best interests in mind!

City of Decorah officials are already worried about the speed of vehicles on Locust Road--they're discussing putting in those speed limit meters that have become common in this area.  But we've overlooked the biggest possible solutions to lowering the speed of vehciles--just find the five missing culverts on Locust Road, dig them out and leave the ditches to make sure traffic travels slowly!