Will this valley ever respect bike lanes?
To the editor:
I've been biking to work since I moved to Las Vegas in 1990 -- usually logging 2,000 miles a year. Now that gas prices are way up there, I'm starting to save some real money. This is something anybody can do. And more people would if they thought it was safe.
On my way to work this morning I got into an altercation with a motorist who was driving in the bike lane. Words and hand gestures were exchanged. I was fired up. I know I was right and he was wrong.
Our Regional Transportation Commission and communities know that alternative modes of transportation are important for many reasons. They have committees and perform studies, and they even striped a bike lane from downtown Las Vegas to Red Rock Canyon, from Main Street to Desert Foothills Drive along Alta Drive.
This is my route to work. My pleas to maintain this bike lane have only recently been half-heartedly addressed. When construction obliterates the striping, it does not seem to get replaced. Go look at the intersection of Alta and Rampart Boulevard. It seems that public works officials made no plans to maintain it.
And motorists don't get it. They think "bike only" means "and right turns, too." There are no less than 15 signs and markings between Valley View Boulevard and Rancho Drive that indicate the far right lane is for bikes only. Yet every morning there is some yahoo trying to turn right using the bike lane. Or they put on their right-turn signal and get into the bike lane, but they can't go any farther because those going straight are in their way.
So, if our community is going make a commitment to alternative modes of transportation, then by God they ought to make a commitment. Don't stripe a bike lane if you're not going to maintain it.
Kevin Eubanks
LAS VEGAS
Ivy Leaguers unite!
To the editor:
A proud Ivy Leaguer, I am appalled at America's schizo attitude toward education.
On one hand, if you achieve at the highest level -- e.g. Harvard Law Review -- despite an absentee father and a struggling single mother, you're an "elitist," but if you get into Yale (George W. Bush) or the U.S. Naval Academy (Sen. John McCain) because your dad's an ambassador or an admiral, (Sen. McCain finished near the bottom of his class), you've somehow acquired the common touch.
The message is clear: achieve, but not too much, or you'll become a snob no matter what your background.
Glenn Phillips
LAS VEGAS
Fair share
To the editor:
Do the editorial writers of the Review-Journal believe that government has no legitimate function? If not, how do they propose to pay for those functions other than through taxes ("Time to end 'use it or lose it,' " Friday editorial)?
A person who contributes to a tax-advantaged instrument such as an IRA or 401(k) has, I believe, made a prudent decision to attempt to secure his or her financial future. However, in doing so, the investor has lessened his contribution to paying for government services when compared with similarly situated people who can't or choose not to participate in such programs.
Should such unequal participation in funding the operation of government last forever?
Continue to attack the massive waste in government spending, but please don't advocate that such inequality last in perpetuity.
Marshall Strange
MESQUITE
Retirement
To the editor:
Thank you for Friday's lead editorial, "Time to end 'use it or lose it.' " But you failed to mention a very important point applicable to so many government programs: the constantly changing actuarial tables.
I have already outlived two lifetimes in accordance with the actuarial tables in effect at the time of my birth, 1919. Now, at age 88, I am eating up someone else's Social Security benefits. The strong possibility of an industrial accident maiming the breadwinner was the greatest family fear when this great experiment was enacted (now passé through affordable insurance, factory upgrades and OSHA rules); followed by a lack of savings. Both of these could stand readjustment.
Recently, the public wisely rejected the idea of building Social Security retirement dependency through speculative stock market savings accounts (confirmation was provided by today's volatile market).
Do you know where your 401(k) is tonight? Perhaps increasing or evaporating according to which mortgage accounts may have been purchased through market manipulators and/or the provisions in your editorial. Do you really feel secure about your eventual retirement via this route?
We must demand that Congress stop fighting over party supremacy; it is incumbent upon lawmakers to quickly fix these (and other) universal problems.
Richard E. Law
LAS VEGAS
