Old Glenn traffic gets worse

To the editor:

The subject has been covered in this paper several times before, but it seems that people’s driving habits along the Old Glenn Highway are getting worse every year. Part of living in Alaska is accepting that, for reasons that escape me, people drive horrible up here. Being in Alaska means not having the right to criticize the driving habits in any other state one may travel in. Even California drivers pale in comparison.

But as a daily driver along the Old Glenn Highway in Palmer/Butte, several of us have noticed that the number of poor drivers seems to be increasing. I’m not talking about just the crowd that tail-gates, passes on the right and speeds; heck, we don’t even notice them anymore. But as the accident last weekend demonstrates, we are now seeing vehicles racing, passing in no-passing zones and endangering pedestrians.

Just last week, in the span of four days, we witnessed;

• A black Dodge truck racing a black Chevy Camaro at speeds over 80 mph through the S-curves between the Glenn Highway and the power station during afternoon commuter-traffic.

• A young girl passes in a no-passing zone, around a blind corner and threatens to run a vehicle off the road as she forced her way back into her lane (morning commuter traffic).

• A pizza delivery boy almost hit two young children whose parents had let them wander too close to the shoulder of the road. Rather than slow down or even move over, he blew by them with inches to spare.

• A teen on an ATV flies across the highway in front of cars.

This represents just four days. We watch this type of behavior daily, weekly, yearly. I welcome a public or community forum to solicit ideas on what can be done along this highway to at least reduce the degree of recklessness. I understand the police can’t be everywhere at once, but I hope they are aware of the situation along the Old Glenn that is rapidly growing worse.

Ben Compton

Palmer/Butte