Enough with the road diets

I was heading west on Trent Avenue a couple of blocks east of Hamilton Street when I came to the most confusing roundabout in the city. If you were in the left lane you were routed to a road that goes to the WSU campus. If you were in the right lane you were routed to a two-lane road-dieted section of Trent Avenue.

For the last 50 years, Trent has been a major four-lane arterial from Division to the state line. It now has a two-lane choke point and a confusing roundabout. What’s wrong with this picture? I hope and pray that new Mayor Woodward will clean house at the city’s Traffic Engineering Department and get rid of the people who keep coming up with these road diets like North Monroe, East Sprague and North Crestline.

Maybe these people came from L.A. or Seattle and are homesick for massive traffic jam gridlocks. It used to be when two major roads came together they put in a signal light to regulate traffic flow. With increased growth and traffic flow we need to end road diets and use some common sense.

Rick Johnson

Spokane