LETTER: VIEW HIGH DRIVE

As a long-standing resident of Lee’s Summit, remembering View High Drive as a windy, hilly, two-lane country road, I was excited when it was improved into a nice four-lane divided road.  (I also attended LCC in 1970.)  We now had great traffic flow from Lee’s Summit to I-470 and college students/visitors into Lee’s Summit have a great way in.  Roughly, three years ago the Kansas City, Missouri police started these speed traps which are set up during the middle of the day, not during any rush hour.  I have witnessed numerous individuals being flagged to stop at these speeding traps.  The root problem is the “old” View High Drive speed limit of 40 mph was never updated when the road was improved.  As many of you know, you must make a conscious effort to watch your speed to keep your car at 40 when driving this clear, visible, divided road.  I don’t believe speeding at 47-50 mph is intentional. Another speed trap was in place, yesterday, Sept. 25 in the morning.

I decided it was time to get City attention on this problem:

Issue 1:  View High Drive is actually under the jurisdiction of Kansas City, so I called the Public Works Department of Kansas City, Mo., and registered a complaint.  In my opinion, the speed limit needs to be increased. This resulted in a Case number being assigned for a “traffic study” which is to be started within the next 2 weeks. (The original speed of 40 mph was last officially set in 1978.)  

Issue 2: I am sending my concerns regarding Kansas City, Mo., police doing these regular speed traps to the KCMO officer in charge.  While I do not condone speeding, I do feel that the legal system needs to ensure reasonable and practicable laws are in place.  As coincidence would have it, I was at the college last night to teach a class and picked up “The Current.”  I was so glad to see the student’s frustration vented (“Preying on the Weak,” Sep. 12, 2008) so well – GOOD JOB!  I am enclosing a copy of this article to the office in charge. Hopefully, our combined efforts will achieve needed changes.

-Cindy Taylor