Make Assembly safe for pedestrians

I know three people who have been severely injured crossing Assembly Street in front of the Koger Center. Since I work in the School of Music building, I have also seen numerous close calls. It is clear that as the university is moving more activities toward the river, that more people cross Assembly to go to classes, concerts, dormitories and parking places — and there will be more and more accidents in the future.

The city and the university need to create safe crossings. A temporary solution would be to have four-way red lights, with no turns on red, at Green and College streets, as you see at major intersections in other big cities.

Ultimately, though, there will need to be a pedestrian walkway across Assembly, similar to the one that was built across Pickens Street in the 1970s. The road should go underneath a flat bridge that’s easy for pedestrians to cross. The sooner the better, before more people are injured.

I blame the state for traffic stop

Every now and then life throws you a curve ball. On my drive home from town recently, an Aiken County Sheriff’s car pulled up behind me, turned on his lights and pulled me over. He and another deputy cautiously walked up behind me with hands on their weapons. The first words out of my mouth were, “How come you stopped me?” I knew I was doing the speed limit.

The deputy said I was driving more or less erratically. I explained that I was avoiding the potholes: just driving to the right of them, not off the road. I said this was a first time I had ever been stopped and that I was a second-generation law enforcement officer and played by the rules. I figured he would understand, but he gave me a written warning.

Knowing how dangerous the job is today, I don’t fault the deputies for doing their due diligence. I followed many a vehicle driving like I was over the past 25 years and blame the state for putting us all in an impossible situation.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.