Re: Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
I am furious over Mr. Kalmbach's letter instructing us seniors to stay out of rush-hour traffic so he can get to work quickly, eat lunch quickly and of course, get home quickly.
I am a senior who is an excellent driver, and I have driven for nearly 60 years with no accidents - not even a traffic ticket. I don't drive from 7 to 9 a.m. as I like to sleep late, however, there are times when I need to get to the doctor or dentist around noon, and the early-bird dinner specials are all over by 6 p.m.
May I suggest to Kalmbach that he leave a little earlier in the morning, consider brown-bagging his lunch, and work later to avoid the evening rush hour? Frankly, the roads belong to all of us and I probably pay more in Florida intangible tax each year than he does in federal taxes.
We're here to stay and you can like it or lump it.
-- Sam Lasley, Clearwater
Clock is ticking for driver in rush
Re: Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
How very nice of Ward Kalmbach to suggest that seniors put their lives on hold so he can drive without getting behind a slow driver, especially when he's going to lunch or some other place.
I'm sure his appointments are much more important than the seniors of this area. Doctors like early morning appointments, 7 to 9 a.m., but we will ask them to hold off until later in the day for Mr. Kalmbach's sake. We can forget our early-bird dinners between 4 and 6 so as not to inconvenience Mr. Kalmbach.
I really think a preferable solution is for Mr. Kalmbach to work different hours and stay off the roads during rush hours. Why is his life more important than ours? When he makes the senior mark, let someone suggest the same to him and see how he feels.
-- Fran Glaros, Clearwater
Lives don't revolve around one driver
Re: Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
I really enjoyed reading the letter from Ward Kalmbach. It is really funny. He is 47 years old and we older people should stay off the road so he can get to work a little quicker. I wonder if he has parents or if he will someday be a retired senior citizen.
Next time I have to go to the airport for a trip or to pick up someone coming to visit, I will have to remember I cannot go between 7 and 9 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. or 4 and 6 p.m. because Mr. Kalmbach might be on his way home and has to get there pretty quickly and we don't want any more congestion on the road than absolutely necessary, do we?
And when we want to go out to dinner, we will have to leave by 3:30. That will be a really early bird dinner.
And I wonder if he has children. If so, I am paying taxes for them to have good schooling and I do not have any children in the school system so I guess I should not pay those taxes next year, or the taxes for road improvements. Look at the money I will save!
-- Janet A. Chadwick, Tarpon Springs
Me-first attitude makes roads risky
Re: Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
Yes, I really agree that we should stay out of rush-hour traffic, especially the going-home traffic. Some of you workers are so anxious to get home from work that a lot of you do not care how you drive. You cut in and out of traffic and are generally discourteous.
We live on a quiet street only three blocks long, but it runs from a through street with a traffic light to one that has access to the main road with no traffic light at the intersection. You nice people who are wanting us to stay off the road during your time are speeding down our 25 mph street to avoid the light, endangering lives of the elderly and children who live here.
Also, many of the (you call them elderly) drivers on the road are also employed and are working in jobs that require them to be a part of the rush-hour traffic, too.
-- Mrs. Don Merritt Sr., Seminole
Bad driving blame crosses age groups
Re: Retirees need to stay out of rush-hour traffic, letter by Ward Kalmbach, Jan. 11.
In what seems like unending refrains for ridding the road of retirees, a letter writer who has "had enough with senior drivers" and drivers who are "retired and in no hurry" sings a song, if you will, that we've heard before: The elderly need not be on the road from 7-9 a.m., 12-1 p.m. or 4-6 p.m.
Oh, great. If it isn't mandatory tests, medication checks or family snitching about our driving to the Department of Motor Vehicles, it's another attempt to keep us off the road during high traffic time. Makes me think about selling my car.
The writer talks about seniors, retired, elderly. Who is a senior? When do you become "elderly"? I have no idea. I have friends who were old at 40 and some who are young at 70. Defining a "retiree" is easy. Guess what? Not only are there younger folks who no longer work, there are many retirees who still do. I'm 72, retired and teach as a part-time substitute. And, by the way, I'm often on the road between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and can't drive too slowly or I'll be late for school. Perish the thought.
I do share the writer's anger with slow drivers. But all seniors are not slow drivers any more than all other drivers are careful.
"Just think of all the accidents that could be avoided," he writes, "if retired people were not on the road at these times." That's not fair. Statistics show that teens cause the most fatal accidents. Can you imagine asking to get them off the road? Their response would sound something like, "No way, dude."
Maybe, to paraphrase a famous TV commercial, we're falling and we can't get up because someone always seems to be putting us down.
-- Jack Bray, Dunedin
Motorcyclists share roads, responsibility
Re: Continue to focus on use of helmets in cycle crashes, letters, Dec. 18.
News reporters should not act like feature journalists. Safety laws require motorists to use seat belts, so it is appropriate for journalists to state that "the injured/deceased was/was not wearing a seat belt." Safety laws do not require bikers to use helmets, so "the injured/deceased was/was not wearing a helmet" is inappropriate, unless the reporter is trying to advance a cause, and that is a campaign, not a news story.
But what could be gained by letter writer Chris Girard's campaign to have the reporter (with mama's permission) ride a motorcycle to determine that "the best helmet is only effective for a direct impact of less than 20 mph"? Well, the resulting news report of the reporter's death could appropriately exclude the inappropriate helmet-wearing statement.
Millions of motorists (car drivers) actively try to obey the law, the highway code and the rules of the road. I specifically include yielding the right of way as being of extreme importance. Too many motorcyclists utilize more rights-of-way than are legally granted to them and expect motorists to look out for these multiple demands. (Motorists are guilty of this, too, but at a lower percentage rate.)
I use all three of my rear-view mirrors regularly - particularly when I have glimpsed a biker somewhere behind me. He/she may be passing a car behind me on the right side , but I dare not ease to my left, closer to the lane divider, because I'll immediately incur great wrath for not yielding that right-of-way if the cyclist has zipped between two cars and reappears in my left-side mirror.
Let's be honest: Motorcycles are very maneuverable and capable of rapid changes of direction - all too frequently more capable than the person driving them. Mr. Girard know this, because he said, "Look twice. Save a life. Motorcycles are everywhere."
I empathize with Mr. Girard concerning the tragic loss of his helmet-wearing daughter, but I don't understand his overall thesis. In his example, two out of three helmet-wearing motorcyclists "walked away" from a 60 to 80 mph incident on a 20 mph curve - and he tells "you morons" to "find the real statistics" to identify how many cyclists have died "due to the carelessness of others." What motorist (car driver) was careless this time, sir?
I'll wager, in direct rebuttal to Mr. Girard, that for every "idiot in a car" who is on a medication or has age-impaired vision or hearing, there is also an "idiot biker" who is on a substance or has self-impaired vision or hearing - from wearing a helmet, according to Mr. Girard.
-- R.J. Radford, Clearwater
Airboat was imported from Minnesota
Re: New Year's Day marks another pioneering aviation first, Jan. 1 guest column by Will Michaels on the launching of the Benoist airboat line from St. Petersburg to Tampa on Jan. 1, 1914.
An interesting, but not widely known fact about the Benoist flying boat is that this very same machine came here from Minnesota. The book, Minnesota Aviation History 1857-1945 (Copyright 1993 Minnesota Department of Transportation) depicts the Benoist in flight over Duluth Harbor.
I quote the cover description:
"The gold and green Benoist Number 43 hydroaeroplane of Julias H. Barnes is portrayed on an excursion flight around the Duluth, Minnesota harbor. Pilot Tony Jannus is perhaps teaching William D. "Gasoline Bill' Jones how to fly. Note the harbor's famous aerial bridge in the background features the original transfer coach instead of the present day lift span.
"The Benoist has special significance in aviation history, for it was this very airplane, shipped from Duluth to Tampa, Florida, in the fall of 1913, modified and refurbished, that was used to conduct the initial flight of the world's first airline, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. On January 1, 1914, the first scheduled airline carried a single paying passenger on each trip between the two cities, and continued the service several times a day for three months, missing only four days due to weather or mechanical problems."
-- Adolph M. Hanson, Largo
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