LR project on Cantrell first of two

Dear Mahatma: I am thrilled to see the near completion of work on the westbound Arkansas 10 ramp onto northbound Interstate 430. But it appears this only solves half the problem, with still a need for stopping of traffic for northbound traffic onto westbound Cantrell. Why all this work for half a fix? — Missing Something

Dear Missing: The Arkansas Department of Transportation has plans for Arkansas 10, more commonly known as Cantrell Road, beginning at Pleasant Valley Drive and going west to Pleasant Ridge Road. This is a distance of about mile.

The department has chosen a single-point urban exchange, or SPUI, which when spoken aloud sounds like an expectoration of chewing tobacco into a cuspidor.

Ha! That was a joke. Seriously, a single-point urban exchange allows opposing left turns to move simultaneously over or under the free-flowing road. In other words, expect elevated roadways. Also expect the project to begin sometime in 2019, after the I-430 northbound ramp opens. Dear Roads Scholar: I’ve been reading with interest about the proliferation of roadside panhandlers in Little Rock. Don’t even get me started on the sight of a family with three young children panhandling by the Interstate 630 exit ramp to University Avenue in Little Rock. Dragging kids into this questionable enterprise is dangerous and shameful. — Not Scrooge

Dear Not: You are one of many who’ve written in to express their opinions on the growth of panhandlers. It’s obvious that an opportunity was created by a federal judge’s ruling last year that a state law on panhandling ran counter to the First Amendment, meaning it was an unwarranted restriction on freedom of speech.

Almost all feedback on this topic has been dismay, by the way. Speaking of dismay, we read in the newspaper that the case goes on and on and on …

The wheels of justice, as everyone knows, grind slowly but exceedingly fine.

On the other hand, First Amendment geeks, which includes most newspaper people, like to say that freedom of speech means nothing if it doesn’t include speech with which we disagree.

Meanwhile, back on street corners, the solution is to refrain from giving money to panhandlers. If the supply of cash dries up, the demand for panhandlers will go away. That’s some kind of rule, too. Dear Know-It-All (and that’s a good thing): Do stop signs or other traffic signs located on private property such as shopping center parking lots carry the same weight of law as on public streets? —Don’t Know-It-All!

Dear Don’t: No, because private property is, well, private and not public. We’ve been told so numerous times over the years by police agencies. A fender bender in a parking lot is a matter to be resolved by the drivers and their insurance companies. Our household has had this experience more than once, we regret to say.

Vanity plate: MAGRZLY. We speculate this is one tough woman.