Safe streets with smarter lights

Flushing: Four years ago, my daughter was crossing a street in Manhattan with the light when a car making a turn hit her. While still dealing with the consequences of that accident, my daughter was lucky. She survived. My heart goes out to those who are hit in crosswalks and do not survive. At that time, I wrote to Voice of the People with a suggestion to prevent such accidents. Four years have passed, nothing has been done and similar accidents continue to happen.

My suggestion would cost very little and could be implemented easily and quickly: Reprogram the traffic lights so that pedestrians cross while cars remain stationary; then have the cars move east and west, including making turns, then cars moving north and south (including making turns) while pedestrians remain stationary.

No pedestrians will be in the street while cars are moving and no cars are moving when pedestrians are in the street. This configuration will have the unintended benefit of making traffic move more quickly. Cars will not have to slow down to avoid hitting pedestrians in the crosswalk because there will be no pedestrians in the crosswalk when cars are making their turns.

In some instances, the city has programed traffic lights so that there is a head start for pedestrians crossing of about five seconds before the traffic light for cars changes to green. I assume this is done so that the pedestrians are more visible to the cars making the turn. My suggestion just takes that idea further and makes pedestrians much safer. I hope this idea will be considered by city officials. Chaya Wiesman

Bad congestion plan

Milford, Pa.: The March 21 Op-Ed “A transit rescue plan is in sight” was way off the mark. Why do you think it’d be fair that drivers are forced to pay for mass transit? Nowhere in that entire article is it mentioned that the fares should go up to rehabilitate the system. We do this dance every couple of years — the MTA needs money and drivers are soaked for the bill. It’s well past the time we realize that the MTA (Money Taken Away) will never have enough money. Stop forcing drivers to pay for a system we don’t use. So glad I left New York.

Robert K. Greco

Class congestion

Kew Gardens: Congestion pricing, or any other system that involves charges for driving in the Manhattan business district, is an unfair burden that would turn access into yet another privilege for well-off New Yorkers. It would turn our transportation into a two-tier system: cars, limos, taxis for the rich; buses and shoe leather express for the rest of us. If we need to reduce traffic congestion, let’s ban traffic for everyone, rich and poor alike, as some European cities have done. If we need to fund transit improvements, that’s what taxes are for.

Harvey Wachtel

Cashing out

Manhattan: To Voicer Bob Shwalb: Actually, both the $500 and $1,000 bills, last printed in the 1930s and now obsolete though still legal tender, were quietly retired from circulation beginning in 1969, well before President Nixon’s war on drugs. It is the $100 bill that continues to be the focus of government efforts to make cash transactions more difficult for drug traffickers. The advent of credit cards and electronic fund transfers made revival of the big bills for any purpose increasingly unlikely.

Aydin Torun

Chilly commute

Brooklyn: For the fare we pay and the service we get, the MTA could at least put the heat on in the trains in the morning. It is colder on the train than it is outside. It’s like riding in an icebox.

Leonard A. Bille

Let’s hear it for the kids

Bronx: Voicer George McIntyre wants to be “enlightened” concerning student protests regarding school shootings. Well, let me take a shot at it. It’s obvious by your attitude that you just don’t care that these young people are concerned for their safety and want to do something about ending gun violence. They are taking matters into their own hands and raising their voices to try to raise awareness about this issue. The only thing you have done is try to minimize the significance of their protest. Consider yourself enlightened.

Stephen Minter

Bad chancellor

Bronx: The letter from Voicer and former NYC Schools Chancellor Harold Levy has to be one of the dumbest I have read in The News. He says that the only teachers who will volunteer are the uninspired. So any teacher who volunteers to carry a gun is uninspired? Then he says that students will not be comfortable revealing their innermost thoughts if they knew that their teachers were armed. Is he for real? Does carrying a gun make you crazy? Just what is he suggesting? Suddenly a teacher would respond to something they disagree with by shooting the child, just because they now have the means? Where do they find these people? Oh, yes, New York. Great choices of leaders.

Anita Mulé

Safety in the skies

Staten Island: Voicer Jack Dickerson was critical of the NYPD aviation unit and former Police Commissioners Kelly and Bratton, stating NYPD helicopters put the public in danger while monitoring the mass demonstrations of Occupy Wall Street and Critical Mass circa 2011. Earth to Dickerson: It is 2018! Get a life.

Lawrence A. Natale

Beyond ‘elite’ high schools

Brooklyn: Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters argues that a 500-student difference in boys’ and girls’ admission to eight elite high schools is something to holler about (“School daze for city girls,” March 15). Keith Powers calls for “bold steps to update the admissions process” because few minorities of color are admitted to the same schools (“Keep the test and spur true diversity,” March 15). Of course, he discounts our newest minority — Chinese kids. If you want an objective admissions standard, the ax falls where the ax falls. The schools are meant for the top academic minds in the public schools. Suck it up. The real problem is that comprehensive, neighborhood high schools with topnotch honors tracks no longer exist. My husband has a Ph.D. in English — Madison. My brother has a Ph.D. in linguistics — Tilden. I have a law degree and a master’s in teaching in high school — Tilden. In the old system, with so much offered in each high school, you barely noticed you weren’t in Stuyvesant. We admired those who got into the elite high schools. And we worked hard and moved on. Dianne B. Stillman

Doggone bad owners

Hartsdale, N.Y.: So the passengers with the dog loved the dog and took him everywhere with them — why did they have a bag too big to fit under an airplane seat? How did they travel by air with the dog? If the United flight attendant told them to put the bag in the overhead, why didn’t they say it was a dog and ask if there was another location for the carrier during takeoff and landing? And after reaching cruising altitude, many get up to get things out of their carry-ons in the overheads. Why didn’t they take the dog out of there then? And don’t say the flight was turbulent; passengers get up and move around all the time when the seat-belt sign is on and the flight is bumpy. That is no excuse. And if in fact the dog barked for two hours, did it ever dawn on them to get up, take the dog out and check on him? Isn’t it odd that the other passengers apparently didn’t complain about a dog barking for two hours? I feel awful about the dog, but not his owners. They are responsible for what happened and were not responsible parents to the dog. Why blame the airline? Lydia Ruth

Silly words

Manchester, N.J.: Voicer Kenneth Smith apparently believes the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee — that there is no collusion. Smith charges that the collusion was between the Russians and News columnist Richard Cohen, the media, the Democrats, Obama, Hillary, the FBI and the Justice Department, all of whom Smith says don’t control the truth, or facts, or him and other patriotic Drumpf supporters. Kenneth Smith is an idiot. Charles Morgan

Encouraging words

GETTY Manchester, N.J.: Voicer Bob Ory’s letter was a brilliant perspective on today’s political and social climate. He expressed my thoughts completely. If we do not derail this destructive train that we’re on now, our future will face horrendous circumstances. Yes, I too believe in the human spirit and daily have hope for us. As Ory stated, we’ve come through some immensely challenging and difficult times before. Americans have the tenacity and courage to bring back stability and sanity to the White House. I thank Ory for his letter and The News for publishing it. Joan Cavalluzzi