Letter: Editorial mouthpiece for tourism industry

It pays a lip service to residents by making it a simple manner of money: $7.4 million for lights versus $15 million for frontage roads, a solution heavily impacting established neighborhoods and wetlands.

The editorial skips or glosses over the issues of funding, poorly defined design, environmental impacts, and realistic completion time of the frontage roads.

There is no mention of the 79 accidents since 2012 and the resulting impact on traffic flow, or the fact that during rush hours, traffic is already stop-and-go with dangerous situations arising from well-intentioned drivers in waiting cars trying to make a left turn.

It is a miracle that there were no fatalities in this period, and we pray there will not be any in the future.

As a Windmill Harbour resident, I would love to see a frontage road. This was our official position for several years. However, I trust that the experts at Beaufort County and the S.C. Department of Transportation are better qualified to come up with the best solution, which goes beyond the interests of the tourism industry.

I doubt that well-timed, sensor-controlled half lights will result in "scaring away tourists and workers," something that such editorials might just accomplish.

Jan S. Stasiek

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Letter: Editorial mouthpiece for tourism industry."