To The Editor:
Vermont is finally starting to repave and rebuild roads and bridges, which we all agree is way past due. I just want to point out one basic safety issue that to me demands immediate attention. That is, in this mountainous and hilly state most roads have many twists and turns and it requires complete attention to safely navigate our state and town roads. We also have problems with fog and tricky icing situations that make navigating these curvy and hilly roads even harder and drivers need to pay complete attention to safely travel.
As I travel these roads on foggy nights and even in the daytime, I find I depend on the yellow center lines and the fog lines on the side of the road. What I find more and more is that these indicators are not dependable. In some cases, the paint is bright and continuous, but I also find that on both newly paved roads as well as roads that need work, the line painting is very far from reliable. Some roads it seems the paint is fine and then it just completely disappears or becomes very faint. I am not talking about after the winter when I know the salt and plowing beats the hell out of the striping. I am talking about right now. So it means to me either the quality of the paint is not up to the job or it is applied too thin or, even worse, not at all.
Vermont has to tackle never-ending budget problems, but I would think basic safety issues such as this, which are noncontroversial and I think 100 percent of the citizens would agree with, need to be corrected.
Michael Sharkey
Waitsfield
