Dear Editor,

As a one word answer – YES.
As a father of two small children a more emphatic YES. You cannot cross a street downtown for fear of your life. When the Clarkston Police Department existed, there was a not a problem with speeding. Now the speed limit is whatever you feel like. The pedestrian crossing at Church Street and M-15 (Main Street)is like a game of Frogger or Death Race. No one cares and no one will stop.
Sadly, the safer way is to go down to the light and use the crosswalk there, and even then people turning get upset with you that you’re not walking fast enough so they can get on their way to doing 50+ mph through town.
There is no laws being enforced in town and gravel haulers, or any semi trucks for that matter as we have seen by previous accidents, are not adhering to any signs either.
The Oakland County Sheriff is maybe less than a quarter mile away but they unfortunately aren’t enforcing any speed limits. The new solar powered speed limit signs are merely there to calibrate the speed in your vehicle to make sure it is accurate.
With all that being said, changing the way the road can be used or will be designated for truck traffic will not change anything other than forcing semi trucks to go around the Village. I’m not sure what all the crashes are that the article states.
If my memory serves (and not very well), there has only been two major crashes that come to mind in the past few years. The majority of the traffic going through the Village will continue to speed and ignore pedestrian traffic. Why don’t we address that. It seems this is the much BIGGER issue. How come other Villages can get it right but Clarkston can’t?

Sincerely,
David Yackell
Clarkston