Control the number of
trolleys on city roads
I read your editorial on the congestion on our city streets. At the beginning you started talking about the trolleys and trains crawling around our Old Town streets and I thought you were going to talk about the elephant in the room, but you stopped short. The elephant is the number of these vehicles the streets and the motorists can stand.
I am sure we have used a figure to establish the load that we can bear and have done studies in the past. If anything, traffic has increased since the contracts were awarded to Historic Tours. We should not add to the jam of these vehicles on the streets. That's easy to say, but "Duck Tours" showed us it is not easy to do.
The elephant is also that if we are going to have competition, it will be at the expense of Historic Tours. Again, you can only have so many of these trolleys and trains on the street. I don't know how long the contract is with HTA, and hope it is not unrealistically long, However, past actions of the city fathers tells me it probably is.
I don't think people who want to compete for our roads will wait, but we should not add to our traffic suffering. It would be nice if we could renegotiate the agreement with HTA to have fewer vehicles on the street to make room for a newcomer, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
So what should we do? We could temporarily increase the allowed number of tour vehicles until the HTA contract is up, then reapportion the allowed number of vehicles -- 20 on the streets at any one time -- among all concerned companies. This would not help us now and would require the memory of our officials that we can't count on.
Back to renegotiating a contract with HTA. This could be done by pointing out to HTA that, at the end of the contract, it could just be renegotiated as usual, or set the newcomer's contract to end at the same time and have a "lottery" for any interested parties at that time.
By the way, the number of vehicles could be greatly reduced and the fee to the city increased at this time.
All this is to accommodate a "new" group and avoid a monopoly.
With the past connections between this new company and HTA, are we sure there is no connection and this is a "new" group? Just one more elephant in the room!
Larry A. Niemiec
Key West
Segways could make our carriers go postal
I am a local Key West resident. I have, in the recent past, noticed our postal workers riding around on those two-wheeled vehicles that I think they call Segways. I don't know if the U.S. Postal Service is trying to make its employees more visible, or trying to keep them on their feet.
First of all, they look ridiculous and not a bit dignified. If you have ever seen one moving through traffic, it brings to mind something akin to Chinese water torture. To be on your feet all day in the hot, humid climate that we have here must be a real onus to our already beleaguered postal workers (who are famous for being volatile and going ballistic). After the further indignity of being a public spectacle, it must be hard to return to their homes at night with that sweaty uniform and a fried brain.
Come on, USPS. Give those guys a break. It wouldn't be the first bad idea that went extinct. Besides, I thought those things were illegal here and you'll just be encouraging more and more people to snarl up the local traffic with the justification: "Well, if the post office can do it, so can we."
Bill Bray
Key West
Don't go soft on the worthless politicians
... I believe except for the Acevedo [case], which appears to be a no-brainier, the local press is starting to get a little soft on the other politicians who guide our every move. I know most of you in this county probably have labeled me by now a local gadfly in these parts, but ... if not for gadflies the stench from our worthless elected officials would be unbearable. Hopefully, one day we can get the rest of the population around here to join in on the feast. Believe me, there's plenty of worthlessness to go around.
Salvador Gutierrez Jr.
Key Largo