Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Spring has sprung

Last Saturday, spring finally arrived in Lincoln. It was one of those top ten days that come twice a year in the interval between the wind chill of -30 and the 106 heat. That's not a complaint, by the way--it keeps out the riffraff.

80,149 Nebraskans took advantage of the fine weather, and attended football practice at Memorial Coliseum. It was a full house, and traffic was just like a regular fall football game. In essence, we're having nine home games this year. One down, eight to go.

My compliments to everyone who worked the traffic and crowd control detail. With two of our critical roadways (8th Street and O Street) closed for the rebuilding of the Harris Overpass, and a sell-out crowd at Haymarket Park for baseball, the potential existed for some significant problems. Sgt. Shannon Karl did her usual great job putting the X's and O's together, and the game plan came off like clockwork.

One down, eight to go.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My family drove up from Kansas City for the game. I thought I left in plenty of time to avoid any traffic problems....well I was wrong. We were in stop and go traffic on 10th street from M street to Q street. We park in lot 7 so with all the road work I was not sure how else to get to the lot. My advise to anyone going to games this fall is to give yourself at least a extra hour over the usual drive time. All in all the family had a great time.

Anonymous said...

Hey there Chief

How about having a couple of your traffic enforcement officers spend some time near 70th and South. Drag racing, ninja bikes, loud music, mufflers and the like make it a real effort to enjoy the outdoors.

We know most of the time you're concerne with the O street area from 20th to 9th butds those of us in East Lincoln would like a little relief from the speeding vehicles.

There has been at least one fatality, numerous other accidents, just recently, last week around 2 in the morning. Even City Councilman Cook has said he avoids that intersection as much as possible. That should speak volumes.

Tom Casady said...

1:26-

Councilman Jon Camp forwarded your email to me a few days ago, and we'll see what we can do. It's just a huge citywide problem, though, so I'm not real confident we can make a discernible difference on an arterial street that is traveled by such a large and diverse population.

Targeted enforcement of this type works best when you've got a street--let's say something like Sumner St. between 56th and 70th--where the travelers are often repeats.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know they named a bike after Aksamit! The SE team Ninja.

Anonymous said...

I think it would be great if they moved the football games to Grand Island as well. Then we would'nt have to put up with all those Huckster fanatics, cloggin' up the streets, resturants, and everything else. What a nuisance and a waste of money. A bunch of way, way over paid coaches. Who could possibly afford to take a family to a game without taking out a loan? Go Big Rip Off.

Anonymous said...

I thunk the game was good to and the tafik was okay

Anonymous said...

Hi Chief

Maybe I see things too black & white or in Lincoln's case, blue & white.

One or two at the most traffic enforcement vehicles (radar etc) used once in a while around the 5-730 time block. Setting up one time for southbound travelers, near the top of the hill where there is an entrance to some townhomes. The next time set up for northbound traffic at the top of the hill near the bank. Maybe this will get the word out to many of the repeats who travel 70th. As far as ROI, I think the amount of tickets written will more than compensate for the officers involvement.

Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Investment? The money goes to schools and judges retirement