I may be new to the area, but I have recently made a disturbing observation. Is it common place in Louisville to use running police cars for flasher barricades?
For the last two weeks, I’ve noticed running police cars at the corners of Eastern Parkway and Preston Highway. The cars were positioned in such a way as to block the utility work taking place at the intersection. Once I noticed this and other areas of town in which this form of barricade was being used, I started to think about all of the ways this situation is a waste.
I can only imagine what type of carbon footprint is obtained by allowing a police car to run for an extended period of time on a cold winter’s day, parked, lights flashing, with heater running and window down. Then there is the issue of paying a police officer to babysit a utility company instead of, I don’t know, fighting crime?
Things that make you go, hmmm?
It is a waste of time, manpower, money and has an extremely negative effect on the environment. There must be a better way. Certainly, the utility company would have more barricades and extra solar powered flashers. Using these items, they could gradually merge one lane into the next, in both directions from at least a mile out. If the intersection was deemed hazardous during key travel times, I could see an officer parking a car in the area to patrol the situation.
I ask you, “Does this sound a little absurd?” What other ways are we impacting our environment and being wasteful? Hopefully, we will all take notice of our surroundings and begin to demand a change for the better.