Dear Mahatma: You have written that the law can't be everywhere all the time. I beg to differ. I was caught in Baltimore two feet into an intersection by a traffic camera. Cost me $70. I didn't know they had such cameras. Now I do, and I don't try to sneak through intersections on my visits there. So why don't we put in cameras in Arkansas? -- Using Both Brain Cells
Dear Friend: Two brain cells? Lucky guy.
We used our one brain cell to look up Arkansas Code Annotated 27-52-110 and 27-52-111, both of which say no county or municipality or state government agency may use traffic cameras to enforce state or local traffic laws and ordinances.
Exceptions are made for school zones and railroad crossings, but a certified law enforcement officer must be present to issue citations at the time of the violation.
What this means, in practical terms, is that the General Assembly has outlawed traffic cameras.
On a different topic, construction has started on a third way to get into and out of Maumelle.
The topic was addressed years back in this column. Yo, we asked Mayor Mike Watson, when will that road be built to connect with Interstate 40? Dude, he responded, the city has been pushing this rock up the hill since memory runneth to the contrary.
Turns out the project struggled to reach the top of the priority list for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. Then it turned out that the voters of Maumelle self-imposed a temporary half-percent sales tax to pay for 75 percent of the $14.6 million job.
After which the department felt more warmly about the remaining 25 percent.
So on Tuesday, ground was broken. We asked the department for some details.
Work has, as previously reported, begun, and likely will run through the end of 2019, give or take.
The road will connect to Interstate 40 at the old Morgan rest stop. How old? That rest stop was closed in 1992. Our memory says the rest stop was closed because of hanky-panky, but 1992 was a long time ago. We're happy to hear other explanations.
A full interchange will be built. We asked the department about expected traffic on the new road. Its spokesman, David Nilles, said there was no way to measure future traffic, but noted that Maumelle Boulevard -- Arkansas 100 -- carries 39,000 vehicles a day.
Traffic at Morgan, on the north end of the boulevard, is predicted to increase by 38 percent. On the south end, at Interstate 430, traffic is expected to increase by 30 percent by that date.
With the new exchange in the middle of the boulevard, traffic congestion should be greatly relieved, about which we shall see.
As someone who goes to Maumelle on a regular basis, we can testify that the boulevard at morning and evening rush hour is packed to the gills, and is busy most other times.
Vanity plate on a Cadillac: OH MAMA.
Fjfellone@gmail.com
Metro on 12/15/2018