Editorials

2008 TPA Better Newspaper Contest

First Place D6

Park Cities People

Detour of Reason

Beverly Drive residents have to recognize the facts of east-west traffic

Like others in the Park Cities, we were horrified when we heard about the tragic accident on Oct. 13 that sent Maureen Decherd to the hospital in critical condition. Our prayers remain with her and her family.

But we were annoyed to find soon after that a group of Beverly Drive residents was using the accident to try to get the Highland Park Town Council to reverse its decision to designate Beverly as the primary detour route during the redo of Mockingbird Lane.

Though there was no definitive evidence that increased traffic on Beverly was to blame for the incident — which occurred on a Saturday morning, not a weekday rush hour — these Highland Park residents turned Mrs. Decherd's misfortune into a rallying cry, calling for a march on Town Hall to demand changes to the detour.

Later, this group christened itself the Friends of Armstrong Elementary. Their concerns, they say, center on the safety of children walking to and from the nearby school, which sits one block north of Beverly.

They're concerned that what happened to Mrs. Decherd in the crosswalk could just as easily have happened to a group of schoolchildren. This argument immediately rang hollow when they suggested an alternative detour along Lovers Lane.

University Park Elementary sits on Lovers. If increased traffic on Beverly — a street with much slower traffic due to its many stop signs, and a full block away from Armstrong — is a terrible danger to children, why aren't the Friends marching on Highland Park ISD headquarters, demanding that UP Elementary and Bradfield Elementary (on Mockingbird) be relocated?

It was not until the fallacy in their arguments was pointed out by, people who oppose altering the detour that the Friends amended their proposal. They're now pushing for Northwest Highway as the northern alternative to Mockingbird.

And that brings us to the biggest problem faced by those who want Highland Park to shut down Beverly Drive to through traffic: There is no better detour.

Think of all the options that have been proposed: Lovers Lane already has enough traffic of its own running right past an elementary school. Driving down Hillcrest Avenue to Abbott Avenue to Armstrong Avenue and back up again is an absurdly out-of-the-way route that would cause its own disastrous traffic snarls at the triangular intersection with Harvard Avenue.

Northwest Highway and Fitzhugh Avenue are both too far distant to be realistic alternatives for someone attempting to get to a Highland Park address, or even just passing through to catch a flight at Love Field.

That's another important point to remember in this discussion. Mockingbird Lane belongs just as much to Dallas as it does to the Park Cities. Sure, it passes through our borders, but can we tell the people of Dallas that they'll just have to drive entirely around Highland Park for the next 14 months?

Were the Town Council to change course and suddenly embrace the Friends' proposals —something that, thankfully, it has shown no inclination to do — there would be untold problems for the thousands of non-Park Cities residents who have counted on the major thoroughfare of Mockingbird to take them where they need to get.

Sorry, Beverly residents: Your street is the best option. We promise we'll drive cautiously and within the speed limit as we're passing through. Truth is, we've always been more inclined to take Beverly east or west through the town anyway. There's usually too much traffic on Mockingbird.