I must say I was discouraged to read that downtown Norwich is able to handle traffic that would come with the proposed college consolidation. Having lived in the City Consolidation District for 20 years, I disagree.

Over the past 20 years, what used to be an easy trip to the West Side, or to any place outside of the town or city, has become dangerous and stressful. Motorists are constantly ignoring common traffic courtesy. Backups at traffic lights are awful downtown, particularly at certain times of the day. Traffic laws are all but ignored by too many motorists. Constantly "right turn on red after stop" is interpreted as "keep going." More and more folks are ignoring Driver Ed 101 and entering intersections they will never be able to clear. Not only that, they constantly run red lights causing those of us with a green to miss our light because the intersections are blocked by traffic. Running red lights has become the norm as opposed to the exception downtown.

No, we don't need the extra traffic the college would bring. Getting through the downtown is already hard enough, too often. Let's fix the existing traffic issues before we make it worse.

MELODY GILLETTE

Norwich