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It amazes me how many people don't understand the zipper merge ("Zipper merging works. Let it happen," July 17). Even when told it's the proper, best and most efficient way to handle a lane closure, there's always someone who complains about the "special" people zipping past them, even though they're doing the exact correct thing. People who should know better, "professional" drivers, are often the worst offenders, trying to block the lane with their big rig.
Part of the problem is the poor way zipper merge situations are set up. Instead of the current system of saying "Left lane closed," don't say which lane is closed. People will naturally fall into both lanes. Then at the merge point, instead of making the people in the closing lane merge over into the other lane, funnel both lanes into a single lane in the middle, which will form a natural zipper. After the merge, shift the single-file traffic over to the open lane. This commonsense solution will eliminate the conflict of one lane closing, as technically both lanes will close and merge into the new single lane right in the middle.
John Morgan, Burnsville
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With all the burning issues in this complex world, I am perhaps surprising myself by wanting to comment on the zipper merge article.
When the zipper merge idea was first introduced, there were articles in the media and Department of Transportation signs at construction sites for drivers to use the zipper merge. Somehow, Minnesota Nice seems to have fallen away from the concept. In the Star Tribune article there is a mention of an accident from a person trying to prevent another from zipper merging.
First of all, I see the zipper merge as a good thing and a good way to expedite traffic.
Second, we need more communication from the media promoting the idea and from the DOT with signs at construction sites encouraging the zipper merge.
Third, without that communication, we have lost our efficiency at the zipper merge. When it is time for a merge, I suspect that other drivers are a bit like myself, merging very carefully to avoid that one driver who doesn't understand the concept and pulls out to prevent the merge or some road-rage junkie who may do something unpredictable. If we are ever to get this concept working more efficiently, we need the communication from the media and the DOT to further understanding.
Jim Waggoner, Bloomington
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Regarding the article on traffic violence at zipper merges, there is a simple solution: At the merge point, put in temporary stoplights that flash green and red, similar to the one entering the freeways during busy hours. This way there can be no ambiguity about who has the right of way.
Stephen M. Dent, Golden Valley
HEALTH CARE
Needed: regulation of senior housing
The horrific end to my dad's life came flaring back to me after learning about the travesty unfolding at Red Pine Estates, an independent living facility in Bemidji ("Bemidji residents still stuck in hotel," July 15). My dad was in similar place in central Minnesota. In my absence, his body lay in his room for seven days before they finally checked on him. We were told that they would do a wellness check if he didn't come for his noon meal. That didn't happen, and they ignored the newspapers piling up outside of his room. They were cavalier to the fact that these were elders who used canes, walkers and wheelchairs, not 20-year-old people.
When will we finally regulate these independent senior housing facilities? They avoid the assisted living licensing requirements by calling themselves "independent living." Additionally, the owner of Red Pine Estates, Schuett Companies, has a sweetheart deal. They rent these facilities as well as provide the care services so they can maximize profitability by avoiding assisted living building and care requirements. Yet they seem to have had no emergency preparedness plans, other than coercing the residents to sign a legal agreement to not hold the owner responsible.
In 2021, Minnesota was the last state to finally require assisted living facilities be licensed. This law protects residents by establishing requirements that would have addressed the structural issues of Red Pine Estates such as requirements for relocation and disaster planning, building design, life safety, emergency preparedness plans and much more.
We are hoping the Legislative Task Force on Aging will finally address this issue to better protect those who are older and disabled.
Kristine Sundberg, Shorewood
The writer is executive director, Elder Voice Advocates and Elder Care IQ.
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The mental health crisis is not new to the Mental Health Legislative Network (MHLN), a coalition of over 40 organizations representing people with mental illnesses, family members, advocates, mental health professionals and providers ("UNH sees growing mental health crisis," July 15). There was a crisis prior to COVID, it's just become worse since then. Difficulty accessing care has also been due to narrow networks. Many studies have shown that people seeking mental health care have to go out of network at much higher rates than those seeking other health care treatment.
That's why the MHLN advocated successfully this session to change the definition of network adequacy to include measures such as wait times and to require health plans to accept any willing provider during the next two years. While there are serious provider shortages — which were addressed this session as well — being able to access the ones that are here is critically important to those seeking care.
Sue Abderholden, St. Paul
The writer is executive director, NAMI Minnesota, and co-chair of the MHLN.
REP. ILHAN OMAR
Why not explain her thinking?
It's disappointing to see my favorite newspaper report U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar's "snub" as a bigger story than the valid reasons she refuses to attend the political damage control speech the Israeli figurehead leader will give this week ("Omar snubs Israeli leader's visit," July 14). Israel is rapidly devolving into a hard-right autocracy, making illegal land grabs while crippling its own judiciary in its transparent power-mongering. I know Israeli Americans who agree, but the best proof is historic percentage of Israel's population taking to the streets — as you read this — to protest these immoral moves. Instead of explaining those major news event with a mere one-sentence quote from the young representative — following three paragraphs of GOP criticism of Omar — the Star Tribune might have given described that context with at least as many words as it gave the GOP. That would have been much more informative than yet another illogical assumption by Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and his curious, unexplained "breakwater" characterization of the Israeli figurehead leader sent here to distract us from the unprecedented carnage transpiring. The article's headline and construction are clearly slanted to focus on Omar's reputation among her political foes. I do acknowledge a last-paragraph mention that Omar makes a practice of speaking out against human rights abuses, in that case against Indian Prime Minister Narendra, the authoritarian power-monger who has encouraged nationalistic human right abuses.
While I would not have voted for Omar had I lived in her district the last election, that is not because of her (admirable) moral convictions but rather her lack of political skill in evading the type of gross mischaracterization the modern GOP is committed to (that sadly the Star Tribune aided Saturday). I wish my own representative, Dean Phillips, would speak out against the destructive and immoral behavior of the current Israeli government instead of soft-peddling it with weak statements. (I have strongly supported Phillips on these pages, and with cash donations and election canvassing.)
David Paulson, Minnetonka
