No wonder high school is ‘low-performing’

To the editor:

So I’m looking at the front page of Thursday’s newspaper and see Chaparral High School students rallying for teachers after school. So it’s obvious that the teachers let the students or instructed them to make signs and banners during class time, using school supplies. No wonder this is a low-performing school.

The teachers are not teaching. They are indoctrinating students to protest.

It would be nice if the students were protesting outside the school, demanding that the teachers teach the curriculum. Then maybe the school would not be low-performing.

Doug Farmer

Las Vegas

Taken for a ride

To the editor:

In response to Judy Binder’s Thursday letter, in which she argues that cyclists don’t pay their fair share for roads and engage in rude behavior while riding: Please, let’s not tolerate the myth that cyclists do not pay their share for roads. The reality is actually the opposite.

Fuel taxes are dedicated mostly to highways, where you rarely find cyclists, and they do not even cover the full cost of highways.

But local roads, sidewalks, infrastructure such as traffic signs and signals — that stuff is paid for by general taxes which everybody pays through property taxes (you pay through your landlord if you rent), sales tax (if in a sales tax state) and payroll tax. Because automobiles take so much more infrastructure than cycles, cyclists are actually subsidizing road infrastructure for motorists.

Also, cycles wear out the roads much less.

There is much evidence to support this. In one study, a typical motorist and a typical cyclist were compared for their tax contributions (fuel taxes were included for the motorist) and their road use. The motorist underpaid by $236 per year and the cyclist overpaid by $252.

Ms. Binder seems to be upset by the way that cyclists in her area choose to ride, particularly when it comes to stop signs. But after reading her letter, I went to a four-way stop intersection on Horizon Ridge and watched more than 80 percent of cars roll the stop signs.

One of the most effective things cyclists can do to ensure their safety is to travel in packs. This greatly increases their visibility. While having to wait an extra five seconds to have an entire pack go through an intersection as one unit is inconvenient if you are the front car waiting for them, please consider the alternative. If you are behind a group of 20 cyclists who approach a stop sign, and they individually come to a full stop and then proceed when their right of way comes around, you will be held up for a much, much longer time.

I would encourage Ms. Binder to use her efforts to get selfish drivers to slow down, get off their cell phones and put down the coffee. Then she can worry about how healthy, smiling cyclists are ruining it for everyone.

Scott Dakus

Henderson