Safe driving, OHV traffic concerns

During the June 3 Lincoln Government Day meeting, Lincoln's resident Highway patrol Trooper Jesse Short said he's made a lot of traffic stops in the last month due to people following too closely.

"I've been pulling over quite a few people, trying to get them to spread out. It's the fourth largest state in the union; we don't have to drive right up behind each other. There's plenty of room," he said.

Short has also been talking to people about driving on the shoulder of the highway. "If you're driving on the shoulder, there's going to be somebody from out of town who's going to get behind you and drive all the way down the shoulder," he said. "That makes for an odd conversation when I pull them over and they say they were just following the car in front of them."

Lincoln' s resident Deputy Cpl. Robert Rivera reported that he and Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse talked to middle and high school students about summer fun and safety in an effort to make sure they remember how to be responsible as soon as school gets out. "They seem to forget that kind of stuff, especially the ones who are driving or just learned to drive," he said.

Rivera said they talked about driving behavior and also hammered hard on off-road vehicle safety, something that has become a broader focus for local law enforcement this year.

"We're really going to hit hard on trying to educate individuals on how to properly be safe and responsible on the roadways with their side-by-sides, ATVs, and now we're starting to see more dirt bikes."

Likewise, Short noted that the shoulder of the highway through town is the highway, so riders should drive on the road like they normally would since the same laws apply.

For his part, Muse said the reason he wants to get a big push on improving OHV behavior in town is because "if we abuse it, we're going to lose it."

"I don't want to see what we've had for so long go away because of the chaos and whatnot," Muse said. He expressed his concerns that the increase in out-of-towners coming to Lincoln to recreate on OHVs has led to a certain amount of disorder and abuse in the last couple years, exemplified last year by the Memorial Day fun run. This year, a more proactive approach helped, with organizers letting riders know the rules and what was expected of them.

Muse pointed out that Lincoln is hugely reliant on recreation and tourism for the economy, and that's something the town doesn't want to lose.