Freeport boasts miles of walking trails. To get to my favorites, behind Maine Coast Waldorf School, I walk less than a mile along Desert Road. Several stretches of road are fenced with guardrails, and the patch of asphalt between the metal barrier and the painted white line is little more than a yard wide. At those spots, my blood pressure sometimes rises to near stroke-causing levels as vehicles whiz by me at high speed with nary the slightest veering toward the centerline.

A little more space between this frightened old pedestrian and that deadly hunk of fast-moving steel would be most appreciated. One recent afternoon I was forced to scramble over the rusty steel as a young woman, piloting her speeding Subaru, floated over to my side of the white line, likely texting a friend about the dance on Saturday. I think I yelled something not fit to print in a family newspaper.

Please, folks, watch for pedestrians. The life you save might be this doting grandfather’s.

Jim Mitchell
Freeport