Several nights per month, I pass between 15 and 25 cars parked in the breakdown lane of Kennedy Memorial Drive in front of KMD Driving School (Oakland). I cannot understand why the Oakland police and town officials allow this to happen.

The breakdown lane is not a parking lot. This is a 45-mph zone and the busiest four-lane street in the greater Waterville area. What happens when a bicyclist tries to ride by all these vehicles? They have to ride out into the middle of high-speed traffic. Is that safe?

What does this teach our young drivers? That it’s OK to park in the breakdown lane because you want to? Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this?

I saw an Oakland police officer parked on the side of the road and brought up my concern. He seemed totally perplexed that this was a safety issue. He promised to bring up the issue to his superiors and get back to me. I’ve had no response.

I’m pretty sure that if somebody was seriously injured or killed tomorrow because of this, we’d take some action immediately. Is that what we’re waiting for? How about getting on the side of safety before someone gets hurt.

Ken Rossignol

Waterville