Nebraska legislation to affect traffic

In 2021, China introduced new traffic lights to help ease transportation. Many high-traffic areas were having issues due to a slower means of transportation clogging up the roadways – camels. In Gansu Province, a main source of tourism is through camel tours, so to help fix traffic issues they have implemented camel specific stop lights. With heavy cattle traffic throughout all of Nebraska, the state government is looking to implement its own cattle only lane on the highway, along with cattle specific traffic lights.

You might be thinking, “Why would Nebraska do this? Is this really an issue?” I honestly thought about that too. Then I remembered this: when I was in Gothenburg on my way out to Colorado, I saw a man take his horse through a manual car wash before taking it back onto the road. 

With how the state laws are set up now, all rideable livestock such as cows and horses must stay in the field or away from any roads. This has caused a lot of outrage from farmers and ranchers. I spoke to a local rancher named Rete Picketts who said, “Previous legislation that has banned our cows from taking the road has caused more harm than good for us. We have our cows and horses stepping on rocks and things all the time, so their feet constantly hurt.”

So what changes are actually going to come from this? How will it affect our traffic? The state plans on adding another lane to highways and interstates that is for cattle only. They also plan on adding traffic lights so cattle will be able to get onto these roadways safely. A potential issue that could come from this is because the cattle have never been on the highway before, they may not understand the lines and drift over into other lanes. There is concern that specifically I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha will become increasingly crowded due to the amount of business done between the two cities. So your next trip home through Omaha may be delayed due to mass(ive) cows on the roads. 

By Andrew Schwartz