Opinion: Columnist wrong about Merritt Parkway, 'a great public space' worth preserving Wes Haynes FacebookTwitterEmail Re: “People vs. highways an easy choice on affordable housing,” March 14: Hugh Bailey’s recent opinion piece “People vs. highways” gets a handful of points right. We fully agree that the Merritt Parkway is scenic, even pastoral and certainly historic. The 37.5 mile road is without peer in the United States — listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique bridges and carefully designed landscape, and designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a National Scenic Byway. But the core of his argument, that the Merritt Parkway Conservancy’s efforts to preserve this heritage is a binary choice between people and highways, is way off the mark.