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Opinion: A monorail over the 405? It’s not a Mickey Mouse idea.

Traffic streams through the Sepulveda Pass on the 405 Freeway connecting the Westside to the San Fernando Valley.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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To the editor: Shades of Disneyland — now we’re talking. It has taken 52 years after the monorail opened there for L.A. to seriously consider building its own. (“L.A. mayor thinks a monorail over the 405 Freeway could tame traffic gridlock,” June 14)

I was living in Westwood when the 405 Freeway widening was being planned. I joined others at community meetings to propose that a monorail be built through the Sepulveda Pass. We showed how the concept would not obstruct any car lane, but the idea nonetheless generation opposition from residents who deemed it an eyesore and was not seriously considered.

Now that the 405 project has been completed and we see no discernible change in freeway congestion, more people think looking at the eyesore would be better than breathing in the fumes from idling cars.

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A monorail would be clean, would not push down property values like a wider freeway and would not require burrowing a tunnel, therefore reducing construction time and costs. It is not a Mickey Mouse idea.

Don A. Norman, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Building a monorail over the 405 is a wrongheaded idea. Transit riders do not belong on or above freeways.

We do not want to breathe in toxic vehicle exhaust, damage our hearing from the noises or be isolated in a freeway’s concrete wasteland. Transit riders do a service to the city, and we deserve not to be tied to the car culture.

Plus, how safely could emergency procedures be carried out on a monorail car stranded over the 405? That freeway is often gridlocked, and getting emergency vehicles to the site would take a long time. And how happy would drivers be if lanes must be shut down to tend to emergencies?

Matthew Hetz, Los Angeles

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