Change in direction urged

Re “One-way called right way to go for boulevards,” April 16

With all the discussion about whether Pico and Olympic boulevards should be converted to one-way streets, there is one relatively easy and inexpensive fix to improve traffic flow: Readjust the timing of the traffic signals on the streets to favor eastbound on one, westbound on the other.

RICHARD BOYD

Beverly Hills

*

Think harder, please. Of all the shortsighted, dumb ideas this city has come up with, making Pico and Olympic one-way nightmares is not the long-term answer.

Rapid transit is. Walt Disney thought up the monorail many years ago, and it worked.

Until people can remove themselves from their precious cars and are willing to compromise and make changes, any other idiotic idea to inconvenience drivers more is not going to work. Those major streets will just look like the freeway at rush hour, and nothing will improve or change. There are simply too many cars.

From the time the automobile took over Los Angeles decades ago, planning ahead was never emphasized, and we are suffering now because of it.

Please don’t keep making the same shortsighted decisions. Think this one through. with more consideration for all of us who drive those streets every day.

FRANCES TERRELL

LIPPMAN

Los Angeles

*

Don’t do it. My husband and I are fairly recent Bay Area refugees, and I cannot tell you how many times we have driven round and round San Francisco’s maze of one-way streets, using up gas, only to find we were not at our destination. The proposed changes to Olympic and Pico will affect more than the commuter traffic in ways the planners have not imagined.

MARY LAMBERT

Los Angeles

*

One-way streets prioritize moving cars rather than moving people, perpetuating the traffic problems we face. Instead, we need solutions that help people meet their needs without having to drive.

Unfortunately, one-way streets make our urban boulevards more like freeways, with hazardous speeds, noise and lack of landscaped medians. This works against the strategy of improving our boulevards as inviting public places conducive to walking, transit use, cycling and successful businesses. Creating vibrant, multimodal shopping streets near residential communities is a critical strategy for reducing automobile trips.

It is time that we stop sacrificing the important public space of our roads to the degrading domination of cars.

KENT STRUMPELL

Los Angeles