Another traffic nightmare

Re “One-way’s the way,” editorial, April 21

You say that “added pressure on neighborhoods” would be the result of turning Pico and Olympic boulevards into one-way streets “because motorists who want to go left probably would cut through residential streets.” As a resident of one of those residential streets, I do not dismiss this as easily as you by supporting such a drastic change in traffic patterns. Turning quiet streets into thoroughfares is not a solution The Times should be endorsing. As anyone who studies traffic knows, if you make room for more cars, more cars will come. In a short time the higher capacities of Pico and Olympic will be full, but you will have subjected hundreds of small side streets to constant traffic. This short-term solution will have severe long-term implications.

JERRY FREEDMAN

Los Angeles

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The logic of not allowing left turns eludes me. On a one-way street, there is no difference between turning left and turning right. In neither case do you have opposing traffic. Perhaps a better plan would be to disallow either left or right turns except at major intersections, which might reduce the traffic on residential streets.

Before doing anything, however, why not try Rapid buses on Olympic and Pico? If these bus lines terminated at Staples Center, they would probably be the most heavily traveled lines in Los Angeles.

HARRY LEE DAVIS

Los Angeles