Readers React:  L.A.’s traffic woes continue

To the editor: While we can all applaud the impact of a young person’s voice on matters of community importance, there are two sides to every story. (“Speaking up for cyclists — at age 11,” Sept. 28)

Removing lanes of traffic for the “Rowena Road diet” has created a huge increase in traffic on what have become known as the “cut-through streets.”

I happen to live on one of the worst affected streets. Traffic has increased immeasurably with commuters and locals who now avoid Rowena during rush hour. Many of these local streets, like ours, have no sidewalks.

I too have a young child who has a voice and is frustrated. Because of the road diet, he can’t walk home safely from school three blocks away because the cut-through commuters might not see him around the blind curves.

He can’t walk to his friend’s driveway, four doors down, during rush hour without my accompaniment.

What Matty is fighting for is his right to ride safely, which he should have. The Rowena road diet has taken away my child’s ability to walk, let alone ride, in his neighborhood.

There are trade-offs.

Patty Jausoro, Los Angeles

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