Opinion: If you’ve got the money, go ahead and take a guilt-free ride on the new Lyft bus

To the editor: Ann Friedman is unfair to the point of unkindness when she suggests that rather than using ride sharing, people who can afford that luxury should instead use public transportation and then somehow demand that public services be improved. This, she argues, would benefit all riders. (“Lyft Shuttle: Another Silicon Valley effort to shelter the well-off from those pesky poor people,” Opinion, June 22)

How should we demand this improvement? By writing to officials at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority? I have tried that and gotten zero response. How about voting for more funding for Metro? Oh, wait, we’ve done that.

In general, Friedman condemns the very concept of people spending to improve their personal comfort and convenience. Perhaps in her next column she can instruct selfish people such as myself with descriptions of the sacrifices she makes in the name of social justice.

Then we can erect a statue to her. With a halo.

Thomas Fuchs, West Hollywood

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To the editor: Friedman writes that people will use the new Lyft bus to “separate themselves from the poorer people.” The insinuation is that this is antisocial behavior.

Using this premise, one might conclude that those who have more money should forgo the fruits of their labor and fly coach instead of business class or eat at McDonald’s instead of a French restaurant because they can afford it. Wouldn’t that be killing all incentive to enjoy the “finer things” that one has worked for?

That might be the way things work elsewhere, but not in America.

Ronald Sommer, Rolling Hills

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