Four Easy Pills to Swallow to Help Cure Freeway Jams

Unlike Mark Twain’s comment on the weather, transportation is something that everyone is not only talking about but doing something about as well. The only problem is that what we are doing is not working very well.

We have freeways, but they turn into slow-moving parking lots twice every working day. We know car-pooling is a good idea, yet most people who are logical prospects don’t participate. We’re kept up to date electronically with Sigalerts, but the alternate routes suggested to us are frequently no better than the mess we’re trying to avoid.

I would like to offer four steps, three of which can be taken at very little cost to the taxpayers, that in my opinion would greatly reduce the current congestion we have come to expect as normal:

- Close many of our freeway on-ramps and off-ramps. Freeways were originally intended to move automobiles over relatively long distances without the slow-downs caused by intersections and traffic signals. We have, however, turned them into wide roads where, for many stretches, you can get on or off every quarter-mile or so. On-ramps and off-ramps slow down traffic. I don’t think they should be any more frequent than every 2 1/2 to 3 miles.

- Start flexible work-time programs. The vast majority of working people converge on the freeways before 8 a.m. and shortly after 5 p.m. If business would be more open minded and aggressive about flexible work schedules, the peak-hour demand on our freeways would be dramatically reduced.

- Increase car-pooling. It is now obvious that the savings people can make by not driving their cars to work every day just isn’t enough incentive to get people to car-pool. But what if each person who participated in a car pool on a regular basis were given one day off each quarter? That would mean four three-day weekends a year. I think we’d be amazed at how many people would respond to this.

- Build superstreets. The biggest problem with surface streets is the number of signals and intersections. Streets can be altered, however, to allow overpasses and timed signaling so that major surface arteries can carry traffic at a moderate speed, uninterrupted by stoplights and cross traffic. These alterations would be major expenses, but the money saved by not having to continually widen existing freeways and build new ones would provide the major source of superstreet funding. PAUL J. MITCHELL Orange