State of Transportation in Los Angeles Area

Missing from your sobering if dispiriting series on the ongoing traffic problem were two factors that may bear heavily on future car use.

First, we are increasingly limited in the degree to which we can further improve a car’s high level of comfort, safety and economy, all of which have advanced significantly since 1970, and all of which put, or kept, people in their cars. In 1970, for example, a motorist could double or triple his/her gas mileage by buying a cheap, reliable Japanese car. That option is no longer available.

Secondly, the price of gasoline, figured as a percentage of income, was near an all-time low this past winter. Shrinking worldwide resources and political uncertainties in most oil-producing countries whisper that a major increase in price is inevitable.

WILLIAM G. FARRAR JR.

Downey