Public Transit and Automobiles

Gee fellas, where has Nichols been for the last 10 years? The last time I tried going “where I wanted” to downtown Los Angeles, 5th and Spring, from Burbank and Lankershim, North Hollywood--hardly the outer reaches of Mongolia--on our lauded freeways at 2 p.m. on a Sunday, it took an hour with two gridlocks in route before arrival. The time before that, my desired destination was to the dentist at Wilshire and Western at 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. I allowed 40 minutes (used to allow 20) and was 5 minutes late. Oh, the glories of having the best freeways.

We were in Fremont, 50 miles southeast and across the Bay from San Francisco, a few months ago visiting my husband’s brother and decided to investigate what changes had taken place in their childhood neighborhood of San Francisco. We parked at a Bart Station, about 5 minutes from the house, waited 5 minutes for the next train, and after transferring on Market Street, were in the Sunset District in less than an hour. Can’t say that I missed the freedom of my “VW Rabbit” one little bit.

If it weren’t for hardheads like Nichols, we would long since have had a decent public transportation system in this city.

GRACE WARWICK

North Hollywood