Proposals for Solving County’s Traffic Jams

The citizens of the entire state, not just Orange County, need to come to grips with what faces us in the future. We need to develop well-planned rail systems that will serve us in the 21st Century. These systems cannot be built with half-cent tax increases.

We need to raise gasoline taxes to whatever it takes to build these systems of the future. We have become spoiled on the relatively cheap prices of gas (adjusted for inflation, it is cheaper today than it was in 1965). This only encourages us to avoid car-pooling or using rapid-transit systems. Why wait for OPEC to dictate the price of gas or, worse, until we have exhausted the supply of fossil fuels?

Raising fuel taxes would force all of us to become fuel-efficient. Car pools would become very popular, and we would stop thinking in terms of driving alone. Because there would be less traffic, work would be accomplished more expeditiously along freeway routes, and with proper funds available, a centrally designed rail system, interchangeable throughout the state, could be developed. Ecologically, we cannot continue to spew the waste products of our automobiles into the environment at our current pace.

There is little doubt that the Orange County traffic problem will become worse. No one will watch it happen with more glee than I. Because only when we are faced with a crisis do we respond. When we finally reach a point of complete gridlock, I have no doubt that emergency legislation will be enacted, or desperate propositions offered. Then we will build the systems that have been needed for so many years.

GARY WALSH

Laguna Niguel