Proposition 111

I was dismayed to see the recent letter which takes the position that building new freeways will “cause congestion, increase air pollution, global warming, acid rain, the balance of payments, the Exxon Valdez syndrome, and several other nasty environmental, economic and societal effects.”

This writer is nuts. As our population increases, there is nothing wrong with building more roads to handle more cars.

Stop the growth? That won’t happen. Even if we closed our borders, two-thirds of the projected growth will come from an excess of births over deaths of the people who are already here.

The freeways and roads are not the problem--rather, they are an important part of the solution. Much of the congestion we have now is due to the fact that anti-growthers stopped road building at a time when our population was increasing.

The Times is to be commended for its support of Proposition 111, our best defense against gridlock.

JOHN C. ARGUE

Los Angeles