Car-Pool Lanes on Freeways
* Regarding the proposal to establish permanent car-pool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway, I would gladly support this if the following provisions were added:
Eliminate the 24-hour-day restriction for use of car-pool lanes and limit the time to regular commuter hours: the same as the extra commuter lane times on surface streets.
Since the earthquake, the focus on the collapsed Santa Monica Freeway has been on commuters, not the people who live in neighborhoods abutting the freeway. Everything has been geared to getting commuters through our neighborhoods, and nothing has been geared to ensuring access by local residents.
We are the “hidden victims” of the earthquake: denied access to our homes, businesses and local freeways even during non-commuter hours.
If car-pool lanes are to be restricted 24 hours a day, I absolutely oppose them. If they are restricted to regular commuter hours, and are open for use by everyone at all other times, then I support them.
NANCY J. RIGG
Los Angeles
* If Los Angeles drivers wanted to car-pool, they would, without the need for government-mandated inducements, but they clearly do not. The government has no business spending public money building car-pool lanes to induce people to do something they’d rather not do.
The ridiculously large fines for solo drivers who dare to use these lanes only confirm the government’s intentions. These fines are not as high as they are because violating the car-pool law is a safety hazard, they are this high to ensure the people’s compliance with the government’s wishes.
The car-pool promoters at Caltrans recently succeeded in spending a fortune on a virtually unused car-pool interchange between the 110 and 105 freeways. I drive past it every day and it’s rare that I see any cars on it. The money wasted on this should have been spent accelerating the freeway bridge reinforcement program instead. Then there might not have been any freeway collapses in the January earthquake, and the huge additional sums of money being spent now to rebuild them would not be necessary.
In short, all car-pool lanes must go! They are nothing more than an attempt by the government to coerce people into doing its will!
DONALD G. LEEPER
Buena Park
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