MTA Projects
Your Nov. 10 editorial suggesting that the MTA “subway construction must be delayed” suggests that you are more concerned with the short-run political gains to be made than the long-run solutions to Los Angeles’ mobility crisis.
Spending large amounts of money on more surface buses and their infrastructure means more money for short-life, Third World technology that, while relatively cheap in capital, is very expensive to operate and is incapable of transporting large numbers of people as rapidly as a rapid transit system. By contrast, the subway is an investment in the next 150 to 200 years with a capability to carry large numbers of people at much less unit cost over much longer distances rapidly. To delay such construction now would be a gross error in judgment and a terrible waste of money at a critical moment in the city’s history!
Bus lanes and HOV lanes on freeways are not particularly efficient or effective and at best are Band-Aid approaches to solving transportation problems. The subway and the light rail lines must be built if we are to remain viable over the long term.
ROBERT A. RAMSAY
Arcadia
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