Transit Agencies Drive Folks Nuts

* So the Transportation Corridor Agency is at it again (“Tollway Agency Proposal for Pay Study Criticized,” March 7).

What’s so galling on this proposal is that only some 18 months ago the agency had already been severely criticized for giving away outlandish thousands of dollars on merit raises, cash bonuses and other compensation while the county weathered a recession and struggled to recover from bankruptcy.

A so-called liberal Democrat, Paula Werner, an Irvine City Council member and a member of the tollway agency board at the time, was the only dissenter. She said, “These perks and salaries are just not justified.”

In between that salary and perk debacle and this week’s $24,000 salary survey to boost their pay, this agency bought its own headquarters. The agency paid $4.9 million for a building assessed at $3 million.

Irvine Councilman Mike Ward justified the transaction [on the grounds] that the agency needed a building of its own. Nobody was quarreling with that. It was the excessive $1.9 million that was under fire.

SAM CASTELO

Irvine

* The Orange County Transportation Authority has mailed out a fancy brochure and questionnaire to only 35,000 Orange County citizens. It asks that they make their selections as to what alternative they would choose [for] “our transportation future.”

Two items caught my eye. First: “$465 million has been earmarked by voters for a future Orange County rail project. This study will help set priorities and decide how these and other funds should be used.”

The reason for this study is money and getting people out of cars and into rail or bus transit. Can [people] really get where they need to go most of the time on a bus or train? I can’t.

Second: “High occupancy vehicle or carpool lanes on key streets such as State College, Bristol, MacArthur.”

Has OCTA lost its mind again? Assume carpool lanes on any street. There would have to be at least one carpool lane for turns and one for straight ahead. If these lanes are in the center of the street with at least two regular lanes on the right, how does a carpool driver turn right?

To make room for extra lanes, off-street parking would help, but how close to the business you need could you park? How close to a residence you are visiting could you park? And the pedestrians! What a headache. They’re lucky to get halfway across some streets before the light changes now. Talk about Russian roulette!

OCTA talks about “smart streets.” We could hope for synchronized traffic lights, but carpool lanes?

LOUANN WALLACE

Santa Ana