Diamond Lanes

Re “Diamonds but Clearly Not Gems,” Dec. 13.

Carpool lanes aren’t supposed to make us share rides, they are meant to make us change our patterns of living and working.

Smoking, seat belts, drugs prohibitions are all examples of society redirecting behavior of its citizens. That change in behavior does not occur overnight. It took 40 years of campaigning to change smoking behaviors. The issue of congestion has nothing to do with the amount of highway spending or the designation of lanes for specific usage. The reason New Jersey traffic has changed is because work and living patterns have changed. People don’t commute en masse to New York from suburbs anymore.

Spending most of your day on the highway, commuting, is patently insane and selfish act. It is very much in the same league as smoking, drug-taking, riding without a helmet. All of these contain the expectation that someone else will clean up after our selfish behavior, that is pay for our hospitalization and get out of our way in the meantime. I gave up commuting many years ago; if everyone else would make that change, they would be amazed at how much else would improve around them.

DAVID KENDALL GRANT, Agoura

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I support diamond lanes. I ride a motorcycle and I use them all the time. I save 15 to 40 minutes traveling from Lancaster to West Hollywood. Closing the diamond lanes will only add to gridlock. I don’t think that opening the diamond lane to all traffic on the Hollywood Freeway will get you through the Cahuenga Pass any faster, any time of day. You could say the same thing about the southbound San Diego Freeway before the Sepulveda Pass.

When diamond lanes end, gridlock begins. If you want to increase diamond lane use, put a $4-per-gallon surcharge on gasoline and watch the diamond lane fill up and gridlock disappear. Or how about giving coupons to car pool users that can be redeemed for merchandise? Let’s get more people using the carpool lane. Tom McClintock has no vision and is another out-of-touch Republican.

DAN DAYTON, Lancaster