L.A. Attitudes Toward Transit

I read “Staples Center Devises Traffic, Parking Strategy” (Aug. 12) in total disbelief. Are Los Angeles officials really that shortsighted that they don’t realize the Blue Line Pico Station is just two blocks away? I realize this is not by some master-plan gesture (it’s only by dumb luck), but why not take advantage of it? Is the Blue Line going to run late to accommodate events? Why not build a train spur that serves only the Staples Center that will have waiting, empty cars beside Staples waiting for the event to end? Other cities do this.

The article should have said something like this: “Fans from Long Beach will not need to drive to Staples since the Blue Line will extend its operating hours to 40 minutes after the game’s final horn. Fans from the Westside can take the Red Line and transfer at the 7th/Metro station, or walk 10 minutes to the arena. In 2001, fans from the Valley will be able to take the Red Line from Universal Studios to the Staples Center.”

When traffic engineer Tony Vitrano discussed people parking before they see the arena he said, “You’ve got to train them.” Doesn’t he see he is right? You do have to train them, to avoid driving.

BRUCE KONSCHUH

Fullerton

* I much appreciated Molly Selvin’s Aug. 16 commentary about her experiences using public transportation in Munich. We in America and especially in Los Angeles are caught in a vicious circle on this issue. As long as the general, middle-class view is that public transportation is poor people’s transportation, there will be no support for the tax measures necessary to improve the quality of rail or bus transportation. Until there is improvement, most people who own cars will continue to avoid public transportation. The high-quality transportation system in Munich, as elsewhere in Europe, is paid for by, among other things, a tax rate on gasoline that no American politician would dare propose.

I recently saw an account by an American high school exchange student of her year in a town in Germany, in which she noted that most of her fellow students rode the bus, “which is not considered dorky, like it is here.” Until our attitudes change, there is not likely to be any improvement.

JIM MENTZER

Los Angeles