OCTA Needs to Derail Its Plans

* Re “How to Frustrate a Lot of People? It Takes Planning,” column by Dana Parsons, Dec. 1:

The Orange County Transportation Authority has not done good planning because they are mired in the past, playing with trains. Luckily, they are not in charge of fire services or bucket brigades would be their best idea for firefighting.

OCTA must first reject all ideas that include rail and concrete. There is no future for either.

Next they must study what have been the most successful traffic mitigation programs. And among the most successful was the Los Angeles plan for the 1984 Olympics.

During the Olympics there was no traffic, mitigated through the cooperation of business and government. This could be done now at minimal cost and substantial benefit.

The plan included ideas such as staggered work hours and off-hours trucking, shipping and receiving. Other changes could be implemented such as weekly work-at-home days and staggered workweeks. And alternate times when government and court services are made available, including weekends.

Any business or government agency would immediately see the bottom-line benefits of employees not having to fight rush-hour traffic. Sales and service people would be able to make more visits to their clients. Families would have more time together.

At a public meeting earlier this year, I asked the OCTA representative about whether such traffic mitigation plans had been studied. Responding no, he went on to say that the 1984 Olympics plan worked because at the time a huge level of cooperation backed it.

Obviously cooperation is not in the vocabulary of OCTA.

IAN L. SITREN

Santa Ana