91 Express Lanes

Re Dec. 22 letters: I love the 91 Express Lanes! I work in Carson and live in Corona; my hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. I don’t use the toll road in the morning; it wouldn’t do me any good. To get out of Corona I need to leave home by 5 a.m. at the latest. Coming home, however, the $3.20-$3.50 that I pay eastbound saves me anywhere from an hour to two hours and enormously reduces the stress and strain on my 30-year-old Lincoln Mark III, which has 222,000 miles on the original engine and drive train. I earn under the median income for Riverside County; it is not easy for me to budget in the FasTrak charges, but it is definitely worth it.

To all the people driving late-model vehicles: You can afford a $300-plus car payment; you can afford to sit in traffic for one to two hours a day each way, wasting gas, yet you complain about the FasTrak fees and want to take the lanes away from those of us willing to pay? The other obvious question is: Why isn’t there a Metrolink train paralleling the 91 from Riverside to L.A. County’s South Bay? That’s what’s needed.

SAMANTHA BLAKE

Corona