Addicted to Cars? Put on the Brakes

Donna Mungen is a fine writer, and weaves a most engaging tale (“L.A. Is a Great Big Freeway,” Dec. 6). I suggest, however, that all of us could learn two valuable lessons from her story.

First, if you hear a strange noise coming from your vehicle while you’re driving, pull over and stop. Millions of people have died after making bad decisions while driving.

Second, if you’re in love with automobiles and unable or unwilling to see their real cost to society, you can’t expect people to take your pronouncements on transit too seriously.

Mungen may be speaking with humor in implying that dying on a freeway is almost preferable to riding on a subway. She has a right to die in any way she chooses. I had a right, until recently, to ride on a comprehensive subway system, and I’d bet she was one of those who voted to deny me that right.

She’s wrong in stating that freeways bring us together; automobiles are marketed to promote aggressive, competitive behavior. A car is like a life-threatening drug addiction: We can’t live without it, and it is, in more than one way, killing us all.

Jon Hartmann

Los Angeles