L.A. Transit Possibilities

Myrna Oliver (“Surviving, Even Thriving, Without a Car in L.A.,” June 12), through her misfortune, has discovered something I found out years ago. Riding mass transit around town is doable. I, thank God, still own my car to get around town for those late-night forays when the buses don’t run often, but for my daily commute and for other trips, I take the bus. After using mass transit, there come those times when I do drive to work and I remember what a complete waste of time it is. I can’t read, daydream, sightsee or nap as on the bus. I also find driving much more stressful. Plus I get some exercise walking to the bus stop.

With the somewhat foreign concept of walking around town on my mind, I got to thinking about the lack of walking around in this car city as one of its greatest detriments. Another detriment is the lack of a resident classical dance company in a city of this size. Perhaps these are related. Dance is the exaltation and glorification of walking, and with so few people walking around town as part of daily life, the desire to elevate walking into the art form of dance is slight. Let’s get out of our cars more often and instead walk around as part of daily life, and then let’s find the exaltation of walking in a resident dance company.

MATTHEW HETZ

Los Angeles

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The opening of the Hollywood Red Line stations (June 12) is a clear call to arms for the MTA to get off its duff and start building the Burbank/Chandler busway. When the North Hollywood stations come online within a year the subway will offer a quick and safe means of traveling between NoHo and downtown/Union Station, but without a cross-Valley transit line it will be vastly underused.

The busway is the only type of transit that can conceivably be built fast enough to be finished in time to connect with the subway when it starts operating in the Valley. And the price (about 1/100th what the last stretch of subway cost) will be so low that special funding will not be needed. Plus, since the busway will be so cheap, it can be considered expendable, to be discarded or replaced without hesitation when something better is decided upon. Build the busway now and we won’t be sorry.

DANIEL MATONAK

Canoga Park