Effects of Toll Roads
Robert Krol’s column (“When Freeways Take Their Toll,” March 21) claims that toll roads are a solution to traffic congestion problems in Los Angeles.
Toll roads merely allow the rich to circumnavigate traffic jams and do nothing to reduce overall congestion. Krol claims that low cost is the reason roads are jammed, but the reality is that Angelenos have few alternatives to automobile travel. Buses are slow and cannot cover the large distances Angelenos need to travel in an acceptable amount of time. Metrolink commuter trains are popular, but there are too few lines in operation to have a substantial impact on Los Angeles’ traffic problems. This is unlikely to change in the near future, since the MTA has squandered its resources on blundered subway projects.
Southern Californians will have to live with stifling air pollution and overloaded roads until they realize that automobile transit is inefficient and develop better mass-transit alternatives.
CHRISTOPHER THOMAS
Studio City
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