Toll Road Backers Drive Their Points Home

* The Transportation Corridor Agencies’ new toll road advertising campaign is absolutely heartwarming.

The $900-million Foothill South toll road is about grandmothers driving from south Orange County to Riverside--who would have thought it?

Before anyone sends their grandmother along the toll road, they might consider how slick those roads can get when it rains, and they might think about the constant threat of disoriented deer wandering where their home used to be.

A much better option is for considerate kids or grandchildren to treat their grandmother to a train ticket. Instead of fighting her way through the Riverside Freeway and paying tolls and car maintenance costs, she can relax with a book and arrive rested for her visit.

I do this for my mom, and she loves it!

BILL CORCORAN

Public Lands

Conservation Coordinator

Los Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club

* I recently read that nearly 1.5 million cars each week use the Orange County toll roads.

Can you imagine what life would be like on our freeways without toll roads?

I am a big supporter of the toll roads and use the San Joaquin Hills tollway often when traveling between my home in Carlsbad and the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach area.

I can’t imagine going back three years ago to life without the San Joaquin. It’s been a lifesaver and timesaver on many occasions.

NICHOLE RASPOLICH

Carlsbad

* Re “Toll Road Miscalculations,” Sept. 12 editorial:

The Transportation Corridor Agencies successfully refinanced $1.6 billion of Foothill and Eastern toll road debt to take advantage of lower rates and save users some $400 million in interest costs over the next 12 years--clearly in the public’s interest.

By charging $1 to those who minimally use transponders, the TCA has caused this segment of users, less than 1% of transponder holders, to return the devices so that they can be reissued to other toll road users.

It is a good business decision to convert nonperforming assets into performing ones.

TCA’s toll roads were designed and built to handle Orange County’s traffic today and tomorrow. It would be a total miscalculation if the toll roads today were clogged with traffic, as are the freeways.

TCA needs to complete the infrastructure for tomorrow’s population and economic growth. TCA needs to complete the Foothill South connection to Interstate 5 so the road system will function as designed.

If the toll roads had not been built at all, the cars using them would be adding to our already overcrowded freeways.

ROBERT M. BROWER

Irvine

* The Times has miscalculated what really matters to the public.

From the perspective of most of the public whose economic and personal well-being depends on ease of mobility, the toll roads are performing quite well.

The roads were designed to be part of the larger regional circulation system so that the entire system works better.

Anyone who commutes on Interstate 5 or Interstate 405 every day will tell you the commutes on these previously congested freeways are considerably easier than before the toll roads.

Why? In considerable part because several hundred thousand people a day elect to use the toll roads--leaving space on the freeways for other users.

The economy of Orange County is booming. It will only continue to do so if we have an excellent transportation system.

The toll roads are a key part of that system. Let’s not wait for another transportation crisis to complete the system.

DONALD B. WILLET

Newport Beach

* Your editorial on the toll roads missed the mark for several reasons.

First, the toll roads play a tremendous part in keeping traffic in Orange County moving. Imagine how much worse it would be without them.

Second, for thousands of people from the Inland Empire, the toll roads have made commuting much more bearable because workers can get to job centers like the Irvine Spectrum much quicker. They have helped to make our economy as strong as it is.

J. MICHALEK

Irvine

* The benefits of attending to improving the portion of infrastructure called transportation far outweigh the challenges faced with anything tied to growth and change.

We are a multiple-transponder family enjoying decreases in time required to commute from point A to point B--be it for pleasure or business.

In our fast-paced society we are all looking for methods that save time in order to savor the fruits of our labors.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies have created a positive solution to a problem that is a part of Orange County’s past, present and, most assuredly, the future. The long-range benefits must be kept in focus, not the short-term benefits.

ERIK SEINEKE

Foothill Ranch