Need for Transportation

Re “Transit Needs: Unmet,” Ventura County editorial, Feb. 20.

Thanks for the great editorial on the public hearing the Ventura County Transportation Commission held on Feb. 14, as required by the Transportation Development Act. This year’s meeting saw a much larger crowd than last year’s, and the speakers represented a wider variety of groups detailing the unmet transportation needs of our county.

In addition to spokespersons for the elderly and the handicapped, someone spoke for the homeless at the shelter in Camarillo, another spoke for those in convalescent homes and various hale young persons spoke for themselves and begged for alternate ways to get to work, school, shopping and entertainment. And ways to get home, too.

The main points can be summed up by saying that VCTC and the various local systems must work harder and smarter to put public transportation at the forefront of everybody’s thinking by making it more attractive and sexier. And that includes the planners of subdivisions, shopping centers, entertainment complexes, parks and schools. More freeway lanes are not the answer.

LILLIAN GOLDSTEIN

Ventura