Looking Beyond Freeways for a Ride

Re “Light Rail, Heavy Costs,” (Commentary, Nov. 25):

Dave Mootchnik’s nearsighted perspective certainly has a powerful constituency, but I hope that those who have awakened to our one-sided addiction to freeway construction will not be fooled by its bias.

His suggestion that transit agencies have “given up” on highway improvements is a giggle, especially since the same edition of your paper has a lengthy article on the constraints put upon expansion of the Riverside and Santa Ana freeways by the toll-road (read “real-estate developer’s road”) noncompete agreements. More importantly, the cost numbers he throws about so glibly are misapplied in an “apples and oranges” fashion.

No freeway and no rail system serves more than those who need to use the route. To criticize the Centerline project because it serves a limited percentage of total transit users is analogous to the proposition that any one freeway at any given time would accommodate all vehicles that might use the entire system. It’s clearly a ridiculous attempt to skew the data.

OCTA is in sync with Caltrans and other agencies looking not only for alternate transit plans to create a more balanced, multi-modal system, but also to compensate for the spectacle of the public being bound by agreements with toll-road promoters.

It should be obvious to everybody that we have built a lot of freeways at great fiscal and environmental expense, and that traffic is worse than ever.

Gary R. Collins

Santa Ana

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The column is on track, but not right on. Where are the “real fixes” Mootchnik says the public should demand to accommodate 30% more traffic?

The “real fix” is a robotic automobile powered by a “green” non-polluting engine that uses renewable fuels. Such an automobile would have the convenience of individual transportation plus the ability to use road space much more efficiently. The technology for this automobile exists in theoretical to state-of-the-art form today, but getting it on the street will take decades of engineering, shakedown and confidence-building. What will we do in those decades when the traffic grows?

More highways and road lanes mean more cost and more property taking. To keep these to a minimum, public transportation must take a big share of that 30%. The best public transportation mode to take this share at reasonable expense is greatly improved buses and bus infrastructure.

Buses have far more versatility than is generally exploited by transit policymakers. They can run on a variety of fuels, including electricity. They can load at curb level or high platforms.

What the bus does not have is upscale appeal, which rail arguably does have. Promoting upscale appeal is where the OCTA needs to put its money: build better buses and bus infrastructure. Buy vehicles that tell middle-class riders they are not slumming and that give the working poor a better deal in the morning and evening rush.

If OCTA started now, it could start making a difference all over the county in two to three years, not decades.

Robert P. Sechler

Cypress

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Mootchnik’s commentary on the resurrected CenterLine project seems to have missed any consideration for why we fund transit and what the true impacts of that funding are.

Transit provides choices to all of us; that presence of choices enhances our county. Congestion may or may not be significantly reduced by the completion of the line, but it would provide those who choose to ride with a safer, quicker, more relaxing and cleaner way of getting to and from work. It would provide those who can’t afford a car further options for their mobility, thus bringing greater mobility to the poor and related greater equity in employment opportunities.

Yes, light rail must achieve a certain critical mass before its ridership will become significant, and yes it will cost a substantial amount of money. The cost is well worth it because every prosperous region has and will have traffic congestion. But instead of simply tolerating traffic or transforming our communities into additional freeways, we can actually give people choices, relieve some of the stress off our freeways and preserve and enhance our communities.

Christopher Koontz

Orange