Buses and Trains Are Part of Traffic Solution
Hurrah for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decision (June 28) to develop a Westside light-rail line and a new Wilshire Boulevard high-speed bus corridor. These lines last saw Red Car passenger service around 1950, so it looks like the wheel has again been reinvented--and a good invention at that. I notice that the usual complaints are being made about the proposed rail service: concern about “noisy” trains and the fact that they will go “right next to people’s homes.” What do they think buses, automobiles and trucks do? They are several times noisier than modern electric trains and spew out noxious exhaust fumes as well.
It appears to me that the noise that needs reduction the most in this regard is the ignorant ranting of uninformed NIMBYs. We need solutions to our traffic problems, not endless arguments. Buses and electric trains are part of the solution; automobiles and obstructionism are not.
Don Richardson
Alta Loma
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“Don’t Turn Exposition Park Into a Rail Yard,” by Steven B. Sample and Mark Ridley-Thomas (Commentary, June 28) is right on. USC and Exposition Park are two of L.A.’s jewels. To split them, however good the purpose, would damage both and diminish Los Angeles.
If rail is to be there, please put it underground. That would be a win-win solution and well worth the cost.
Don Harvey
Newport Beach
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