Building a Future Around Transit

Re “Gold Line Railway on Track for Summer Start,” March 31: Kudos for the Gold Line opening. Have the critics ever been to New York City, Paris or London, or a myriad of other great (and not so great) cities around the world that have fixed rail, whether it be light, or subway, commuter, trolley or a combination? We already know where people live and work. While this has changed somewhat over the decades, people commute everywhere now, so we may as well get up to speed and try to at least enter the 20th century, much less the 21st.

The more middle- and upper-middle-class Southern California residents who feel comfortable and safe riding light rail, Metrolink and the subway means fewer cars on the road, more interaction with others we may not come across in our somewhat segregated lives and fewer fumes and space taken up by the majority of drivers, who are driving solo. I look forward to riding the Gold Line when it opens and for the extension to Claremont as well.

Andrew P. Crane

Los Angeles

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Those who are lucky enough to live within walking distance of a Gold Line station will probably find many opportunities to use the trains. But what of those who live too far away to walk, people with physical disabilities or folks just afraid to walk in the dark, say? Most stations have no parking facilities.

A Gold Line official I spoke with at a public meeting several months ago turned vague when I raised that question. Apparently the official position is that parking will just “evolve” at those stations where it hasn’t been provided, as communities change to accommodate the new transportation.

Meanwhile, I fear it will “devolve” as those same communities institute restrictive parking to prevent the clogging of their neighborhoods with train users’ cars.

I believe the parking question hasn’t been properly thought out, and the lack of dedicated parking will cut deeply into the ridership, the revenue and, ultimately, the success of the new line.

Peter Sutheim

Los Angeles

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The Gold Line is -- and will be -- a world-class transit line here in Los Angeles. It is fundamentally different from Los Angeles’ other lines, traveling a relatively short distance between two major destinations, downtown and Pasadena. Though the line travels through highly “transit dependent” communities, it also travels through transit-independent communities. This line isn’t a commuter line; it’s an everyday line, a go-to-dinner- and-a-movie line.

Why is this important? With fuel-cell technology we’ll have clean air and energy independence, but a hydrogen economy doesn’t solve gridlock. Move near the new line and enjoy a new perspective on Southern California from a Gold Line rail car. That’s what I did. We can be neighbors.

Peter Capone-Newton

Los Angeles