On the Road to Less Gridlock

“Gridlock City” is where we live, and it’s why when our son became a licensed driver this year we did not get him a car (by Lynell George, Nov. 20). It did not feel right to add yet another vehicle to an already overtaxed system, further polluting the skies and helping push up the demand for fossil fuels. What do we do with three drivers and two cars? We take advantage of public transportation, we arrange our schedules to help each other get where we need to go, we bike, we walk.

“Isn’t that inconvenient?” we are often asked. It can be at times, but any inconvenience is offset by the benefits: coming together as a family to assist one another and our community, reading that novel as the Red Line races underground, chatting with my son on the way to the Orange Line stop, discovering beautiful yards and gardens that cannot be seen from a car. Have we stopped going places? Absolutely not. We just do it more creatively and as a team.

Eileen Bonaduce

North Hollywood

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My son just announced that he has to get out of this “frustrating city,” where he can never hope to own a home within a one-hour commute to work. He is moving next month. I personally would like to get my hands on the city officials who approved simultaneous road construction projects in West Los Angeles. There is no quality of life left in L.A.! Million-dollar shacks, bad public schools, an ineffective mass transit system and total gridlock 24/7. Families and seniors surely will soon be singing “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”

Reina Schechter

Los Angeles

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The only time to really let loose and drive without traffic is early in the morning on the weekends. Take off early, drop the top (if you have a convertible) and head up the 101. It’s one of the most beautiful drives you can ever make. If nothing else, you will be able to feel what it’s like to do 70 mph again!

Jonathan Braun

Los Angeles

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After too many years of a 16-mile, 45-minute commute from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles, what finally drove me out of my hometown was the one-hour, 10-minute effort in frustration I experienced last December while trying to go eight miles down Wilshire Boulevard from Santa Monica to see my niece perform at Beverly Hills High.

I never understood how much traffic impacted my life until I moved to a place where there is none. Nowadays, when someone tells me my destination is 10 miles away, I give myself 10 minutes to get there.

Ron Yukelson

San Luis Obispo