Some of us are taking the bus

In his lament over the city’s traffic congestion [“Don’t Lead or Follow, Just Get Out of the Way,” Sept. 15], Tim Rutten almost completely ignores Los Angeles’ nonwhite majority. In the two years I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed that this is a common tendency among white Angelenos. Hordes of people do ride the Red and Blue Lines, but Rutten and his ilk don’t notice them because they’re mostly Latino, black and Asian.

Rutten sneers at the Red Line extension and the Expo Line, but these would vastly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of nonwhite Angelenos, making it easier for them to get from their inner-city homes to jobs on the Westside.

Two words for auto-addicted white Angelenos: Grow up.

PETER MCFERRIN

Los Angeles

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I loved Tim Rutten’s delightfully cranky piece on gridlock in L.A. Curiously, this article and others addressing the same issues somehow manage to avoid using the word “overpopulation,” which seems to be taboo now. It’s almost impossible to imagine how babies being born today in L.A. will manage to find housing, jobs and navigate this city in 16 years.

MELODY PLATT

Culver City

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This archetypal Angeleno is offended by Tim Rutten’s portrayal of my attitude toward traffic and public transit. As I drive alone in my car every day, I often muse about the privilege I have, the activity’s cost in human lives and the degradation of the planet. I am sharply aware we live at the end of the fossil fuel age. I am grateful for the MTA and civic leaders working toward solutions.

MOLLY BOSTED

Glendale