Getting a solution on the road

Re “Will we shell out to ease traffic nightmare?” column, April 8

Anyone in Los Angeles who owns a car knows that the transportation system is broken. Ideas such as more bus lanes and one-way roads traversing the Westside won’t help much. Steve Lopez mentions the worst idea: toll roads.

The essential idea is that tolls force commuters and employers to fundamentally rethink driving and work habits. Anyone who has owned a car in New York (and I have) knows that tolls do very little to ease traffic. The toll facilities themselves create huge bottlenecks. What does work there is the subway system. Ultimately, an above-ground rail system is the best long-term solution. Tolls will make an already expensive city much more expensive, and we’ll still be stuck in traffic.

DOMINIC H. WHITE

Los Angeles

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Lopez’s column includes a quote from Southern California Assn. of Governments Director Mark Pisano, who said that California drivers have a sense of entitlement and that “you have this culture of, ‘By God, you don’t have to pay for your roads.’ ” How dare he?

In fact, between the stiff taxes on each gallon of gas and vehicle licensing fees, Californians pay one of the highest transportation taxes in the nation. However, much of that money is used for non-highway expenditures. We are choked in traffic on roads in need of repair because our government has played bait-and-switch with our transportation dollars.

SHERRY FOLSOM

Fallbrook, Calif.