‘My solution: I moved to Oregon’

LANES OF COMMUNICATION: Readers by the hundreds have responded to the call for traffic complaints, comments and solutions. Their entries on Steve Lopez’s Bottleneck Blog express unbridled rage and keen insight, and tell the story of a region in which traffic, more than ever, is influencing everything from our choice of leisure activities to the time we spend with family and friends. The comments below are reprinted from the blog and represent but a sampling of input from throughout the region. As you’ll see, many people have decided they can’t wait for politicians to lead the way. If you’d like to see more, go to latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck.

*

The only way traffic will ever improve is to vote the politicians out of office and let them know why they are being voted out of office. If the politicians knew this was the No. 1 priority of the electorate, traffic would be cured within four years.

JIM PRESON

*

Create some sort of express bus between South Pasadena/Pasadena to the UCLA/Westwood area. That it takes 1.5 hours to make this commute is ridiculous. The S. Pas Gold Line station needs parking. All of the street parking within walking distance to the station is four-hour parking only.

JAY HYMAN

*

If you look at the map of the L.A. River and its assorted tributaries, you will see a natural system of byways intersecting this city, including a direct route from the L.A. Harbor, which is utterly unexploited. There are no issues of eminent domain on these byways. I propose using it for a light rail system throughout the city and the Valley, mixed with a new “cargo only” route to and from the harbor. This would require the construction of these systems so as not to interfere with the flow of the river, no small engineering feat.

CHRIS HARWOD

*

Make it a law: Whenever two lanes need to merge into one, every car has to let in one car. The lanes collapse together like a zipper, not the baloney that goes on now where nobody wants to let anybody in until Mr. Nice Guy lets in five cars.

FRANK CARAMELLI

*

Offer real cash incentives for people to get out of their cars and into the Rapid buses. In exchange for, say, driving your car on even- or odd-numbered days, MTA will give bus-pass buyers a percentage (say, 25% or even 50%!) off of bus passes. The DMV would register these people and their vehicles, and if they are caught driving on major roads (yes, they’d have to be defined) or highways, the penalties and fines would be excruciating. In other words, give real rewards for taking the bus and enforce them with the chance of being stiffly fined for abusing the rewards.

JEFF ZACUTO

*

It takes me 40-50 minutes to go from Wilshire and 20th to Mar Vista at 6 at night. Mind-numbing stop-and-go. All Santa Monica College students should park in some central point away from the Westside and be bused in. Register all vehicles coming into the city of Santa Monica for day jobs. Give them a sticker. Charge a fee to get the sticker -- something like $1,000/year. Have this money go to a fund (controlled by L.A.) to alleviate the problem.

KAREN GRAHAM

*

My solution to L.A.’s maddening gridlock looks beyond the ever-congested freeways to companies and employers. Many employees who do desk and telephone work, write reports/stories, could perform their jobs from home and go into the office once, maybe twice a week for face-to-face meetings. In this age of mobile telecommunications, it’s now possible to work from almost anywhere and still deliver a top job performance. Employers would need to learn to relinquish some control over their people and judge their value by performance, not a set number of hours in the office.

KENT STRUMPELL

*

Angelenos (specially Westside NIMBYs) need to stop opposing every line that gets proposed through their neighborhoods. We really need those subways, light rails, high-speed rails, or we will choke in our own exhaust fumes while stuck on the 405 at rush hour.

KEN BAERENKLAU

*

Provide small maps at bus stops that say where the bus is going and what time it should arrive at that stop.

ROB CARTER

*

Here’s a simple EASY way that would COST NOTHING to implement to reduce traffic on surface streets during rush hour. Between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 7 p.m., make it punishable, with fines starting at $500 a pop, to take a lazy left from a non-turnout location in traffic. So many bozos blocking traffic for blocks.

BILL GORDON

*

State-mandated vehicle inspections to keep “unkept vehicles” off the road and away from freeway breakdowns. Real incentives to commute on mass transit, and mass transit that goes where the middle class wants to go when they want to go there. Parking taxes that make mass transit the only sensible choice for commuting into highly congested areas. Flexible schedules for employees willing to come in before or after rush hours. Enforcement of “distracted driver” citations to end freeway multi-tasking.

BENJAMIN PEZZILLO

*

We need a regional plan with one-way streets. Example: Slauson Avenue one-way east and Florence Avenue one-way west, through all cities and counties if need be.

TOMMY DONAHOE

*

Give the trucks their own freeways to make room for more cars.

PETER ISAACSON

*

If people would start riding, say, motorcycles and scooters and bicycles, there would be an immediate impact. Seriously, get your M Class license, pack lighter, leave earlier (or later) and just calm down.

PAUL JOHNSON

*

Create a rail system that runs east-west!!!

NA’SATCHEL MILLS

*

Put back the Red Car! I’m a second-generation Angeleno. My parents used to regale me with stories about the Red Car and how easy it was to get around Los Angeles.

ELLEN BLOOM

*

Solutions that would cost nothing: Convert all diamond lanes to regular. They were ostensibly created to induce drivers to carpool, but that has never happened. Instead now they are used by parents with kids and hybrid car drivers. Drastically increase the difficulty of the driving test required to obtain a license. Currently the test is so easy that almost everyone passes, and if they don’t, they are allowed to quickly try again. Instead, require the test driver to complete a circuit on the freeway and busy streets during rush hour.

DARRIN SPANG

*

I lived in Westlake Village and drove to Burbank for 25 years. My solution: I moved to Oregon. There is not a freeway within 100 miles of me. Good luck to you folks down there.

MARTY WERZ

*

My idea is for a combination rail-and-scooter system. We should replace walking with a more efficient “point to point” system: scooters or mopeds. The key is that you can leave the moped at any train station and pick up another one at your next stop.

DREW MARGOLIN

*

.

Monorails are the ONLY long-term solution. MONORAILS!

KOJI MOTONISHI

*

We’re never going to have any monorails, and we shouldn’t. A monorail is just a smaller elevated electric train with a slightly different rail arrangement. We can’t use that here. We need the beefiest possible mass transit solutions. That means heavy rail in the densest possible corridors (Wilshire, Sunset, Ventura boulevards) and light rail in those corridors that are somewhat less dense, with bus lines and shuttle buses feeding into those lines.

SCOTT MERCER

*

Take all city, county and state cars and drivers away from any elected representative. Maybe then they can figure it out.

JOHN HONELL

*

Here’s a fantasy: Start charging everyone in the city, perhaps based on income level, to use the freeways. Each and every time, just like the subway.

JOSE PROMIS

*

Someone should prohibit the CHP from closing down entire freeways for several hours while they investigate a crime or an accident. I understand that they need to collect evidence, but they treat the matter like it should be perfectly OK to keep a freeway shut down all afternoon or all day.

TOM DONNELLY

*

Put soccer moms on lock-down after 6 p.m. Fewer minivans on the road would do us commuters a WORLD of good, because we know where we’re headed, and we’re headed there fast. Commuting isn’t a joy ride for us, and we don’t care if taking your little brats to ballet class is your only time out of the house all day -- stop your lollygagging! You’re in my way -- move!

KATHY KNISS

*

Amortize a subway over 200-plus years and it isn’t that expensive. A subway along Wilshire to the ocean is not really for the residents of the Westside, it is for the workers who commute to the Westside, the second-largest job center in Los Angeles.

HAROLD L. KATZ

*

I travel the Newhall Pass almost every day, and the trucks are the problem. They should be restricted to the No. 4 lane between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.

LOREN BRACCI

*

It’s a mistake to attack housing at employment centers on the Westside in the name of fighting gridlock. Housing at an employment center allows some people to walk or bike to work. The alternative to building Westside housing is not that the people dry up and blow away. Rather, they will commute longer distances through the city, largely on crowded Westside arterials.

SIMON DORF

*

Complete the Green Line on both ends: the LAX spur on the west and an extension to the Norwalk Metrolink station on the east. The eastward extension would probably require a tunnel, but by giving commuters a simple connection between Metrolink and the Green Line, ridership should be greatly increased with a resulting decrease in traffic on the 91 and 105 freeways.

GLENN OLSEN

*

Here are some ideas to get traffic moving from my 2001 campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. Ban construction during rush hour on major streets. Create reversible lanes for major streets during a.m. and p.m. rush hours. Make left-turn signals work on demand instead of on timers. Pay private firms a “pothole bounty” for each pothole they fill on their own. Put trained traffic officers at the 20 most-traveled intersections in the city. Open freeway diamond lanes to trucks during non-rush hours.

STEVE SOBOROFF

*

How to reduce the number of car trips: Eliminate public transit fares. Reduce parking, especially in areas well-served by public transportation. Raise the rates on what’s left.

D. MALCOLM CARSON

*

Synchronize the lights!

CARIN MAHER

*

Nobody wants to hear it, but the best solution is mandatory carpooling. We could have great tax credits to reward people for their sacrifice, and even greater tax credits for people who take public transportation.

FRANCES HUNT

*

Reverse traffic lanes during rush hours.

KELLY VAN HORN

*

Charge people to use the roads. Every car will need to get a GPS transmitter that keeps track of mileage and relays it to a satellite. At the end of the month all drivers get a mileage bill, just like we currently get phone or utility bills.

PAUL CIOTTI

*

MOVABLE WALKWAYS creating neighbors who might look into the eyes of a stranger and find a friend.

MARLENE ALEXANDER

*

Get the bad drivers. The nitwits who race. The dumbs who cruise at 40 in the diamond lanes, or weave in and out, etc. We all see them, every day. Borrow a page from NYC: severe penalties for breakdowns and running out of gas in places like tunnels and bridges. Issue tickets for tailgating. Eliminate the use of cellphones.

DAVID ULLMAN

*

Create one-way main thoroughfares. No left turns where no left-turn lanes are available or if left-turn lanes are occupied with waiting cars. Shorten long green lights at rarely used cross streets. What large airport does not have a public transportation access? LAX!!!!

SUSANNE SPIRA

*

I live in Idyllwild -- lots of gripes about slow drivers who will not use the turnouts on the state highways off the mountain.

LEIGH HUMPHREY

*

I live in Cypress. My employer is in Irvine. I have worked from my home for the past six years, avoiding adding another car to the freeway snarl and saving my sanity. It makes sense for employers to assist with the reduction of traffic by providing telephonic commuting.

MARY JANE NORTH-MATA

*

Give a tax break to people who live and work in the same ZIP Code. Charge an additional tax to people who commute from one ZIP Code to another, increasing progressively with distance commuted.

SYLVIA WORDEN

*

Turn Olympic Boulevard into a pedestrian-only promenade from downtown to Santa Monica.

STEVEN ROSEN

*

I have been ranting for years about the phenomena of slower traffic clogging up the fast lanes and all the faster traffic wildly zigzagging through the right lanes to get ahead. We need a massive driver education campaign to achieve awareness of the passing lanes, and traffic enforcement and fines to foster a greater incentive. I would vote for Idi Amin if he could end this gridlock.

BILL ESPARZA

*

If more people would get out of the cages and onto motorcycles, it would almost certainly help.

STEVE ZWEIG

*

Dedicate one or two lanes from each freeway to a very large fleet of buses, something similar to the Metro Orange Line in the Valley. There’s no land to buy, no tunnels to dig, no major construction projects. All we have to do is pay for the buses and concrete barriers. This is 20 times cheaper than a subway and just as good.

TONY BONETTI

*

STOP BUILDING!!

FRAN LONGMIRE