Safety determines grade separation

Re “Expo Line fears aired,” Nov. 7

Charges of environmental racism against the Metropolitan Transit Authority for building a grade separation on the Expo Line near USC while not building one at Dorsey High School are groundless. The inclusion of the grade separation beneath the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Figueroa Street was to minimize the line’s interference with access to the Harbor Freeway, which has a heavily used interchange at Exposition Boulevard. I am dismayed by the hysteria over pedestrian safety issues near rail crossings. Cars, buses and trucks hit and kill pedestrians much more frequently than do trains. Shall we now mandate grade separation for every major road adjacent to a school?

Peter McFerrin

Los Angeles

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Dorsey High opened in 1937 adjacent to an 1875 rail line that already had 30-some years of service as the Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line. When the line was discontinued in 1953, there was an angry outcry. Fifty-four years later, residents have been led to believe that the line is now unsafe. Traffic volume, not environmental racism, dictates that some intersections be grade separated and not others.

Roger Christensen

Sherman Oaks