Readers React: There are better ways to alleviate traffic than by building light rail

To the editor: That the Metro’s Expo Line has not reduced congestion since opening its first phase in 2012 comes as no surprise. (“L.A. Expo Line hasn’t reduced congestion as promised, a study finds,” Nov. 17)

Here is the truth about Southern California’s transit plans: A few very expensive, decades-to-build fixed-rail lines won’t lessen traffic for the 18 million who live in the nation’s second-largest urban region.

Making some of our major thoroughfares one-way streets now would help in the short run by allowing more room for cars and bicycles; this could be applied everywhere, be accomplished quickly and easily, and could be reversed with equal ease if it didn’t work.

While light rail can and should be part of the long-term mix, it is not a panacea. The true fast and cheaper solution is to run buses on all routes at three- to seven-minute intervals from early in the morning until late at night, and to make fares very inexpensive. It then would be possible to hop on and off buses all day, whether for personal or business use, and go anywhere and everywhere that limited fixed-rail lines do not.

This is how people get around in London, New York and other major cities.

Southern Californians deserve faster, more flexible, more effective solutions to our worsening congestion than what our civic leaders insist on providing.

Bruce R. Feldman, Santa Monica

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To the editor: I really feel for the Westside commuters who cannot use the Expo Line and many connecting bus routes to reach their destinations farther east toward downtown Los Angeles and elsewhere.

But those who can use these transit options but choose not to deserve to drive the quagmire that has become the Santa Monica Freeway.

As for me, I use public transit whenever possible, the Expo Line included.

Ralph Cantos, Los Angeles

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