405 toll lanes insult carpoolers and less wealthy drivers

Letters to the Editor: Toll lanes on the 405 would insult carpoolers and less wealthy drivers

Traffic moves quickly in the 110 toll and carpool lanes as bumper-to-bumper congestion slows down regular traffic.

Dec. 4, 2019 3 AM PT

To the editor: Carpool lanes are meant to reduce traffic by getting more people into each vehicle. Converting those lanes into toll lanes, as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority may do on the 405 Freeway, will not improve traffic but rather create a system where the haves can get where they’re going and the have-nots are stuck in miserable traffic.

As it is, vehicles in the 405 carpool lanes do not move much faster than other traffic. If you add toll-paying drivers to the mix, the lanes will slow to a crawl. Also, while carpoolers do not have to pay to drive in the toll lanes, they must pay for a transponder and maintain a certain amount of money in their accounts.

I hope Metro finds some other source of revenue than a system that worsens traffic for the vast majority of drivers.

Clifford J. Tasner, Valley Glen

To the editor: As has been proved with the disasters on the 110 and 10 freeways, replacing carpool lanes with toll lanes results in more congestion and slower traffic. Very few people are willing to pay to use toll lanes, hence more traffic in the non-toll lanes.

I don’t use the 10 Freeway very often, but the 110 has become impassible. I can no longer go to downtown L.A., Pasadena or anywhere else that requires driving on the 110.

If Caltrans and Metro need something to do, let them give us back the carpool lanes that they took away from us on the 110 and 10 freeways.

John Jensen, Torrance

To the editor: Why does anyone even use the term “carpool lane” anymore? Caltrans has done its best to make driving the freeways all about who has the most money.

All taxpayers and drivers paid for the freeways with the understanding that carpool lanes were designed to help the environment. Now I get to watch solo drivers speed down those special lanes just because they have money to waste.

California has discovered another way to separate the haves from the have-nots.

Dawn Sharp, Claremont