Let’s Get Smart on Tollway Technology

Re “Defense Firms See High-Tech Roads Ahead” (March 9): It is ironic that the Los Angeles Times is interested in exploring “smart roads” while the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) are not. This is particularly outrageous since existing environmental laws mandate that the TCA must explore alternative transportation means.

Nonetheless, the TCA seems committed to 1950s-type highways regardless of the facts, and are hell-bent on massive grading and development through the little remaining pristine open space areas of Orange County.

The article linked “smart roads” with toll roads, particularly using sensors to bill vehicles for the use of the road. This “smart road” technology is not only for toll roads but can, and should be, used to improve our existing freeways. The sensors can be monitored by a central computer to advise the driver of pertinent information or, ultimately, to have the driver relinquish control to the computer to increase both speeds and safety. The potential exists to safely maneuver over three times the current traffic on the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways.

The Laguna Canyon Conservancy has endorsed such a modern transportation solution as the Southern California Monorail Project (now California Advanced Transportation System). Even the Orange County Transportation Authority has a master plan for “smart roads”; do they talk to the TCA? It is impossible to understand the reluctance of the TCA to pursue modern technology to help alleviate traffic congestion.

Let’s get our peace dividend by using defense engineers and their technologies to improve traffic congestion. If they can pinpoint a cruise missile through a window, they can solve our traffic congestion problems without the building of more and more highways which encourages more and more development.

GENE FELDER, Laguna Beach