Car-Pool Lanes Enhance Freeways’ Usefulness

* I am familiar with Gerald and Myrna Silver’s constructive work toward aircraft noise reduction and thus the enhancement of Valley life. I was disappointed to see them take such a strong stand against high occupancy vehicle lanes (Commentary, June 5).

Although I am only a layman, I must differ with the Silvers on several of their claims.

First, they say that HOV lanes achieve the opposite of their intended purpose in that they don’t take cars off the road. Right. Caltrans cannot reverse the population explosion. It can only attempt to be creative with its resources as the freeways inevitably grow wider and wider.

I believe its purpose in creating HOV lanes is to encourage fuller, more efficient use of a freeway by offering a voluntary incentive to those who share a car. Nobody has outlawed Silver’s right to drive alone. Just let him drive with the crowd.

Second, they suggest that the public does not want to car-pool unless forced to by Big Brother. For at least five years, several of my co-workers have chosen to car-pool from Palmdale to Van Nuys about 80% of the time. They don’t have a car-pool lane to enjoy. They didn’t even have the corporate ride-sharing rebate until recently. They chose to car-pool out of common sense and economics. Perhaps voluntary incentives from Big Brother might open the eyes of others, no?

The Silvers find solo driving cheaper than public transit. I think a case could be made either way on that one.

Incidentally, I am a technician, one of the service workers to whom they refer. I cover a territory of approximately 60 to 75 square miles, am quite productive and almost never use the freeway during my work. When I do sit stuck in traffic, it’s usually because another solo driver is in front of me.

I must agree that the personal car is the most flexible transportation invented. Unfortunately, the Valley (and the world) has become too crowded to keep encouraging it.

Thinning out existing traffic may just encourage new traffic. Do Mr. and Mrs. Silver suggest that we limit traffic by eliminating HOV lanes and then freezing freeway expansion? Will the worsening traffic jams magically cause commuters to go elsewhere?

I think not. No one can stop urban sprawl, and no one plans to outlaw drivers going solo. Caltrans has been experimenting with HOV lanes for 15 years and has learned how to run them pretty well. The same goes for metered freeway on-ramps. By providing the HOV incentive, they are just taking one proven step toward retaining our quality of life.

GREG GOLDEN

Van Nuys

* I agree with Gerald and Myrna Silver’s arguments as to why constructing high occupancy vehicle lanes is a mistake. However, there are some glaring errors in their article, and I am not sure if I agree with their ultimate conclusion.

In defending solo drivers, they state: “The last time we looked at the DMV Drivers Handbook, it was still legal to drive alone. Solo driving is a right and a benefit most people are willing to pay dearly for.”

If they go back to the driver’s handbook they will see that driving is not a right, it is a privilege. There is no constitutional protection of the “right to drive.”

And would we pay dearly for the privilege? Maybe, but we don’t now. We don’t, contrary to the Silvers’ contention, pay a steep fuel tax. The subsidy to the auto, after accounting for all fuel taxes, registration fees and tolls paid to all levels of government, is at least $300 billion per year.

Europeans, who covet their independence as much as we Americans, who engage in activities outside of the home as much if not more than we do, and who do pay steep fuel taxes, use their autos for half the percentage of trips U.S. citizens do.

While it will take considerably improved transit and land use that is not as hostile to the pedestrian, bicyclist and transit customer for people to feel they have alternatives to the auto, I believe that if the auto were less subsidized, people would choose to use other means for many trips. This is the way to reduce smog, sprawl and congestion.

The Silvers, in defending the solo driver, imply that Caltrans should be building mixed flow lanes instead of HOV lanes. The problem is, all of the arguments they use against new HOV lanes apply to mixed flow lanes as well.

JOE CARDOZA

Santa Clarita