Freeway Work Too Dangerous

* Re “It’s No E-Ticket Ride in Anaheim,” Aug. 30.

This story gave a fairly pedestrian (excuse the pun!) view of the city’s traffic situation. Right now, my count is five major traffic accidents on Interstate 5 or California 91 in the Anaheim area since the construction began--at least one of those including fatalities. Yet the article didn’t mention accidents (or the work being done on 91).

This is something that Caltrans must answer for. It has taken on a two-year-plus campaign of ripping up the existing freeways in order to expand capacity. That’s well and good. But how much effort is it putting into keeping the commute safe during construction? I have given up on I-5 during regular workday commutes the few times I have had to get into Los Angeles from my South County home.

Because complaints have a better chance of being addressed if you include a proposed solution, here’s mine:

Make I-5 one way from the 22 Freeway interchange (the Crush) to the I-10 interchange (East L.A.). A one-way traffic flow would allow four (or maybe five!) lanes of traffic northbound in the morning and southbound in the afternoon.

Alternate-direction traffic would be routed to the major surface streets in the area. This would require more manpower (for putting up signs and barricades and moving them twice a day), but the time and stress saved for the commuters would be tremendous.

And, if Caltrans saved a few accidents and lives, so much the better.

OPHER BANARIE

Laguna Niguel