Round and round on the freeways

Re “Mayor wants 405 project in fast lane,” Feb. 20

Rather than blindly spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a new carpool lane to accommodate ever increasing traffic loads, why not accept the fact that there are simply too many people and too many cars?

We may not be able to stop the growth, but we can sure make efforts to control it. However, it seems as though officials want to lure more people and cars to the Westside, as evidenced by projects such as the latest round of Century City development.

Whatever benefits come from spending on freeway and road improvements will be offset by the increase in people and cars that results from such growth. Other than politicians and developers, who wants to see the Westside become Manhattan?

NEAL REIN

Westlake Village

*

With more than 300,000 cars cramming through the Sepulveda Pass daily, what should be looked at is building a rail corridor as an alternative to the 405 through the pass to get between the isolated islands of the San Fernando Valley, the Westside and Los Angeles International Airport. Imagine the Purple Line -- once it reaches Westwood, it turns north through the pass, reaching Sherman Oaks from UCLA in a few minutes. Then this route continues north through the Valley and south down to LAX.

Imagine the political consensus to get the subway to the ocean. Imagine the ability of residents to have an alternative to get around quickly without their cars. Imagine the ability to unite these balkanized regions.

JERARD WRIGHT

Los Angeles

*

Re “State freeway upgrades bypass much of L.A.,” Feb. 17

There seems to be a giant pink elephant in Los Angeles, and no one is addressing it. It’s the four-level interchange in downtown L.A. Designed almost 50 years ago, it is almost nonfunctional.

Sure, you could increase capacity on the 101 Freeway from the Valley to downtown, but all that would do is allow more people to wait longer in gridlock. We can see that in the result of the widening of the Harbor Freeway northbound.

The 101-110 interchange needs to be torn down and replaced with a 21st century interchange. Until it is fixed, billions of tax dollars will be spent by Caltrans, we will still have traffic backed up on the 10, 110 and 101, and all those expected patrons of Grand Avenue and L.A. Live will be sitting in their cars instead of patronizing all the new businesses.

MARC-ALAN DAHLE

Los Angeles

*

Los Angeles voted overwhelmingly for a $20-billion transportation bond with the fair expectation that high-priority local projects would be funded. But if the California Transportation Commission staff has anything to say about it, we’ll just have to wait -- even as other California communities get relief. That’s outrageous. Further, the staff recommendation could jeopardize $130 million in federal aid for which Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) fought so hard.

The commission should overrule its staff and fund Los Angeles projects such as the 405 northbound carpool lane. Unbelievably, it decided not to fund this vital improvement because it inferred that construction could not begin until late 2011. Had commission bureaucrats bothered to contact the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or Caltrans, they would have realized that the project would begin construction in 2009 -- well within the right time frame.

L.A. voters should not simply be a source of cash for transportation projects elsewhere.

ASSEMBLYMAN

MIKE FEUER

D-Los Angeles

Feuer, a former L.A. city councilman, chairs the Assembly Budget Committee on Transportation.