Urban Transportation Will Drive You Buggy

In “The Highway Robbery of Your Life” (Commentary, Feb. 6), John Balzar points out that each of us needlessly burns about $1,000 in gas a year stuck in traffic. I wonder what that amount would rise to if it included all the times people leave their cars idling while they are waiting to pick someone up, or just running inside to pick up a forgotten item, or chatting to someone in the parking lot, or waiting for someone to pull out of a desirable parking spot--and add to that the idling of all the people held up waiting for the person who’s waiting for the spot.

Examples of getting zero miles to the gallon are endless. Worse still is the fact that emissions are the worst in idle.

Sara R. Nichols

Los Angeles

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It’s a good idea to fix our roads, but the real problem with congestion on our freeways is the absence of decent, comfortable alternatives, especially on the heavily traveled corridors within California, such as Sacramento/San Francisco/L.A./San Diego. Travel between these cities by car is an assault on the central nervous system. But if you think plane travel is a more benign experience, think again.

If you take a flight, say, from LAX to San Francisco that leaves at 10 a.m., you have to be at the airport by 8 a.m., which means you get on the road at 6 a.m.--if you’re coming from the West Valley. If the flight leaves and arrives on time (don’t bet on it), and your luggage has not been sent to Ft. Lauderdale, you are out of the terminal and in the city by 1 p.m. That’s six hours on the road for a one-hour flight. And consider the flight itself: seats that fit like a tourniquet; food that is unrecognizable, inedible and indigestible.

If one good thing comes out of Sept. 11, it should be rapid rail travel. If I could avoid getting in my car or on a plane, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Rose Cohen

Woodland Hills