To the editor: You write in your editorial concerning the hearth and the closing of the ten Freeway: “Los Angeles has been in a public transit development increase, because of … 4 gross sales tax will increase since 1980 to pay for bus and rail tasks.”
Sadly, Metro has undercut the bus system since 1985, when its predecessors stopped subsidizing bus fares with Proposition A gross sales tax income and as a substitute shifted the funds for the Blue Line prepare to Lengthy Seaside.
Since then, Metro has spent greater than $20 billion on a 100-station rail system, whereas its 18,000-stop bus system has disappeared. The influence on transit service and demand has been dire. Because the finish of the federal consent decree in 2007, federal statistics present LA’s transit ridership cratering.
LA won’t ever “dethrone the automobile as king and usurp the freeways”, though we are able to and will cost tolls. It’s silly to count on residents to surrender the liberty that vehicles present, however we are able to present a a lot better transit system at a decrease value, whatever the 10 Freeway.
All of it begins with making cost-effective decisions, one thing Metro has little expertise with.
James E. Moore II, Los Angeles
The creator is professor emeritus of transportation engineering at USC.
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To the editor: As we rush to rebuild the burned part of the ten Freeway, I am shocked we have not heard any enter from neighborhood members who converse up each time a brand new transit line or residence constructing is proposed of their neighborhood.
Motorways are noisy and environmentally disastrous, they usually divide communities. After all, I am not against all freeways – I simply really feel that this freeway threatens the character of the world. To not point out that undesirable parts may use the freeway to return to the world and commit crime.
As a substitute of working 24/7 to repair the freeway, why do not we spend a number of years and thousands and thousands of {dollars} on feasibility research and neighborhood conferences to verify it is the correct name?
This course of has finished wonders for LA’s public transportation system and housing provide, so I see no cause why we should not additionally apply it to our car-centric infrastructure.
Truman Capps, Studio Metropolis