Virtually every Southern Californian suffers from the “era on limits” on freeways. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority forecasts more slowing by 10 to 15 miles per hour, rather than improvement. This unacceptable future besets all congressional districts, including my own with Rep. Henry Waxman. Here’s my letter to Waxman with suggestions. You could probably write a similar letter to your representative:

Dear Rep. Waxman,

Our district has nationwide records in slow freeways: the 405 (San Diego) Freeway, the 10 (Santa Monica) Freeway and the 101 (Ventura) Freeway.

As you know, 95-plus percent of the public are motorists, and they pay 95 percent of taxes for transportation. We motorists prefer our vehicles for commuting, for business deliveries, for school attendance, for errands, for vacations, for entertainment and for visiting everyone. It’s far superior to the inconvenient and slow public transit buses, trolleys and subways. Only 5 percent of the public regularly use these services.

Businesses are fleeing Los Angeles for many reasons, including the freeway system that is unbearable for employees, customers, deliveries and meetings.

The desperate situation of the 405 Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass is not getting fixed. It currently rates F- on the California Department of Transportation speed scale of A to F. Caltrans has a $1 billion project stretched over the next five or more years. But Caltrans reports that after all the money is spent on the diamond lanes, the rating will still be F-. Do you find this acceptable for an interstate freeway?

Beach trip

MTA has been working on a “subway to the sea” project costing anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion. It runs along Wilshire Boulevard, and heads toward Westwood and possibly to Santa Monica and the sea. You yourself have played a key role in this project.

One view of this subway is that it is just another boondoggle tax-and-spend project with very little public benefit. Only one part of the county will benefit, and the rest of the public will be saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars of annual subsidies forever. The riders will generally be the same as currently on MTA buses on Wilshire and other streets.

How about a truly helpful plan for the whole public? When the tunnel is built under Wilshire and beyond, instead of putting rails for a subway, how about paving it and making it into an underground eight-lane freeway? This would be a refreshing win-win solution for motorists and bus riders. Hundreds of thousands of motorists would enjoy it daily. Buses could use it for express service, just as a subway would do. Everyone wins.

Forty years ago, the Westside was shorted by the cancellation of a “Beverly Hills Freeway” and has suffered ever since. Residents have to drive endlessly out of their way to get on already clogged freeways. Enormous wasted hours, dollars, and pollution have been endured.

How about conducting a public opinion poll on the possibility of making the route into a freeway for all? I know I’d love to be able to drive under Wilshire from Western to Sepulveda in 10 to 15 minutes! You would end up a hero to hundreds of thousands daily.

Congress has a currently futile method for divvying up federal highway tax funds. It atomizes into 435 districts with almost no cooperation among representatives. I spoke with Chairman James Oberstar of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who said that the federal government does not require its funds to go to the worst freeway segments first. He also stated there had been attempts in his committee to create “projects of regional significance” across individual congressional district lines. But nobody wanted to cooperate for the benefit of the motoring public. Los Angeles County has 17 representatives. Do you have any active coordination with other representatives to organize them into multidistrict projects so that we won’t be faced with more slowdowns for the freeways?

Here are more dysfunctional chokepoints in the district. The southbound 405 Freeway shrinks a lane at Mulholland. The 405-10 interchange has only three lanes north and south. The west 101 Freeway at Topanga Canyon loses a lane. You have plenty on your plate for your and my district.

I look forward to your soonest reply.

Sincerely,

Carl Olson

Carl Olson is a college accounting instructor who heads two public policy groups. He lives in Woodland Hills.