21st-Century Ideas for Transportation Needed

So now the gurus of Orange County transportation want a half-cent sales tax boost to get on with their master plan. One of the uses of this revenue is to expand the commuter lanes on our already clogged freeways.

As a person who uses his car in business, I find the mere existence of the commuter lanes a stupid discrimination. I need to drive to my clients’ places of business as do most persons in sales, service and consulting. I cannot take passengers; this is not a commute, folks. As I sit in the everlasting jam of the Costa Mesa Freeway and watch surfers on their way to the beach, housewives with a load of kids, moronic unhelmeted motorcyclists and gardeners in pickup trucks sail merrily along, I wonder what the dimwit bureaucrats in Caltrans are thinking (if they can).

I don’t believe that the Caltransniks can produce solid evidence that the dedication of 25% of the freeway to perhaps 5% of the vehicles has accomplished any alleviation of congestion. Especially on the Costa Mesa Freeway, where those same genius planners have managed to create something that resembles a satanic bobsled run that may be completed by the turn of the century.

I, for one, will adamantly oppose the sales tax increase; but I’d sure contribute to a class-action suit against the county supervisors and Caltrans to challenge the discriminatory operation of the commuter lanes.

CLINT HOPSON

Santa Ana