Car-Pool Lane Article Didn’t Tell Entire Story

* The story that wasn’t reported about the abandonment of the Sepulveda Pass evening rush-hour reverse lane seems more fascinating than what was told (July 15).

The reported facts are that three employees in two trucks are employed to put down the traffic diverting cones by 3 p.m. and remove them at 7 p.m. One is paid $31,000. The other salaries and related expenses totaling the rest of the reported $267,000 cost are not stated.

The story I’d like to read would explain how the city claims that part-time work by three people, who undoubtedly have other labor during the six or so hours not used in this task (which utilizes a couple of hundred long-lasting rubber cones), costs the public over a quarter of a million dollars each year.

It leads one to wonder what other services are being sold with this sort of accounting.

EDWARD B. RASCH

Los Angeles

* That car-pool lane was not set up every weekday between 3 and 7 p.m., as your article states.

My car pool could not depend on its being available, so we did not depend on using it every day. We sighed with relief if the lane was set up on the days that we decided to “try Sepulveda.”

If the city Transportation Department wants car-poolers to take advantage of car-pool lanes, those lanes had better be available every day.

DANA CAIRNS WATSON

Canoga Park