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Time
to Think When Traffic Slows to a Crawl
The
conclusions of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority study
reported in "Study Helps Carpool Lanes Get Go-Ahead" (Oct.
7, 2002) do not justify wasting more money on carpool lanes.
The
study concluded that the special lanes cut travel time for most
carpoolers. This is an extremely weak conclusion; carpool lanes cause
more congestion and increase the average commute time for all freeway
users. Increased accidents and more smog should be expected from
greater congestion.
The study concluded that ride-sharing was
encouraged by the carpool lanes. This is obvious, but Robert W. Poole
of the Reason Public Policy Institute points out in "Time to
Rethink Carpool Lanes" that, based on the latest census figures,
carpooling is a flop. Quoting from Poole's paper: "Despite the
expenditure of billions of dollars adding carpool lanes to congested
freeways, carpooling declined from 13.4% of work trips in 1990 to
11.2% in 2000."
The MTA study concludes that the carpool
lanes help reduce smog. This is a vague and ambiguous statement. The
study said that carpool lanes are supported by a vast majority of the
public. To find out if carpool lanes are supported by a majority, we
should have an election to vote on an initiative to convert all
carpool lanes to general purpose lanes.
Robert H.
Biggadike
West Covina
