More on de la Vega's Hummer

Steve's column on L.A. city transit chief Jaime de la Vega and his Hummer produced a lively discussion on the Letters to the Editor page:

Comments

[Rush Varela]

I agree; taffic is a kill switch for many activities. I think part of the solution should come from business owners-I live in downtown LA near Little Tokyo and walk to restaurants and shops whenever I can; I wouln't be able to find parking anyways. To my surprise I found that a few employees at my local cafe commute to work from Pasadena. There is no shortage of unemployed people in my area. My point is that businesses should find most if not all of their employees locally. This would save some of that money we all spend on asprin. Maybe cities can offer incentives for local hiring.

[Deena Bowman]

de La Vega states "we have a world class bus system..." NOT. I started biking to work years ago to AVOID taking the bus, which were crowded, slow, dirty, noisy (noisier with the plasma TVs installed-what is up with that?). Then the red line was up and running and very efficient, maybe too much so, as the MTA needs to add more cars for the evening rush hour.

[Mark Ferris]

Thlis city & county could do more to encourage a 24-hour economy. There is no reason why all road travel and commerce should be restricted to an 18 hour space in a 24-hour day. There is also no reason why certain more-lightly-traveled areas inland should have the same speed limits posted as the freeways near the coast. I propose VARIABLE SPEED LIMITS set according to the density of traffic flow, time of day & day of week.

Plenty of people now drive world-class autobahn cars which are quite safe at speeds WELL ABOVE the 65/70 mph limits we currently have. Variable speed limits, posted on electronic signs, could help motorists make up for lost time when navigating slower routes en routte to faster ones.

[Mark Ferris]

Thlis city & county could do more to encourage a 24-hour economy. There is no reason why all road travel and commerce should be restricted to an 18 hour space in a 24-hour day. There is also no reason why certain more-lightly-traveled areas inland should have the same speed limits posted as the freeways near the coast. I propose VARIABLE SPEED LIMITS set according to the density of traffic flow, time of day & day of week.

Plenty of people now drive world-class autobahn cars which are quite safe at speeds WELL ABOVE the 65/70 mph limits we currently have. Variable speed limits, posted on electronic signs, could help motorists make up for lost time when navigating slower routes en routte to faster ones.

[tony stanol]

Freeway Furniture

It’s a phenomenon I encountered only after leaving New York for Los Angeles. Sure, New York has the monopoly on rudeness, roadside litter and aggressive drivers. But LA has it beat on road missiles careening off the back of pick up trucks straight at you as you blissfully cruise down the freeway at 65 miles per hour. It’s freeway furniture and there’s no stopping it.

It’s everywhere. Freeway furniture is now included as part of the traffic reports on the radio as if it’s as common as the weather: “There’s a mattress in the left center lane on the 101 at Topanga...”

There’s even a website dedicated to carping about it and begging for a change, freewayfurniture.com. I heard that recently, some organization assembled all the freeway furniture it could find and completely furnished a four bedroom house!

Freeway furniture is one of the driving features that sets LA off from the East Coast. Drivers, believe it or not, seem to be more polite here, too. Remember, I come from a lawless land where a taxi driver would think nothing about wedging his big yellow Crown Vic with iron-reinforced bumpers in between two cars in a space only big enough for a moped; all while traveling 60 miles an hour in rush hour traffic on the FDR Drive. And he’ll flip you the bird for not giving him the right of way fast enough.

On the LA freeways, people politely let you in front of them in traffic. Honking your horn is virtually non-existent and I don’t know why. I find that a good honk is useful even if just to snap someone out of their cell phone stupor in the car. At the same time, all the turn signals seem to have been removed from the cars in Los Angeles. I don’t expect signaling within city limits, God forbid. But in the suburbs, I don’t understand why people don’t just signal their intentions as they approach me so I don’t have to wait for them just to find that they turn at the intersection. In cases like this I usually give them a good toot on the horn to serve as a reminder of the rules of the road.

And don’t get me started about driving in the rain. You’d think that the 405 was replaced with an ice rink the way Angelinos pussyfoot around in their cars and still manage to get into countless accidents. You shouldn’t be handed a drivers license unless you’ve logged hours behind the wheel in deep snow, sleet and freezing rain as I have before moving here.

But how to explain all the freeway furniture? Compared to the East, there seem to be a lot more overloaded pickup trucks piled high with belongings, tools and boxes on our roads. Maybe it’s that the trucks around the New York area tend to be enclosed to prevent pilferage. You’re more likely to encounter a ton of roadside litter on any given New York roadway than an armoire or a settee.

Things just randomly fall off of trucks here onto the freeway. My older daughter once came across what turned out to be thousands of individually cellophane wrapped fortune cookies dancing up the 405 from Santa Monica. She had to navigate her Mustang around them so as to avoid any bad luck.

Perhaps some law will be passed and enforced dealing with the securing of possessions and furniture on the backs of trucks. Until then, my daughter is off to college in the fall so this weekend we’re going furniture shopping for her dorm room. On the 405.