Following up on a great editorial last week, the Star follows up the only sensible way it could, by printing an LTE by me.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/24/no-headline—ob7wclets24/

Driving the problem

Re: your Oct. 19 editorial, "Ride the rails into the future":

The editorial was absolutely correct. If Southern California is ever going to find its way out of perpetual gridlock, it’s going to be by getting more people out of their cars, not by continually finding more ways to encourage driving.

On the East Coast, its somewhat older infrastructure has fallen into a state of disrepair while Department of Transportation officials tried to build their way out of congestion. Now, these governments are spending more and more money on maintenance with funds needed, and originally dedicated to, upgrading transit and local roads.

Hopefully, our elected officials will remember the lesson of Oct. 15 next time they’re
tempted to take funds dedicated to expanding transit and using them to balance
the general fund. If not, we’ll find ourselves in the same position as our
friends to the east — unable even to maintain the transit system that we have as
congestion and commuting times continue to rise.

Damien Newton, Los Angeles

(The writer is the author of the blog "Street Heat," which can be found
at streetheatla.blogspot.com. — Editor)