HOLIDAY TRAVEL

Twice in the last week I have found myself trapped in Santa Monica, faced with the daunting task of getting home to Fairfax. What used to be a thirty-five to forty minute drive has become a grueling, ninety-five minute crawl.

As I battled along Olympic Blvd., inch by inch, I knew the local news would be doing their painfully predictable stories on holiday travel: unending lines at LAX; multiple flight delays; packing tips for getting through security more easily; spikes in gas prices. It occurred to me that it was all part of the same problem – gross incompetence.

Hundreds of thousands of daily commuters didn’t just appear one day out of the blue, they came one at a time to meet the demands of the ever-expanding business community. The daily gridlock they create is the fault of the people who are supposed to manage traffic, the people we elected or appointed to plan and build for the future. But they have failed – miserably!

Daily traffic jams in Los Angeles are caused by the lack of a serious mass transit system, the city's preference for business over residents, and a cavalier attitude toward population density vis-a-vis highway capacity. In short, totally avoidable problems have been cause by shortsightedness and inaction.

Most people don't want to be bothered with governmental processes, they just want government employeesto do their jobs. Feel the same? Feel free to share your thoughts with Rita Robinson, General Manager of Transportation, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, at (213) 972-8470, or email her at: http://lacity.org/LADOT/index.htm I’m sure she’d be glad to hear from you. Happy Thanksgiving!

a foot on either side