In today's paper the editorial board recognizes the silver lining from last week's truck tragedy. Monday's reduced gridlock in rush hour showed what and LA rush hour could be if more people chose transit over their cars for commuting. Just 7,000 more commuters from the I-5 Corridor choose trains over gridlock on Monday, and an expected traffic disaster never materialized.
I'll let the Star take it from here.
What Mr. Lutz was describing Monday morning was what rush-hour freeway
travel could be if Southern Californians would just abandon their cars, if only
for a couple days each week, and give public transportation a try.
It would do wonders for stress levels, not to mention cutting down on
pollution-generating car trips, saving gasoline, reducing household expenses and
time. A recent report showed Ventura County drivers each wasted nearly a full
week of work sitting in rush-hour traffic in 2005.
Imagine how many more hours would be lost, especially during rush hour,
without the Metrolink rail system. When it began in 1992, Metrolink had a daily
ridership of 2,500. Today, the system has seven lines, 54 stations and serves
more than 42,000 riders daily.
Good for them. Now if only our elected leaders would stop giving transit the short end of the stick at budget time.
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