Is transit by bicycle feasible?

Re “L.A.’s plan to cut traffic has created new arguments,” Column, Sept. 16

While I admire the Los Angeles City Council’s attempt at getting people out of their cars to commute to work by bicycle or bus, the notion that creating bike lanes throughout the city to achieve this is laughable.

The percentage of people who are able to commute to work on bicycles is minuscule, and increasing their numbers by creating lanes only for them will probably have no effect (other than creating more gridlock) on the vast traffic problems that Los Angeles endures. Bureaucratic city planners with their data analysis and New York transportation experts with textbook theories of mobility and proximity have nothing practical to add to the solution.

Here’s a thought: Have City Council members observe, for one month at rush hour, Virgil Avenue between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, and Rowena Avenue in Silver Lake (the stretch of road examined by columnist Steve Lopez), and they would be probably be unanimous in saying “Oops, we made a mistake.”

Don’t let these models be the standard for the rest of the city.

Thom Camacho

Los Angeles

I was in Seoul for the 1988 Summer Olympics. There, I experienced a truly modern city firsthand.

The mass-transit system in the South Korean capital is stunning, and the boulevards are completely safe for pedestrians. People go down and under them via steps and tunnels accessible at intersections. There’s no need for hasty reemergence on the other side; one can stroll for hours underneath the streets or stop at any of many shops.

Of course, Seoul was rebuilt from the (under) ground up after the Korean War. It’s so strange that devastation sometimes presents wiser paths than city planners can.

Curtis Selph

Lancaster