With Traffic at a Crawl, Planners Talk of Tunnels

LA Times via Yahoo ^ | Sun Sep 18, 7:55 AM ET | By Dan Weikel, Jeffrey L. Rabin and Daryl Kelley Times Staff Writers

[Lazamataz]

I don't exactly think the Japanese are dumb.

[wouldntbprudent]

There's only one way to relieve traffic congestion: restructure the work world so that every employee who can do his/her job from home works from home.

We have the technology to make work-at-home seamlessly integrated with the traditional office. And it's a lot more reliable, less costly and less risky than digging big holes through fault-infested landscapes.

There are millions of people who are only required to go into an office so that a "manager" can get paid to stop by their cubicle once in a while.

[Shazbot29]

I saw you had like 4 entries in Taglinus Repubicus!

I am lucky to get one or two.

[television is just wrong]

Liberals have a severe mental problem. Their thinking mechanisms are just messed up.

[conservative cat]

Agreed. I am allowed to telecommute one day a week, sometimes two. I am far more productive on a laptop at home for two hours than I am during eight hours at the office.

[Rocky]

Before the levees failed in New Orleans, there was talk for years that the levees could fail. Some comfort was taken from the fact that part of the Netherlands is also below sea level.

Just because someone else has gotten away with it, doesn't mean that we will. It's like playing Russian roulette.

[CIB-173RDABN]

One solution to traffic is move the jobs to where people live.

Certainly not all jobs can be done at home, or at a remote office, but a lot can be.

At one time it made sense to have "cities", transportation was difficult. But today when a good portion of a work force lives twenty or more miles from the office, why not have small satillite offices out in the suburbs.

High speed network connections would allow both telephones and computer networks to work anywhere, and instead of having a bunch of people driving in, have them go to a small office in the suburbs for most of their day by day work, and if need for face to face make the trip two or three times a month rather then daily.

Again, I understand some jobs require everyone to work next to each other, but I suspect most office jobs do not.

There are answers to this problem other then digging tunnels.

[sandydipper]

You got that right!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

You could probably build a skyway over the city for the same cost.

[One_American]

[One_American]

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

LOL - GMTA!

[labard1]

"One solution to traffic is move the jobs to where people live."

Unfortunately, Los Angeles tried to grow its downtown business district, which has tremendously aggravated the traffic problem.

Light rail would be a better solution to congestion if it weren't for its vulnerability to strikes (and if adequate access to it could be arranged- parking or convenient public transit). There is a small movement to revive jitneys (small unscheduled, minimally regulated carriers), which could feed the big municipal bus and train lines).

[wouldntbprudent]

And imagine if everybody who could do their job at home (or even a satellite telecommute center closer to their homes) did so---traffic would greatly decrease and productivity would greatly increase.

And because people wouldn't feel so beat up by being in traffic, when they finished work for the day, they might actually feel like going out and doing something---which inevitably means spending money, which is good for the economy.

[antiunion person]

As a matter of fact, my burial plot is already picked out. Or at least the cemetery is. I will be buried at a National Military Cemetery. Most likely the one in the Bay Area, if there is any space. If not, anywhere there is space. Thanks for asking. AP

[FreedomCalls]

Driving in L.A. is a nightmare. The exit lanes are not well marked. When you finally reach your exit, you realize that you have to exit left instead of right (or vice versa) and must cross 6 lanes of speeding traffic which is impossible. Then you have to drive to San Diego before you can turn around. By then, you've been routed to Palm Springs. Periodically you exit and ask somebody directions. Nobody knows where anything is. Most of them don't speak English and just arrived from the Island Nation of Zaza or some other place you never heard of. Finally you conclude that you can't get wherever it was you were planning to go; so you just drive out into the desert somewhere, stop the car, and see if you can recover.

You forgot to go to the Slauson cutoff and cut off your slauson. That's your problem right there.

[Savage Beast]

The first time this happened--I was a kid--I pulled into a filling station. The attendant said, "You don't want to go back to L.A. Drive over to Beatty, Nevada and get yourself a ..."

[cynicom]

Perhaps it would be cheaper to just pay the people to move away?

[nevergore]

I've planned mine also.....

Told the wife justa' double-bag me and put me at the corner for the Thursday morning trash pickup.....

NeverGore :^)

[Cowman]

California could have its very own Big Dig! And not just one either!

Hey, The 93 tunnel is great! Only 15 billion over budget and you get a car wash and grilled fish to take home. /sarcasm