L.A. Traffic Congestion

* Re “L.A. Again No. 1 in Nation--for Traffic Congestion,” Nov. 14: With the exception of one offhanded quote from a Caltrans spokesman, New York City wasn’t even mentioned. Try getting onto the Queensborough Bridge from any cross street in mid-Manhattan at any hour of the day! You will wish that you were back on the good old 405.

Not that traffic isn’t bad here, and getting worse. But whatever criteria were used by the Texas Transportation Institute (with the advice and consent of Caltrans, apparently) must have been deliberately skewed to come up with such a lopsided conclusion. However, if it helps to prevent additional people from relocating to our area, I am all for lopsided conclusions!

SIDNEY LEWINTER

Redondo Beach

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There’s something wrong with a traffic study that found L.A. worse than Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. The mistake probably lies in dividing traffic volume by road length (even if the number of lanes is accounted for). In the Eastern cities you spend a lot of time at a virtual standstill. Thus, traffic volume is limited by the congestion itself. In L.A., the traffic is thick, but it’s moving.

MIMI GERSTELL

Pasadena

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One way I thread my way through the road ragers is by labeling them. For example, I call the guys who weave in and out of lanes without signaling “roamers”; those who come up right behind you (usually pickups with blazing lights at night) and, after awhile, zoom around you, I call “huggers”; and those suicide types who speed through congested lanes squeezing from one lane to another (or three) at 80 mph, I call “darters.” Suffice it to say, we stay away--far away--from all these characters.

ROBERT SNYDER

Laguna Beach