Toll Roads Take Too Harsh a Toll

* I was perplexed about the April 6 editorial that appeared to advocate the building of toll roads for California. Isn’t it the purpose of newspapers to defend the weak, attack the strong, and make sure that the wild politicians use their heads for something other than a wastebasket to come up with ideas for raising taxes?

This idea of yours merely corroborates the present scheme of triple taxation for the same projects. For example, what are our federal gasoline taxes for? What are the Measure M funds for? What are the road taxes for?

I read in The Times during the bankruptcy debacle that there is over $1 billion of Measure M funds sitting there in the bank with no place to go. And yet, The Times can come out and rubber-stamp the toll road schemes, which accommodate only the rich commuters, with absolutely no concern for the poor working stiff driving a Volkswagen or beat-up Datsun to work.

John Wayne would turn over in his grave if he read your editorial that appeared to advocate toll roads in California and did not raise one hand to attack the scheme that panders to the rich and wealthy and abandons the workers.

CHARLES MYLES

Huntington Beach

* Re “Off Freeway and Onto Fee Way,” March 23:

I agree there are probably many more toll roads in our future, here and in many other parts of the country. I do think, however, that it is only fair to let some of those folks who do not live in Southern California know what else they can expect from the toll roads in their future.

You see, toll roads are not really about convenience, or cars, or saving time. Toll roads are about development. Toll roads do not come into being because they would be more convenient for people, or because they would save time, or even because they might save a few miles wear and tear on your car. They come into being because of a collaboration between big business and local, state, and federal governments. The developers who propose these projects are hoping to make money, a lot of money.

So yes, it is true, sometimes you may save a little time on the toll road; you may enjoy the toll road because it is a little less crowded (well, for a while); and you may even see some new scenery that you didn’t get to see before (until it begins to die from the pollutants put out by all the cars).

You may even have ideas come to mind about progress and our “high standard of living” (after all, you can afford the toll road, you’ve got to be doing something right). But make no mistake about it, these are all just pleasant side effects of the main purpose of the toll road. The real purpose for which all those developers spent all of that money and went to all of that effort was to make money, and lots of it.

For those who may have never passed through northern Orange County, you’ll find that it looks pretty homogeneous. Most of the municipalities have been “developed” to the point that it has become the land of convenience stores.

You can drive down most of the streets most anywhere and see much the same things in different combinations; convenience store, supermarket, fast-food restaurant, health spa. And down the next block a repeat of the same in another sequence.

North Orange County didn’t start off like this; it became like this after it was discovered to be “valuable real estate.” Once upon a time Orange County was a beautiful little seaside county with lots of room and the smell of orange blossoms in the air. Most of northern Orange County and parts of southern Orange County are no longer like that.

For years, southern Orange County was safe from some of the frenzied development that took over most of the north because it was “too far away.” But now, since north Orange County has been developed almost into oblivion, with its endless asphalt, brown polluted skies and overused real estate, south Orange County is a new food source for the developers, and they are hungry. Now that they have a shiny new toll road, there can be few complaints about its being too far away.

So, Mr. and Mrs. U.S.A., while there is a toll road in your future, there are also a lot of other things coming too that you may not have been told about, including: thousands of convenience stores and strip malls, more traffic, brown air from pollution, more traffic deaths, and the destruction of large parts (if not all) of your natural environment and its wildlife. The toll road may be Orange County’s gift to the nation, but don’t expect to see my name on the card; it’s a gift that I wouldn’t want anyone else to receive.

KEVIN BIGELOW

Laguna Hills