Adding Lanes Will Increase Congestion

Re “Freeway Expansion Revisited,” Aug. 12: To assert that adding lanes to the 710 Freeway will reduce emissions is just ridiculous. The Port of Los Angeles’ current traffic study states that 34,000 diesel trucks transit the two ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach each day. This is predicted to grow to 121,000 per day in 2025. There is no project under consideration that will handle 121,000 trucks per day and reduce congestion. Furthermore, the increase in truck traffic on the 710 Freeway is the enabler of the growth of the ports, with the resulting increases in emissions from ships and cargo-handling equipment. The ports forecast that through-put will increase from approximately 6 million containers per year now to 26 million per year in 2025.

Adding lanes to the 710 Freeway will massively increase air pollution. To do so before the ports present workable ways to, as The Times has so correctly demanded, actually reduce emissions, would be to place the health of everyone in the entire South Coast Air Basin at profound risk. In addition to the air pollution issue, there are many other grave environmental questions to be answered. For example, consider the stunning noise impact on surrounding neighborhoods of 121,000 diesel trucks per day running on an elevated freeway structure.

Noel Park

President

San Pedro and Peninsula

Homeowners’ Coalition