Exploring Root Causes of Transportation Mess

The Orange County Transportation Commission failed to take into account the environmental health of our county when (it) passed the 20-year growth management and transportation plan. This 1950s style of thinking and planning needs to be reevaluated.

Imagine 20 more years, nearly half again as many cars in our county, billions of taxpayer dollars spent on radical land modifications that will fragment and isolate natural open spaces, all this to support more asphalt and concrete to accommodate the fossil fuel-burning vehicles that are destroying our regional air quality and degrading our life-supporting atmosphere. This is supposed to build a better tomorrow, a higher quality of life?

Our leaders want us to become more dependent on fossil-fuel vehicles. AQMD, EPA, Department of Energy, NASA, The Montreal Protocol, the United Nations all say we must go on a strict CO2 (carbon dioxide) diet and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. The modest predictions regarding the consequences of not honoring our environment are sobering. The risk to our lives and our children are too high. Give us clean, environmentally safe transportation options and incentives not to use gas- and diesel-powered vehicles so readily. Let’s respect and manage what God has given us so future generations will inherit a healthy county, a healthy planet.

THOMAS A. LARSON

Mission Viejo