Against a third I-5 lane
Buses will reduce the bottleneck if they help get travelers to and from the Eastside better — going across the lake as well as around both ends of the lake [“It will cost $23M to add third I-5 lane, state says,” NWWednesday, Jan. 2].

Can we use some federal money for Metro improvements?

—Roger Sharp, Lake Forest Park

Inefficient Department of Transportation
The recent revelation from the Department of Transportation (DOT) that miles of traffic, backed up every day from Boeing Field into downtown Seattle, could be remedied at a cost of $23 million by eliminating design bottlenecks and the infamous (and dangerous) “collector or distributor lanes,” illustrates just how badly Washington state is served by the DOT.

For a mere pittance, the DOT might have remedied a problem that costs tens of thousands of wasted hours, wasted fuel and air pollution every day as thousands of autos crawl into Seattle.

Of course, fixing this problem doesn't have the sex appeal of spending billions on questionable projects such as a new 520 bridge with additional high-occupancy-vehicle lanes or the Highway 99 two-lane (each direction) tunnel with no actual exits to downtown Seattle.

Do something useful for a change, DOT, and fix your mess on Interstate 5 going in and out of Seattle.

—Roger Van Der Vliet, Tacoma