Dear Sonny...

The first day you turned these stupid light meters on, it took me and my husband (we carpool to save gas) about 30 minutes to get to the Highway entrance. This normally takes no more than 10 minutes.

Our commute at this time of the day is 35 minutes on average. Once we get to the expressway, regardless of traffic, we must drive 15 minutes at least. Now, an average is a smoothing of a number of trials so that an average of 35 minutes means that sometimes it takes us less and sometimes more than 35 minutes. You have thus successfully increased our late afternoon commute (we wait traffic out by giving the man extra hours of our lives) on average by at least 15 minutes if you keep this up.

Yes, it looks nice and clear on 285 but on top of all this, it took my husband 20 minutes to make his way down 1.5 miles on Hammond to pick me up for carpooling. He drove 1.33 hours that afternoon because as soon as we hit an area without a meter, you guessed it, 285 was just as packed.

Basically, you have achieved the great feat of making carpooling worthless for us and decreasing 285 traffic at the expense of local traffic (you should hear what those who pay expensive rents at the top end perimeter to avoid 285 have to say).

Let's see if you remember this very popular speech given at weddings:
The ring, great because it is a circle... it has no beginning and no end... like your love/relationship etc.

Do you know what else is a circle? 285. People only take this road because they feel the need to drive around the perimeter. This is the ONLY way around, backroads not only suck, but they are just as packed and only lead you to the next entrance to 285 which are now backed up due to people trying to get to the next (hopefully) less crowded 285 entrance.

Now, this was a while back... But we would not know what it looks like anymore since we are too busy trying to make money to pay for gas or buy a helicopter whichever is cheaper.

Here is a grand idea: How about incentives for companies that allow telecommuting? How about a useful public transportation system? How about increasing the speed-limit so people can ride around their circle quickly and just as quickly get out of my way?

Seriously man...