Regarding the March 1 Thousand Oaks Acorn editorial ("Traffic problems are easy to talk about, harder to fix"), I would like to respectfully disagree with a few of your statements.

Excoriating state Sen. Tom McClintock for refusing to make exceptions to state law regarding traffic ordinances is disingenuous. Just prior to his actions on this matter, I wrote Tom a letter requesting his assistance in actually strengthening state oversight of local traffic enforcement ordinances. My request stemmed directly from an incident which, to this day, makes my blood boil.

Sooner or later you, too, will be the privileged recipient of a surprise traffic citation from a city you have never visited, accompanied by a fuzzy photograph of a vehicle that vaguely resembles yours, and maybe a fuzzier photo of a person whose only resemblance to you is that you are both of the same sex.

The city may be nearby, but more likely will be several hours' drive away. Further, when you try to contact the issuing agency, by phone or mail, all your efforts will be rebuffed. After taking a few days off and driving several hundred miles to make two court appearances, your citation will be thrown out for lack of evidence.

Three or four months later, if you're lucky, your bail of $340 will be returned. No one will apologize, and you will not have any recourse to charge any city agency or individual for the costs you incurred fighting this citation.

Most galling of all will be the realization that the traffic cameras responsible for your misfortune were voted into law in a jurisdiction where you weren't eligible to vote, depriving you of the most basic of all means of recourse.

This exact scenario happened to us in July of last year, and prompted my letter to McClintock, who was then still an elected official. It can, and does, happen to people all the time, even people who no longer own cars or have drivers' licenses.

The Lynn Road solution is simple: Pass the ordinance, with the stipulation that only drivers residing in, and eligible to vote in, the local jurisdiction can be cited for violating the artificially low speed limit. This way, unsuspecting drivers from other areas will not be unfairly waylaid by an unusual speed limit that deviates from state law and general expectations. Local drivers will not only be aware of the deviation, but will have the opportunity to vote out of office the offending local officials responsible, if in fact it proves to be perceived by the majority as bad legislation. Dirk A. DeKreek Thousand Oaks