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County Councilman Don Praisner is absolutely correct in referring to the Intercounty Connector as a black hole of expense ("The ICC: Talk about adding insult to injury," Sept. 24 letter). I do not, however, share his additional complaint about a delay in building a grade separated interchange at Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road.

An interchange of the magnitude planned, with a nine-lane Georgia Avenue, is inconsistent with human-scale, pedestrian-friendly communities.

The Glenmont residents Mr. Praisner includes among those who urge construction, actually oppose the interchange since it will make getting in and out of their homes more difficult due to blocked roads and faster traffic on Georgia and Randolph.

It will also make crossing Georgia on foot a two-light-change affair. When you're trying to catch a bus, you might not wait through two cycles of the light, with possibly lethal consequences.

The only true solution is to reduce the traffic going through by providing alternatives that, incidentally, would help to reduce greenhouse gases as well.

We need a dedicated transit line from Olney to the Metro station and even to Silver Spring, and another one on Randolph from an appropriately dense place in the east to at least Rockville Pike in the west, where it would connect with another on Rockville Pike between Bethesda and Gaithersburg.

Our scarce dollars should go toward solutions for the 21st century, not the 20th.

Anne Ambler, Wheaton