Major sporting events bring traffic -- period

How ironic that The Sun should publish another letter from a racing hater complaining about traffic problems on the same day that it ran a picture of the people fighting the traffic problems caused by last week's Ravens game ("Baltimore isn't Le Mans," Aug. 24). If we're going to base which sporting events the city is going to host based on traffic disruptions, then we'd better get rid of the Orioles and the Ravens before we do away with the Baltimore Grand Prix.

In terms of the total number of hours of people struggling with traffic, the Grand Prix causes but a fraction of the problem caused by our two major league sports teams. And what about the Preakness? That causes traffic headaches, too. Should we scrap the second leg of the Triple Crown because a few people don't like having to take the roundabout way to work?

For the life of me, I can't understand the myopic view of sports that the racing haters employ to make ridiculous arguments as to why we should do away with one of the most exciting sporting events taking place in Baltimore. Since none of their arguments hold up, I guess it's either a hatred of cars in general, or race fans in particular.

Either way, it shows a willful ignorance of reality. If they really had a problem with traffic, and not racing, they would be clamoring for all sports to leave Baltimore, not just the Baltimore Grand Prix. But I guess working yourself into a lather about a non-existent problem is all the rage these days.

William Smith, Baltimore