Archive for the ‘Transportation’ Category

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

Connecting the Port of Savannah and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport by high-speed rail is just one of the major infrastructure projects Mayor Kasim Reed thinks Georgians should get behind. Inspired by the accomplishments of visionary presidents, he calls on the state to create public-private partnerships and an infrastructure bank to help speed us on our road to the future. In our other column, I write about MARTA’s nuisance program, the readers’ response to it, and my own problem with public transit.

Commenting is open below my column on MARTA.

By Kasim Reed

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pushed forward with building the transcontinental railroad, which helped unite and rebuild America. In the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the interstate highway system. A few years later, President John F. Kennedy inspired a generation when he challenged us with the goal of landing a man on the moon and surpassing Russia in …

Continue reading Funding transportation’s future »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

Panhandling? Loud cellphone conversations? Music bleeding through headphones? Most MARTA customers have pet peeves about riding trains and buses. Today, a MARTA executive writes about a new public-awareness campaign to tackle rude behavior by its riders. In our second column, a national transit veteran says that privatization of some functions can help MARTA, even while the agency remains a true public service.

Commenting is open below Tom Downs’ column.

By Ryland N. McClendon

It’s still true that one’s home is one’s castle. But the way we conduct ourselves in public places – such as MARTA trains, stations and buses – should be a totally different matter.

That’s the message MARTA got loud and clear recently after surveying 5,700 customers who shared their feelings about “nuisance behaviors” they experienced while riding the system.

Most of the offensive behaviors ranged from mildly annoying to downright rude — people talking loudly on …

Continue reading Improving manners on MARTA »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

MARTA is adding cameras to its “rolling stock” — all its buses, trains and para-transit vehicles. The multi-million-dollar program is designed to enhance security, even though MARTA’s police chief says the transit system’s crime rate compares favorably with other large urban cities. For our second column, MARTA riders talk about how safe they feel on buses and trains.

Commenting is open below.

By Tom Sabulis

Although MARTA has seen an increase in certain types of crime recently, transit officials say the likelihood of becoming a victim while riding on a bus or train is relatively small. For example, MARTA’s latest crime statistics show that while there were no larcenies reported in June, that number jumped to six in July. During that same period, the number of reported robberies rose from only one to five.

In order To help make the system more secure, the agency last month announced a $17 million program to install cameras on its buses and, …

Continue reading MARTA crime »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

Think tanks, politicians, community leaders and regular commuters all have their opinions on what the next step should be for a regional transportation plan. Today, Brandon Beach, a GDOT board member from North Fulton, discusses specifics on the Ga. 400 corridor, and a former Atlanta mayor talks about the leadership required to fix our metro-wide gridlock in the post T-SPLOST environment.

Commenting is open below Sam Massell’s column.

By Tom Sabulis

When it comes this summer’s failed transportation tax referendum, Brandon Beach won’t even go there. “It’s over. The people have spoken loud and clear,” said Beach, president and CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. He prefers to look forward, at the ways GDOT is stretching lower fuel tax revenues to improve traffic, and about long-term challenges facing north Fulton County:

New roads: “We need new capacity on Georgia 400. We’ve done a lot of the smaller fixes that we can do. …

Continue reading GDOT’s small fixes »

Given the T-SPLOST’s drubbing by voters, it’s tempting to shove dialogue about our ongoing congestion problems into a far corner of the civic closet and leave it there for a long time to come.
That shouldn’t happen. Our transportation troubles didn’t disappear with the closing of the polls July 31. That makes all the more notable the new proposal, “Getting Georgia Moving,” by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. Unveiled at the group’s recent legislative forum, it deserves broad attention and full consideration, particularly by the elected officials who now seem loath to even utter the word “transportation.”
This latest concept isn’t a telephone book-thick “Plan B” of the type generated many times through the years, and that’s good. It’s instead a thumbnail sketch that can hopefully get our community’s minds thinking once again on this critical issue. Specifics can, and should, come later, but the conversation should begin now around the broadest …

Continue reading A first step toward ‘Plan B’ solutions »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

MARTA’s board of directors, writes the leader of the transit agency’s oversight committee, needs to implement recommendations of a new audit which finds that MARTA can realize immense savings by outsourcing several jobs, such as payroll, cleaning services and paratransit service. The opposition says privatization in Atlanta has a track record of failure and the transfer of public assets from government to the private sector hurts ordinary people for the benefit of select profit-seekers.

Commenting is open following Paul McLennan’s column below.

By Mike Jacobs

MARTA is the primary means of transportation for many poor and disadvantaged citizens in metro Atlanta.

MARTA also should be striving to become the transportation method of choice for citizens who are able to choose how to commute from here to there.

Against this backdrop, it is incredible that MARTA has raised fares twice in the past three years.

We now know that inefficient management is to …

Continue reading Taking MARTA private »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

The sales tax for transportation improvements was defeated and governments are parsing ways to slice their budgets, but agencies and municipalities across metro Atlanta are focusing on smaller fixes to keep traffic flowing. Traffic signal synchronization is one way. Today, I write about ways both the state and some cities are working to upgrade the technology that can ease our gridlock close to home, and a GDOT leader explains a new grant program designed to expedite money to locals for traffic relief.

Commenting is open below Todd Long’s column.

By Tom Sabulis

A frequent comment lobbed over the transom during this summer’s transportation tax debate went something like this: We don’t need more roads or rail to zap gridlock. Just synchronize the traffic lights!

Some made the suggestion sound like it was simply a matter of flipping a switch — a cost-free panacea to our traffic woes, a no-brainer so easy that managed to escape all those …

Continue reading Synchronize those traffic signals »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

Following the failed transportation tax referendum — and with a major audit of MARTA about to become public — one local leader says the transit system requires a transformation through funding and governance. Privatization is not a panacea, but should be carefully explored. Another expert writes flatly that MARTA went wrong favoring rail over buses, and privatization would save $400 million.

Commenting is open below following Randal O’Toole’s column.

By Doug Stoner

There is little doubt in the minds of most that an efficient and cost-effective public transit system is necessary in a region the size of metro Atlanta. Most Atlantans are also familiar with the history of our transit system — transportation, after all, is what put our great city on the map for business and residential growth.

For too long, MARTA has remained underfunded and underused. Only two of our region’s counties pay into the system. The state does not directly contribute to …

Continue reading Private operations for MARTA? »

Moderated by Tom Sabulis

The Georgia Department of Transportation is looking at raising the limit from 55 to 65 on I-285. In Texas, the nation’s first 85 mph speed limit is planned for a 41-mile toll road between Austin and San Antonio. A local policy analyst argues that increased speed doesn’t necessarily mean more accidents and fatalities. A national safety expert says drivers automatically go over current limits and the statistics don’t bode well for healthy travel at higher speeds.

Commenting is open below Adrian Lund’s column.

By Benita M. Dodd

Most Georgians who travel the long, watch-paint-dry stretch that is I-16 between Savannah and Macon understand the unwritten rule:

You may exceed the posted speed limit of 70 mph, but not by more than 9 mph. If law enforcement clocks you at 80 mph or over, you’re toast.

In Texas, transportation officials acknowledge this reality and want to profit from it. In their case, they’re not just seeking revenue from speeding …

Continue reading Speed limits rising »

Today’s lead column discusses how MARTA, Georgia Department of Transportation and local community improvement districts are studying heavily traveled corridors, such as Ga. 400, to find transit alternatives that can ease commutes. The trick is creating the public-private partnerships that will pay for them, since there is no state money in the post-T-SPLOST world. In our second piece, a highway engineer endorses a universal per-mile user fee as a fair way to fund new roads and bridges.

Commenting is open below Rod Fogo’s column.

By Tom Sabulis

If you think the thumping of the transportation tax referendum (T-SPLOST) on July 31 means that residents of north Fulton county are happy to stick to their cars, steadfastly uninterested in alternative transit methods, you would be mistaken – or at least not in attendance at recent meeting about the Ga. 400 Corridor Transit Initiative (Connect 400) at the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce in Alpharetta.

Sponsored by MARTA, in …

Continue reading Ga. 400 transit options »