Metro Atlanta needs a metro solution to transportation
It’s an oft-told tale, but Sam Williams of the Metro Atlanta Chamber told it again this week:
When Georgia’s founders sat down to divide the state into counties, they drew county lines so that a farmer would be able to ride his mule to the county courthouse in the morning, conduct his business and still get home by dark.
As the story goes, that’s why Georgia has 159 counties, more than any state but Texas; it’s also why counties along the coast, where the land is flat and travel is easier, tend to be larger than those in the mountainous north.
Williams told the story at a regional housing and transportation forum, trying to explain why it’s difficult to build political consensus in metro Atlanta. Depending on how you measure it, metro Atlanta comprises anywhere from 10 to 28 counties, making it difficult to speak with one voice and push in one direction.
However, the story of the farmer and his mule also reflects a deeper wisdom. If you think about it, Georgia’s founders designed the state’s basic unit of government around transportation needs, in their case the transportation needs of an 18th-century agrarian society.
It’s now the 21st century, and a lot of things have changed, but some haven’t. We no longer ride mules, for the most part. And while parts of Georgia are still agrarian, that’s certainly not the case in metro Atlanta. If we were to design the basic unit of government around today’s transportation needs, it would be considerably larger than a Georgia-sized county.
That realization has sunk in all over the nation. In Colorado, Washington state, North Carolina, Tennessee and elsewhere, states have empowered multicounty metro regions to plan, build, finance and operate transportation infrastructure.
At the national level, policy makers also realize that we are increasingly a metropolitan nation and that metropolitan regions need more control over their fates. James Corless, campaign director for the Washington-based Transportation for America, told the Atlanta forum that a new national transportation strategy taking shape in Congress envisions a greater functional role for metro planning agencies such as the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Here in Georgia, though, state leaders under the Gold Dome are proving more obstinate than that farmer’s mule. County governments and the Department of Transportation have long controlled transportation money in Georgia, and recently the Legislature and governor have muscled into the business as well. They aren’t eager to share that authority or tax revenue with some new-fangled regional entity.
For example, state legislators are reportedly cooking up a new approach to increasing transportation funding. The effort is welcome, but if leaked descriptions are correct, the deal would be a classic Gold Dome compromise. It satisfies the needs and egos of politicians while doing little to solve the real problem.
That problem is two-fold. First, Georgia is 49th in per capita transportation spending, and the statewide transportation system is in bad need of reinvestment; second, metro Atlanta’s transportation system is even more resource-starved than the state as a whole, and state leaders have shown little or no understanding of the depths of the problem or how to solve it.
For example, Williams pointed out that access to high-speed rail service will someday be as important to major metro areas as access to an international airport is today. But while other states build toward that future, Georgia leaders can’t even manage to build a single commuter rail line in the metro area.
Under the proposal being floated at the Gold Dome, voters statewide would be asked to approve an additional half-cent sales tax for transportation. Individual counties would also be allowed to ask voters to approve an additional half-cent tax.
Unfortunately, a half-penny boost in the statewide sales tax would raise far too little revenue to have an impact, particularly when it is spent statewide. In addition, if past patterns hold, metro Atlanta would get relatively little of that investment. A recent study by Georgia State’s Fiscal Research Center found that over a three-year period, the 10-county metro area accounted for just 28.6 percent of state transportation construction spending.
And while giving individual counties the power to tax an additional half-cent might make non-metro legislators popular with county commissioners back home, it won’t help metro Atlanta. Our problems are regional in scale and require solutions that are regional in scale.
If state legislators put such a proposal to a vote by the people, metro Atlanta residents would have no reason to support it.
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147 comments Add your comment
josef nix
September 4th, 2009
6:21 am
Sorry I’m going to miss this one, but methinks we’d get there quicker if we brought back the mule as a means of transportation and quit electing them to public office. Y’all be nice today and remember it’s Friday and time to lay aside the war hatchets this p.m. Off to stroll my block to work…
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator (-: You Whine )-:
September 4th, 2009
6:29 am
Yeah, all we need is a couple of trolleys from the housing projects to the welfare office and we’re set, right?
Or maybe a choo choo from Atl to the University of Georgia, so that a few pinko liberals can hurl past the unwashed masses and never lift their heads up from the morning’s Urinal?
I don’t know, what is the percentage of metro Atlantans that have to use a motor vehicle to get from work to home and vice versa, 95%?
How about a couple of bridges over 316 that makes it a true freeway instead of a mindless, idling wait on the government run system of stop lights?
What about two lanes of traffic exiting 285 onto 20 west, instead of the maddening back up idiocy congestion inducing one?
285 to 75N merge, backed up during all hours of the day because the dimwits can’t see around the curve in the road?
So many simple solutions, so much useless liberal babbling.
Dave R.
September 4th, 2009
6:45 am
Our problem is with the legislature, which has a rule that takes 80% of all federal transportation money and evenly divides it between the 13 Congressional districts, rather than directing the majority of it towards addressing the localized problem of metro Atlanta.
Fix that inequity, and you’ve fixed the problem.
Finding legislators willing to give up pork money – not so easy.
Road Scholar
September 4th, 2009
6:45 am
Josf Nix: Good one, and for so early in the morning!
Why not adjust the current gas tax to account for inflation? Wasn’t the current rate set back in the 1980’s? Cars have become more fuel efficient, so the per vehicle return is less. Any increase could be allowed to be used for transit also!
If not look out for making all roads toll; there is a desire to tax you for mileage traveled, based on the congestion level at the time of travel. More congested, a higher rate would apply. Ya’ll ready for that?
Sam Williams is the type of leader this state needs. Sam, are you available to run for Governor?
jconservative
September 4th, 2009
6:56 am
Road Scholar is probably correct re the coming boom in toll roads.
The Republicans in the legislature have been looking to tax Georgians & a “toll” is a good way to tax while not calling it a “tax”.
What’s in your wallet?
TaxPayer
September 4th, 2009
7:06 am
& a “toll” is a good way to tax while not calling it a “tax”.
And don’t you forget it. Republicans don’t tax folks.
TaxPayer
September 4th, 2009
7:10 am
If you pave it they can go. A true Republican philosophy.
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
7:12 am
jcons –
just read your last post downstairs … well done!!! (polite golf clap)
Paul
September 4th, 2009
7:14 am
Remember what I’ve said about money and power? Good luck. You’ll need it.
Dallas and Ft Worth (35 miles apart) cooperate on regional transportation needs, particularly rail. When leaders of those groups wanted to put a vote to the people for funding, the state legislature opposed it. They said ‘the people’ were opposed to any tax increases.
“The people” told their local officials to cooperate on transit. They recognize if they want progress they’ll have to pay for it. Yet the state officials said ‘the people’ don’t want higher taxes, so they shouldn’t be asked by means of a ballot.
Well, someone elected the state officials, too….
TnGelding
September 4th, 2009
7:15 am
josef nix
September 4th, 2009
6:21 am
You partially solved the problem by living near where you work. But then, I get the impression you’re stubbrn as a mule, too.
Why increase the sales tax when we have one of the lowest taxes on gas in the country? Let the millions of folks passing through to Florida and elsewhere help more to pay for the roads. But we simply have to become a less mobile society.
Paul
September 4th, 2009
7:18 am
TaxPayer
Well, we’ve a few of those roads around here. And we’ve converted some roads that were built and paid for with tax dollars to private entity toll roads (and after some months passed, the gov’t official found they’d hosed themselves).
It wasn’t a Republican or Democrat issue. It was a political issue – politicians of both parties didn’t have the courage to do something as basic as what Road Scholar suggested – adjust the gas tax, as that would be seen as raising taxes (duh). Neither side wanted to do it.
stands for decibels
September 4th, 2009
7:18 am
First, Georgia is 49th in per capita transportation spending, and the statewide transportation system is in bad need of reinvestment; second, metro Atlanta’s transportation system is even more resource-starved than the state as a whole, and state leaders continue to get themselves re-elected by pretending they have little or no understanding of the depths of the problem or how to solve it.
Fixed your typo, Jay.
Bosch
September 4th, 2009
7:37 am
It does no good to raise taxes when the people in charge of implementing the money are incompetent. Can part of a tax increase go towards hiring competent people? Who, oh, I don’t know, know about transportation and are willing to do something about it?
And, we all know that our state legislatures won’t allow the people to vote for issues on their own – otherwise, we’d be able to buy beer and wine on Sundays.
Paul
September 4th, 2009
7:40 am
Mornin’, Bosch
Did you know Charlie Rangel’s a crook?
Cherokee
September 4th, 2009
7:48 am
Many of them are crooks, Paul – but in the case of transportation in Atlanta, I’d take a competent crook anyday over the buffoons we have in the legislature now.
stands for decibels
September 4th, 2009
7:49 am
Paul, you might want to amble over to Tucker’s place, since she has that topic covered.
stands for decibels
September 4th, 2009
7:49 am
That’s odd, I was sure I had included a link in my post @ 7.49.
here tis:
http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2009/09/04/rangel-has-no-credibility-as-ways-and-means-chairman/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
7:50 am
g’morning Paul … dB … Bosch … hi, TnG! happy Friday, all
@@
September 4th, 2009
7:55 am
Lawd, it’s another transportation piece.
Raise the speed limit? That’ll make me happy.
Bosch
September 4th, 2009
7:56 am
Paul,
I heard about that. Did you know Dick Cheney is evil? G’morning to you USinUK – and yes, TGIF.
We have state legislators who want to amend the Constitution to block health care reform. What makes anyone think they care about transportation. Their solution is probably to buy everyone a mule.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 4th, 2009
7:59 am
Morning all…….
Got some time before my flight, the coffee’s got a wee dram of Baileys and the sunrise was beautiful even over the suburban sprawl….
I love public transportation. I wish you would too.
Growing up in Chicago I was able to go literally from one corner of the metroplex to another.
At age ten, in a group, we were permitted to take the Fullerton Avenue bus , transfer to the North South El line, catch the 55th Street/University of Chicago bus and be dropped of right smack dab in front of the Museum of Science and Industry. There I wandered through coal mines, German U-Boats and the Home of the Future. I walked through a giant human heart and watched reverently as atoms the size of basketballs in sparkling lit up colors created molecules. Then down to he Safari Room for our sack lunch.
I had access to the Art Institute, The Lincoln Park and Brookfield Zoos, the Shubert Theatre, Wrigley Field, Comisky Park, Soldier Field, beaches, state parks, lakes, rivers…you name it. At that time you could pretty much go anywhere for $1.10 round trip.
I raised the ‘Zilettes here in Georgia. Until they earned the keys to Grandma G’s old mini station wagon at 16, I drove them everywhere. They may not know it, but being tied exclusively to auto transport
seriously reduced their freedom and mobility (and mine).
Can’t say I understand Georgia politics, seems few do, but I can’t see Georgia successful without the Atlanta metropolitan area being successful and transportation is an important measure of that success.
Anyway, y’all be nice to each other and somebody please post Teach your Children for travelin’ music for me tonight…..thanks.
Oh, and
mike…
I think it was you and I talking the other day about Peter Schiff……
Huffington Post had something nice to say about him here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/03/the-financial-crisis-econ_n_276973.html?slidenumber=4#slide_image
(careful though….damn liberal media can be contagious)
oh and….
It’s labor day…..here’s a shout out to folks who shower after work.
The true builders of our nation.
TaxPayer
September 4th, 2009
8:04 am
We have state legislators who want to amend the Constitution to block health care reform. What makes anyone think they care about transportation. Their solution is probably to buy everyone a mule.
And, Paul, they’re all Republicans.
Joey
September 4th, 2009
8:06 am
Jay has no credibility with me regarding regionalism of transportation. He has been an ITPer since he arrived at the AJC. I expect that 2/3 of his articles over his first 12+ years here were criticizing anything OTP. Jay is a talented writer so he did a good job of attacking the suburbs. During the Bush years Jay did not have time to continue in that mode.
Jay believes the metro area, whether it’s 5, 10, 15, 23 or 28 counties, should be sub-serviant to Urban-Atlanta, ITP. Sam Williams is there also. That is the mountain that must be moved befor Regionalism can succeed.
There are more good jobs OTP than ITP. Something less than 15% of the workers in the 10 county metro area actually work ITP. We need transportation solutions that move people or allow people to move between their home and their workplace. Neither Sam Williams nor Bookman are willing to acknowledge that. They will never see the forest because their eyes are focused downtown.
RW-(the original)
September 4th, 2009
8:06 am
So 10 counties out of 159 get only 28.6 % of the transportation money? Were I a writer obsessed with this issue I’d toss in some population figures to make that point.
Paul
September 4th, 2009
8:09 am
dD 7:49
ya’ gotta’ play along here -
Bosch
He is?!!? Really?!!? Why, I never….
You sure he’s not just misunderstood?
Taxpayer 8:04
[[And, Paul, they’re all Republicans.]]
Do me a favor? Keep’em in Georgia, okay?
Safe travels, Mrs. Godzilla
You’re not flying Southwest, are you?
good afternoon to you, too, USinUK!
Gale
September 4th, 2009
8:09 am
I saw lots of good reasons to improve mass transit in the metro area. The problems I have with existing transit are: no nearby bus stop, a 15 minute drive to a Marta station, wait, 10 minute trip to destination station, wait, bus to -near- office building, walk the rest of the way, hopefully in dry weather. Or, I can drive myself in 20 minutes. Hm, let me think.
NPR had a good piece last night called The Last Mile. Unless we provide transportation to destinations from train stations, people will not use trains.
Lord Help Us
September 4th, 2009
8:12 am
Thanks for a great post this am, Mrs. G! Mrs. LHU and I just read it and I felt some old nostalgia, although of a different flavor.
I grew up in the sticks and had access to all the motorized vehicles starting around age 8 (really), The combines, tractors, motorcycles, farm trucks and the occasional young steer we would tempt with a feed bucket, jump on and go for a quick one or two second ride better than anything at any amusement park you have ever been to.
The freedom to get around and do your own form of exploring was a fond childhood memory.
G’day
Paul
September 4th, 2009
8:12 am
SD
Good column. But, I’d have added one line after “So Rangel ought to do the honorable thing and step down.”
“Failing that, Speaker Pelosi should remove him as Chairman, Ways and Means.”
But she’s protecting him. Not draining the swamp, not running the most ethical Congress ever (as she promised in ‘06).
But you gotta give Ms Tucker credit for denouncing wrongdoing in her Party.
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
8:16 am
Paul –
“You sure he’s not just misunderstood?”
(snort)
RW –
“Were I a writer obsessed with this issue I’d toss in some population figures to make that point”
excellent point (and g’morning!)
Gale
September 4th, 2009
8:16 am
Safe flight, Mrs G.
Joey, please define ITP and OTP for me. I think you are saying something about Urban Atlanta, but I don’t understand exactly what you mean.
stands for decibels
September 4th, 2009
8:17 am
RW @ 8.06, looks like the ten county area is about 3,813,700.
http://www.atlanta.net/visitors/population.html
I guess Jay figured most readers already knew it would account for more than 28.6% of the population but, that’s a fair enough point, it took me about 30 seconds to find that.
(for the record, it accounts for about 41 percent of the population. So yeah, they’re getting fcrewn.)
Oh and Gale, ITP/OTP is Inside the Perimeter/Outside the Perimeter. And for some reason Joey thinks there’s something bad about living inside it, or something.
TnGelding
September 4th, 2009
8:20 am
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
7:50 am
Good morning!
What kind of employment numbers for August do you look for at 8:30?
Joey
September 4th, 2009
8:21 am
My daughter-in-law lived two years in Chicago. She loved the transit system. She could “leave her apartment and in 5 minutes be two stations down at her favorite grocer.”
Except that here apartment was 4 blocks from her station, the grocer was almost two blocks from that station, she always had to wait a few minutes for the train at both ends. So sure the train ride was 5 minutes, but the trip one way was than 25 minutes. After acknowledging the real time she still “prefers” public transit. But now she puts about 40,000 miles a year on her Honda.
The major dishonesty people have about public transit is that it almost never is rapid transit. Not saying transit is not a good thing. Just that almost no one saves time by using public transit. Now if you are in a city where there is no place to park….
So step one for Atlanta in its move to get people on MARTA, eliminate half the downtown parking spaces.
Gale
September 4th, 2009
8:21 am
Thank you, dB. Joey, if there are more good jobs OTP, why are the hiways packed with single passenger cars every weekday morning flooding into Atlanta, and every afternood flooding out of Atlanta back to the burbs?
Joey
September 4th, 2009
8:22 am
Inside the Perimeter and Outside T. P.
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
8:22 am
Paul –
“But she’s protecting him. Not draining the swamp, not running the most ethical Congress ever (as she promised in ‘06).”
I agree – if they want any kind of credibility, they need to release the ethics report pronto and deal with him.
TnGelding
September 4th, 2009
8:22 am
Bosch
September 4th, 2009
7:56 am
To go with the 40 acres? That would be heaven!
stands for decibels
September 4th, 2009
8:23 am
The freedom to get around and get your arm chewed off by heavy mechanized equipment was a fond childhood memory.
fixed yer typo.
and j/k–I’ve fond memories of piloting a Massey Ferguson at around the age of 12, back in the day…
Later, kids. Don’t run anyone over.
Lord Help Us
September 4th, 2009
8:27 am
SD, all appendages in perfect working order. Thanks for caring…
Lord Help Us
September 4th, 2009
8:27 am
Enter your comments here
Joey
September 4th, 2009
8:30 am
Highways inside the perimeter are much less crowded that those OTP and the Perimeter itself.
The employment stats are available from ARC. Starting point and destination. Total workers and where they work. Number of jobs.
Bosch
September 4th, 2009
8:33 am
Mrs. G.,
Have a great trip! Happy Labor Day!
TnGelding
September 4th, 2009
8:33 am
Mrs. Godzilla
September 4th, 2009
7:59 am
Great link, thanks. Laffer was good for a laugh.
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
8:33 am
TnG –
well, I was going to say “down but up” (lower numbers, higher rate) – and it looks like I was right
numbers were 216K (below the 230K expected) with the rate at 9.7%
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
8:34 am
Have a great weekend, Mrs G!
(and hi to the ‘Zilettes)
Paul
September 4th, 2009
8:34 am
USinUK
I love your sense of humo(u)r!
“if they want any kind of credibility, they need to release the ethics report pronto ‘
They’re nine months behind with that report. ‘Cause new charges keep coming to light. And that’s the excuse Spkr Pelosi uses. Hey, remember deLay? Dang, using him as an example makes me gag… but still…
Back on public transport – users sometimes take an interesting attitude. I’ve a family member who lives in a major urban area. Tremendous public transport. Hardly any waiting time. Covers the entire area. And he was complaining to me about the fare increase. Twenty-five cents or so. I informed him that the frakkin’ insurance on my car cost more than he spent a year on tolls. And that didn’t count buying, maintaining and running the care. Because riders weren’t paying anywhere close to what they’d pay if they had a car.
But then again, no one said life is fair -
JohnD
September 4th, 2009
8:35 am
The GOP does not believe that public taxes should pay for public infrastructure. Unless of course they can tax metro Atlanta and use the money for 4-lane roads in South Georgia or the mountains.
Since the GOP does not believe that the government should actually pay for infrastructure, the road and treansit network we have today is all we are ever going to have.
Oh, and don’t listen to Joey, he has the suburban dwellers usual hatred for anyone who doesn’t live in the suburbs (those ‘urban’ people are ‘different’ you know).
Sure. there are plenty of jobs OTP, you just have to learn the phrase “do you want fries with that” and you will be assistant manager in no time.
AmVet
September 4th, 2009
8:36 am
“…and state leaders have shown little or no understanding of the depths of the problem or how to solve it.”
Throw into the mix inter-county hyper-parochialism, ladle in in a healthy dose of hundreds of years of paranoia, bigotry and unwarranted suspicion, toss in an endless mix of corrupted and laughably outdated politicos and then for the creme de la creme elect a “leader” of a state who actually thinks praying for rain is a solution to drought.
And voila!
The perfect recipe for being 49th out of 50 in most important categories.
No wonder Atlanta and Georgia still has such an inferiority complex…
Bosch
September 4th, 2009
8:37 am
Paul,
I wonder if any of our sweet wingnuts will point that out about Ms. Tucker. Holding breath starts NOW.
USinUK
September 4th, 2009
8:41 am
Paul –
“They’re nine months behind with that report”
I know – that’s why I’m saying they need to release it pronto. you’re SO preaching to the choir on this one!
And, AmVet – your 8:36 is a perfect summary (as always) of what is wrong with GA politics (not just about transportation, but about education and so forth) … and, sadly, it’s not limited to either party.