T-SPLOST list doesn’t spend the money where the traffic is

To my fellow comrades in New York presently engaged in our struggle against the “bourgeoisie” that have created the immoral disparities of wealth equality among the working class people of our land under this current evil capitalist economic system of oppression emanating from Wall Street, for the moment our fight must continue as unions members pledge unity with us in the socialist workers cause to overthrow the evil rich “bourgeoisie” that refuse to pay their fair share to the state, we shall prevail victorious in delivering “social justice” to them comrades.

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Over the weekend, Obama comes clean and admits another 1.4 trillion dollar deficit. It seems that with Obama we only have to look forward to endless deficits as he and his democrat buddies can’t keep from wasting money.

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Why are they repeating everything that’s said?

It reminds me of an elementary school assembly.

Weird!

And the wiggly fingers thing…what’s that about?

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What the heck is “the agenda”.

They keep talking about continuing with “it” but never get around “to it”.

I don’t see how the left can’t be embarrassed by what they’re seeing. I work with kids who have more going for ‘em that those folks.

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And then you will

And then you will

chant stupid platitudes

chant stupid platitudes

like a moron at a

like a moron at a

cult gathering

cult gathering

for the common good

for the common good

we must defecate on this cop car

we must defecate on this cop car

power to the people

power to the, ooops, almost let it get me.

Uh, no I didn’t.

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Federal officials begin major crackdown on marijuana operations
“It’s coming out of left field as far as we’re concerned,” said Joe Elford, the chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, which advocates for medical marijuana use. “I really don’t know what inspired this. It’s a complete about-face from what [Obama] said when he was campaigning.”

He’s got your vote, moron, he needs the Law and Order vote now. Like they are stupid enough not to see what’s going on.

Re elect the clown and we will all be smoking dope.

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Obama to Hispanic leaders last week: “I think there’s been a great disservice done to the cause of getting the DREAM Act passed and getting comprehensive immigration passed by perpetrating the notion that somehow, by myself, I can go and do these things. It’s just not true.” Obama on immigration at a town-hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto last April: “I can’t solve this problem by myself.” Obama, around the same time, speaking to a group of climate-change activists at the White House: “I can’t do this alone.” Obama, last November: “The responsibilities of this office are so enormous… sometimes we lose track of the ways that we connected with folks that got us here in the first place.” Obama, at a press conference in April 2009, “I can’t press a button and have the banks do what I want, or turn on a switch and Congress falls in line.” Obama, speaking at the United Nations in September 2009: “[The world] cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone.” Obama, two years ago, on the military overthrow of the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras: “[I] can’t push a button and suddenly reinstate Mr. Zelaya.”

So now it’s “Yes, he can’t?”

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Trying to get his jobs bill passed with little white lies.

Obama: I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz. He’s got two decades of teaching experience. He’s got a master’s degree. He’s got an outstanding track record of helping his students make huge gains in reading and writing. In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?

He never left.

Baroz has in fact received three pink slips in four years, but in each case, his job was saved, either through stimulus funds or the 2010 Congressional Jobs Bill. He now works as a literacy and data coach at the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, analyzing MCAS data and applying it to teachers’ everyday lessons.

White House spokeswoman Joanna Rosholm said: “The President highlighted the story of a great Boston teacher who is NOT in the classroom today — because his school, like so many across the country, is facing a budget crunch. If Congress will pass the American Jobs Act, then we can put thousands of teachers like Mr. Baroz back in the classroom.”

Doesn’t sound like he’s in the classroom. He’s a data analyst.

And the teacher of whom he spoke?

Baroz, who supports Obama and his efforts to restore the public sector, told the Herald yesterday he doesn’t mind if the president — or his speechwriters — took some liberties with the facts. It was all in aid of a higher truth, he said.

says it’s okay to lie.

MCAS is tied into NCLB. Wonder if Jamaica Plain’s test scores are legit?

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Kyle, as one who has worked in urban planning across the metro area, one of the biggest deficits the “OTP” areas have in terms of traffic management is a lack of connected surface streets. In many areas, the dendritic “feeder” system is a major contributor to congestion – cul de sacs lead to feeder streets, which lead to collectors, which lead to arterials. There is a lack of cross-connections (otherwise known as a street grid).
Interconnected surface streets, which alleviate congestion far more efficiently than widening lanes on arterial roads or highways, are a LOCAL responsibility. In my experience, the OTP municipalities and county governments have not been willing to invest their own money into these types of street improvements, nor are they willing to adopt a mapped streets program to compel private developers to implement them. That is mostly a lack of political will and poor urban planning. Instead, they prefer to compel state taxpayers from other areas to widen arterials and highways (a method that most traffic planners will tell you is short sighted at best) for them.
There are exceptions, of course, but when these OTP jurisdictions start investing adequately to address the problems of their own creation perhaps they will have earned a ride in the saddle of their high horse.

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tjatl

October 9th, 2011
1:52 am

“That is mostly a lack of political will and poor urban planning.”

So, so very true as land spectulators and developers have almost literally ruled over, controlled and dominated local governments during much of the post-World War II era (see Cobb and, ESPECIALLY, Gwinnett).

“Instead, they prefer to compel state taxpayers from other areas to widen arterials and highways (a method that most traffic planners will tell you is short sighted at best) for them.”

Also very true, but widening of local suburban and exurban roads has not taken place as much in Georgia as many think as GA is 49th out of 50 states in overall transportation investment (including roads) with GA being outspent by places like Texas and Florida by almost a 2-1 margin or more in some cases.

Both Texas and Florida in particular have major cities in Dallas, Houston, Miami and Orlando that are based on grid systems on flatter terrain with major roads with alot more right-of-way that are alot easier to widen from two-lane country roads to 4-6 lane suburban collector roads and major arteries.

Metro Atlanta and North Georgia features very hilly and heavily wooded terrain in many places which makes the widening of existing roads and the building of new roads a little less popular of a concept (see the erstwhile-Northern Arc).

Of course there is a traditional aversion to mass transit in much of suburban and exurban Atlanta, but in many of those same places one will find almost just as much of an aversion to widening collector roads that are also lined with residential development, unlike in Texas and Florida where many collector roads have been widened to 4-6 lane roads.

If mass transit (commuter rail, bus, etc) is politically and socially unpopular and we can’t widen or straighten or existing surface roads and we can’t build any new toll roads (hence the overdependence on our freeway system), then we are just plain screwed,

At this point, Georgia is basically sitting around refusing to and seemingly not knowing how to make investments in its infrastructure while our neighbors and main economic competitors in North Carolina, Florida and Texas are actively and aggressively continuing to make massive maximum investments in theirs.

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Ron

October 8th, 2011
11:00 pm

I read the article link that you provided and there is not much to fear as far as a reprisal of the Northern Arc in that particular case as the extension to Sugarloaf Parkway from just below 316 to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard is a county-funded project, that while it will run in the right-of-way of the erstwhile Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc, will only be built in Gwinnett County.

The Gwinnett County government never permitted any development to be built in the right-of-way of that previously proposed road intending to build their own local controlled-access parkway in case the plans for the Outer Perimeter fell through, which they did as a way to alleviate the Highway 20 choke point above the Mall of Georgia and using the road as an exit ramp/connector between I-85 southbound and I-985 northbound.

Though I have been hearing of bone-headed proposals to resurrect that erstwhile lightning rod of a proposed highway.

The proposal drawing the most ire from locals right now is a GDOT proposal to connect I-75 with Hwy 411 in Bartow County that would cut directly through some mountain range and the very valuable property of some very politically-influential landowners along and close to the route of the erstwhile Northern Arc north of Cartersville.

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TSPLOST is nothing more than yet another program to divert money away from more affluent area to dumps like ATL, DeKalb & Clayton.

I will be voting NO!

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The 10-county metro area simply doesn’t have the population density to support transit.

Urban planning expert Alain Bertaud (over 30 years of international experience and 19 years with the World Bank) and others find that transit works in cities with a density of about 35 people per hectare (2.5 acres). In 1990, our metro area density was 6 p/ha.

Bertaud projected our earlier 3.14% growth rate forward 20 years to 2010; even then, our density only increased to 10.9 p/ha- and that assumed no additional space would be used for residential purposes. Our actual population growth was 556,000 fewer than Bertaud’s 2003 study projection, so the actual 2010 density is even less: 9.6.

Is there any reason to think the next 20 years will see more robust overall growth? Not even the wildest estimates project it to increase our density 3.5x what is now- and that which is necessary to sustain transit (if you’re keeping score, that’d be 14.4m with zero additional residential footprint). We’re simply too spread out for the transit option to make sense here, so let’s get on with the tough business of figuring out other solutions that actually give us some meaningful bang for our buckis.

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@ Build – an outer perimeter will not solve the inner suburbs’ congestion problems. Interstate truckers and through-traffic vacationers aren’t using Windy Hill Road or Johnson Ferry.

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And the fools in south Atlamta wonder why people in the northern areas want OUT of this nonsense. Atlanta would be a dead zone without the northern areas to pump money into it.

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People who think roads “cause” develoment have no been on the Camp Creek extension.

Growth has already come. We are choking on the traffic and some of us want concrete steps taken to allieviate the congestion. Others, apparently including some of the politicians, are more interested in ideology and the money honey-pot they can raid.

Tim Lee, the soon to be former politcian from Cobb, decided to put his idelolgy above the real transportation needs of his constituents with the half backed Cumberland to the Arts Center line. I don’t oppose transit per se but do demand that the transportation money be spent to actually help resolve the congestion.

TSPLOST is dead.

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Remember when the Urinal blubbered and whined about the Republicans shutting down government over the debt deal, and with it the National Museums? Looks like they’ve gotten over that faux outrage-

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the Mall was abruptly closed Saturday afternoon after a “large group of protesters” tried to push past security guards and enter the museum, a spokeswoman said.

evil museum!

evil museum!

space and air bad!

space and air bad!

look, a drone!

look, a drone!

evil drone!

evil drone!

attack the drone!

attack the drone!

No, the thing hanging from the ceiling not the guy with the loudspeaker, get off of him!

No, the thing hanging from the ceiling not the guy with the loudspeaker, get off of him!

mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!

mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!

allah akbar!

allah akbar!

just sayin….

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Bob Ross

October 9th, 2011
12:40 pm

“The 10-county metro area simply doesn’t have the population density to support transit.”

It’s true that Metro Atlanta when the population is averaged out over a 10-county area or the Atlanta Region when the population is averaged out over the 28-30 county area of its boundaries (an area that is larger than the state of Massachusetts other Northeastern states that are smaller in land area) has what may just be the LOWEST population density of any major metropolitan area/population center on the planet.

But that statement can be kind of misleading as the population of the metro area and region is not uniformly spread out over all 5,000-plus square miles of the 10-county metro area or 8,000-plus square miles of the region as some areas, especially along major transportation nodes like interstates, major surface roads and existing freight railroad lines close to or near historic town and neighborhood centers that originally were settled and grew up on those railroad lines.

We should also keep-in-mind that different transit solutions can be used for different types of developed areas as transportation is not and should not be approached as a “one-size-fits-all” thing.

Modes of transit like local bus routes, cable cars (streetcars), heavy rail (subways and elevated trains) and light rail (surface trams) are much better fits for densely-populated urban areas inside I-285 and densely-populated mature, established aging suburbs closer to I-285.

While modes like commuter rail on existing freight rail lines that parallel the interstate spokes and express commuter bus routes on those interstate and freeway spokes are the best option for less densely-populated outlying suburban and exurban areas farther out and on the fringes of the metro area and region.

But make no mistake that transit in differing modes absolutely must be a part of the conversation moving forward because of the sheer volume of traffic that is forced to be overdependent on our limited freeway system and surface road network.

There’s no way that a major metropolitan region of six million people can be expected to effectively function without being multimodal as, especially on the Northside of the metro area, the freeway system has seemed to be reaching or to have already reached build-out status.

There doesn’t necessarily seem to be a very big appetite to widen those freeways much more or build alot of new roads beyond just widening some of the few major arterial roads that there are in the region.

As it stands now the Atlanta Region is basically trying to function on the same amount of transportation infrastructure that it had in 1990 when it had half the population of today.

We also should keep-in-mind that the auto-focused sprawl that has dominated the Atlanta Region for the last 60-plus years in the post-World War II era will likely not continue to do so in the face of rising gas prices, worsening gridlock and increasingly lengthy commutes.

In many places in the five-county core of the region that the trend of sprawling auto-dominated development is starting to reverse as there have been alot of Northeastern-style townhome and row house type of developments popping up next to existing transit lines and major roads alike.

Transit lines like heavy local bus service, streetcars, light rail, heavy rail and especially commuter rail lines on existing freight rail lines that already run through existing historical neighborhood and town centers built to human scale (as opposed to car scale) can and will serve to guide future development to be concentrated along transit lines close to stations and stops.

The Atlanta Region has doubled in population with a virtual 100 percent population growth rate in the last 20 years growing from 2.9 million in 1990 to 5.8 million people today on what basically the same infrastructure.

When you think about it, it’s like adding the population of a Denver, a city with its own set of transportation challenges, traffic jams, etc, to Metro Atlanta in a very short period of time.

You can’t add three million more people to a metro area of three million that was already struggling with traffic congestion and expect to get by with little or no investment in your infrastructure, it’s just not happening.

Atlanta’s past was with automobiles. Atlanta’s present is a hard-luck transition in a bewildered transportation and mobility-challenged obvilion.

But make no mistake that Atlanta’s future as the mega-city that it has become is in rail transportation.

As a city blessed with an overbundance of rail infrastructure, the sooner we realize that the future will not be like our sprawling auto-dominated past, the sooner we will get ourselves moving again both transportation-wise and economically.

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Build The Outer Perimeter

October 9th, 2011
5:52 pm

With the Northern Arc/Outer Perimeter being politically radioactive, the next best thing that could be done would be to double-stack the top-half of I-285 from I-20 on the westside back around to I-20 on the eastside.

Interstates 75 and 85 on the northside could also be double-stacked outside the perimeter out to their junctions with I-575 and I-985, respectively with the top level restricted to car traffic only and the bottom level for both cars and trucks.

Though, these days, the Georgia Department of Transportation would be laughed off of the podium and out of the building or maybe chased with torches and pitchforks if they actually presented that proposal to the public and the media, especially after the growing backlash to HOT lanes.

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Build the Outer Perimeter

Actually, the last proposal I heard, was to build an outer perimeter, well north of the Northern Arc that failed. That’s a developmental highway and no, the sprawl isn’t already there. There are well connected people who own land along the route though.

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Hillbilly D

October 9th, 2011
8:10 pm

I’ve also heard about the latest proposed route for a revived Northern Arc that you are talking about as well.

I’ve also heard that the latest proposed route may be even more unpopular because the route is closer to the mountains and runs through some very pristine and somewhat unspoiled land in the foothills and southernmost reaches of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

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San Antonio had an outer perimeter way back in the early eighties. I understand the idea of public input and the value of it, but more often than not public input leads to paralysis and bickering. The transportation tax measure will fail. Georgians always vote to protest against something. Rarely do Georgians vote for something.

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Build The Outer Perimeter

October 10th, 2011
6:09 am

Building an Outer Perimeter road on its face is not a bad idea as lots of other very major cities have those types of outer suburban loop and bypass roads.

It’s just that with the public paranoia about increasing sprawl and the well-connected developers that would likely benefit from the road, the Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc is about as dead as a road can be politically.

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Karl Marx

October 10th, 2011
6:52 am

Highway 20 is a surface state highway route that isn’t anywhere near the lightning rod that the proposed toll road through Bartow, Cherokee and Forsyth was back in the early 2000s.

Hwy 20 also won’t have any measurable effect in taking heavy though truck traffic off of I-285 as the Northern Arc/Outer Perimeter would have had, at least in theory as Atlanta is still one of the top trucking and logistics centers and one of the top destinations for heavy truck traffic on the entire continent.

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“Among freeways, six of the nine worst stretches are along I-75 in Cobb, I-85 in Gwinnett, Ga. 400 north of the perimeter, or the top end of I-285.”

You’re right about MARTA, but is the solution to spend millions in taxpayer money, not to relieve congestion on these arteries, but to add HOT lanes??? No. A million times NO!

I will NOT vote for the TSPLOST. I haven’t waited almost 15 years for improvements to I-575 and I-75 to see my tax dollars spent on HOT lanes which will make traffic even worse.

HOT lanes are a horrible misuse and waste of public funds. Public transportation funded by the taxpayers must provide equitable access of use. Taxpayers should be outraged and heads should roll.

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