HOT lanes reversal reflects lack of vision, leadership for transportation in Georgia
If there’s one thing I’m sick of hearing, it’s that metro Atlanta and Georgia have no “plan B” for transportation. That’s because, increasingly, there’s no “plan A,” either.
The latest example is the Department of Transportation’s decision this past week to abort the optional toll lanes on I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee.
Some 200,000 commuters travel that corridor daily. The stretch of 75 between the 575 split and the top-end perimeter is one of the most congested highways in metro Atlanta. Yet, here’s what those commuters will have to show for years of DOT planning for toll lanes and the politicized exercise of drafting a project list for next year’s transportation tax referendum:
Jack. And squat.
A real plan for the corridor — and most of what I’m about to say also applies to other parts of the metro area — would:
a) Recognize there is neither the land nor the money available for building highway lanes ad infinitum, and that new general-purpose lanes quickly become as full as the older lanes;
b) Acknowledge the final piece of the Interstate portion of the corridor comprises high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes that may or may not relieve congestion in older lanes, but which will guarantee someone who needs to travel rapidly at a given time can do so (for a price);
c) Devote more resources to nearby arterial roads to add parallel capacity for motorists, particularly those traveling relatively shorter distances;
d) Ensure any funds for mass transit are dedicated to uses such as commuter rail, which can provide high capacity at peak travel times without attempting to change lifestyles or prioritize developers’ dreams over commuters’ frustrations.
As of today, Cobb and Cherokee residents stand to get no additional general-purpose lanes, no HOT lanes, no enhanced arterials. Just some projects designed to encourage a certain kind of economic development — somewhere else. Oh, and, in about 10 years, a glorified streetcar that travels one mile outside Fulton.
It’s particularly galling that DOT has now spent eight years and tens of millions of dollars clearing its throat regarding public-private partnerships. Now it’s thrown all that away, without betraying the faintest clue as to what comes next.
The coup de grace came from DOT board member Brandon Beach, who told the AJC’s Ariel Hart that a turning point was the realization the state might have to pay up to 45 percent of the project’s $1 billion cost.
“There gets a point where if you’re going to do that much public participation, you may want to look at doing the project yourself,” Beach said, right before admitting DOT doesn’t have that kind of money.
Let’s get this straight: $450 million is too much money, so it’s better to spend $1 billion? A billion dollars we don’t have? So that we can recoup money from tolls instead of … not spending it in the first place?
For, if the private firms felt they couldn’t recoup more than $550 million in costs from tolls, why should we believe the state would recoup more? As it stands, fat chance of enticing them or other firms to invest in our infrastructure in the future.
We often hear politicians and experts say voters must approve the T-SPLOST so that metro Atlanta isn’t seen as backward and indecisive. After these follies, on the heels of the broken promise to remove the Ga. 400 toll last summer, maybe voters need to reject it — to get the attention of those politicians and experts. Their decisiveness and vision leave a lot to be desired, too.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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320 comments Add your comment
JC
December 18th, 2011
10:27 am
Well said Kyle. The state has no vision. Just throw it up there and see if it sticks. Tax money for the Beltline and Streecar to nowhere?? No thanks.
Joe Nash
December 18th, 2011
10:31 am
The millage rates for the counties are not truly comparable without taking into consideration the fact that Cobb County and Gwinnett County do not have a sales tax that is used to help fund operations. Fulton County has imposed a Local Option Sales Tax, the proceeds from which must be used to offset operating cost of Fulton County government and result in a millage rate reduction. In Dekalb’s case, the Homestead Offset Sales Tax reduces the amount of property taxes paid by homeowners. For Cobb and Gwinnett, no sales tax is imposed for County operations; in fact they are two of the very few counties in the State that do not use sales tax in this manner.
To properly compare millage rates and the tax burden for each of the four counties, one must use the millage rates before the application of the rollback for Local Option Sales Tax to Fulton and the Homestead Offset Sales Tax to the millage rates for Dekalb. In other words, the millage rates for Cobb and Gwinnett are even more favorable for the property owner than the incorrect comparison portrays.
RW-(the original)
December 18th, 2011
10:32 am
Well I just completed my “Plan A.” Moved to an Exurb and work in a Suburb.
Smokey
December 18th, 2011
10:36 am
Rick in Grayson
December 17th, 2011
10:01 am
“Business has been very slow to embrace tele-working and they continue to be entrenched within the perimeter defined by 285.
Tax companies more for building roads and provide tax breaks for those companies based on percentage of tele-workers and much lower rates for those that provide work places outside the perimeter.”
***
I work for a large company on the perimeter, think BIG and ORANGE. They allowed me to telecommute 3 days a week and it was close to commuting heaven. But a few people abused their privilege and because they did not know how to manage it, they made everyone suffer by reducing the telecommuting days to once a week. Remember the ice storm last January that shut down the city? I did not lose a single day of productivity as I worked every single day by telecommuting!
Atlanta is one of the most high tech cities in the U.S. and telecommuting is a part of the solution. Use tax policy to modify social behavior. I propose taxing large employers with over 300 employees and based on the number of onsite parking spaces they provide and then turn that around and give them a tax break based on the number of telecommuting days they provide. I believe that would help change many employers mindset about traffic and telecommuting.
Purple Drank
December 18th, 2011
10:56 am
Why is public transportation so far down on your list?
Ima Political Thief
December 18th, 2011
11:20 am
Its not a surprise when you see how these thieves in our legislature rip us off every day!
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/lawmakers-expenses-top-1-1263001.html
Ima Political Thief
December 18th, 2011
11:27 am
It is also no surprise when you look at the idiotic things the inept DOT does on present road projects. On your next trip to Savannah pay close attention the the widening of I-75 through North Macon. Presently when you reach the infamous I-75/I-16 intersection you are funnelled from 2 lanes to only one lane. When the present widening is finished you will go from THREE lanes to one. Makes sense doesn’t it?
Now, ANY person with half a brain, would think the old malfunction junction of I-75/I-16 would have been improved first or at the least during present construction. That is unless you are the GDOT who seem to have no clue at all!!!
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
11:43 am
RW-(the original): Well I just completed my “Plan A.” Moved to an Exurb and work in a Suburb.
————————
You’re part of the solution.
Why do libtards hate sprawl? It’s the only thing that makes sense for Atlanta.
Doc
December 18th, 2011
11:44 am
The economic and societal forces in play since the end of WWII that created urban sprawl in the first place are rapidly evolving. Tract housing to raise large families, and inexpensive energy enabling long commutes to centralized workplaces in a manufacturing economy are being replaced by other forces. The forward thinking will disperse to small towns, telecommute to their knowledge job, raise their smaller families in idyllic bliss, and leave the burnt out, blighted cities to the underclasses.
brother bill
December 18th, 2011
11:46 am
When gas costs $10 a gallon, there will be great demand for public transit.
Communities will have a central transit area, with open spaces.
It would take 30 lanes to handle downtown traffic efficiently.
It ain’t gonna happen.
The best that will happen is HOT lanes, where you will spend $100 round trip to travel at 40 MPH.
Lynn
December 18th, 2011
11:51 am
A billion dollars of public-private money, so that if traffic backs up, you have the option to pay through the nose, to go faster than the other lanes?!!! Is this not the definition of insanity?
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
12:00 pm
‘When gas costs $10 a gallon, there will be great demand for public transit”
Or people will get jobs closer to where they live, in the suburbs, rather than commute down to the Big City.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
12:01 pm
And when employers cannot get skilled people to commute downtown, they will move their offices out to where the people are, and leave downtown to its own.
DH
December 18th, 2011
12:23 pm
This project has been mismanaged from the start. First it was an expansion with BRT. Then on a whim, truck lanes were added because a consortium said it was a good idea and provided their own studies to prove it. Millions later, GDOT removed the BRT and realized the truck lanes would not work either. Then came the HOT lanes idea, which was all the rage with the Bush GOP, but goes so blatantly against the open road / I paid my taxes already mindset of most Georgians that it was a debacle waiting to happen as soon as the average commuter learned of the idea (right around the time it directly effected them). The short-sightedness is amazing.
Open all lanes
December 18th, 2011
12:25 pm
All these special lanes seem to be a waste of money. People are not going to give up their cars. Open all the lanes to all traffic.
Now…the troops are coming home! See this post at Psychology Today: “To Our U.S. Troops: Welcome Home, Thank You and Merry Christmas” @ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/black-womens-health-and-happiness/201112/our-us-troops-welcome-home-thank-you-and-merry-christm
4th Grade Mentality
December 18th, 2011
12:33 pm
Lil Barry…I see you every week on these boards and your generous use of the term libtard makes any valid point you may have seem rather pointless. If you cannot convey a message with tossing an insult at everyone that may think differently from you then I suggest just STFU. Merry Christmas.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
December 18th, 2011
12:39 pm
This is what sheik obozo and his lunatic band of islamic liberal buddies call the “Arab Spring-”
The brave women of the Middle East: Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious Egyptian soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame
Typical brave muslims, eh?
Courtney
December 18th, 2011
12:41 pm
When is someone going to be FIRED over the HOT lanes? We want justice!
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
12:55 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
7:05 am
BILLY MAYS HERE: If you want to…never see nonwhites (let’s face it, that’s the real reason you want to live so far out)
——————————–
BILLY MAYS HERE makes decisions about people without having the facts at his disposal.
BILLY MAYS HERE: Prejudiced.
Great post, looking forward to more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
12:56 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
10:02 am
People live outside the Atlanta area because it has become a cesspool of crime, inferior schools, high home prices. The question is NOT why people choose to live in the suburbs, but why businesses want to be in downtown? Move the jobs out to the suburbs where the people are. Leave downtown to fester in its own filth.
One reason Dekalb and Fulton have such high property taxes: Grady Hospital.
Can you back any of this up?
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
12:57 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
10:11 am
Also, it seems like MARTA was never designed as an ALTERNATIVE to cars; it was more designed as a transportation source for those who had no cars. Why did MARTA never establish an Express bus system in North Fulton to easily and efficiently transport people to downtown? Because it did not fit with their philosophy, that is why.
Look at how stupid you are
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
12:59 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
11:43 am
RW-(the original): Well I just completed my “Plan A.” Moved to an Exurb and work in a Suburb.
————————
You’re part of the solution.
Why do libtards hate sprawl? It’s the only thing that makes sense for Atlanta.
You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth?
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
1:01 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
12:01 pm
And when employers cannot get skilled people to commute downtown, they will move their offices out to where the people are, and leave downtown to its own.
Translation: “I don’t want to have to go downtown there are brown people there…” bwuhhhh huhhhuuuhhh *sobs*
Jason
December 18th, 2011
1:07 pm
mountain man, they’ve tried that and it usually is a huge failure. OTP is not a single point on the map, it’s a huge sprawled out mess. Put your office in Lawrenceville and you can only attract people from a portion of Gwinnett County. For everyone else it takes longer to get there than it does to get to the central business district of Atlanta. For some businesses, that’s fine because their skill requirements and manpower needs aren’t great enough to need access to the entire metro. But for large corporations, they need access to as many potential skilled workers as possible. There is no where very far OTP that can give equal access to the entire metro as the business districts ITP.
If you’re running a small automotive parts business or a mailorder baby clothes shop, you could locate anywhere but if you’re Coca-Cola or Georgia-Pacific and want to attract employees from the ENTIRE metro, you have to locate ITP or on the very edge of the perimeter. Locating in Dallas or Woodstock would be great for a three or four percent of employees who live near that particular town but for everyone else, it would be a much worse commute.
Courtney, no one is going to be fired. SRTA held public meetings on the HOT lanes for almost ten years. No one really paid attention until the lanes were implemented but that’s not the fault of SRTA or GDOT. The simple fact is that as much as we are rah-rah about democracy, most of us are much more interested in American Idol or Dancing With the Stars than in the actual details of how our government runs. Living in a citizen run nation requires the citizens to be involved but most don’t care to be beyond maybe going to the voting booth and pressing all of the buttons with the right political party marked on it or watching some emotion driven factless pundit and mindlessly nodding agreement.
The HOT lanes weren’t secret, it’s just that no one cared. If you want to be mad at someone, be made at your elected officials in Gwinnett whose job it is to deal with such matters and to inform the citizens of any issues that might negatively affect them. Too bad for Gwinnett that corrupt insider land deals were much more important than working with GDOT and SRTA on whether HOT lanes were the best way to get congestion relief for Gwinnett.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
BILLY MAYS HERE – “Can you back any of this up?”
I don’t have to. Anyone here can go compare the crime rates in downtown Atlanta, with Alpharetta, for example. You only have to look at the APS school cheating scandal to see what the schools are like. What percentage of richer Atlantans who live in the city send their kids to private schools versus East Cobb, for example. And last, compare the price of a 2000 square foot house on 1/4 acre in Midtown versus Alpharetta. Everyone else knows these things are true, what is your problem?
“Look at how stupid you are”
If you can’t argue with facts, just call people names. My first wife used to ride the CCT and love it, versus trying to ride MARTA by going to North Fulton, catching a bus to the train station, catching the train, switching trains, then walking the last four blocks to her work (lovely when it rains). Took her two hours one way on MARTA, took 1 hour on CCT.
“You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth”
Yes, because there are lots of us that don’t believe it. Better sprawl than everyone being cooped up in one area in a city. You know lemmings mass suicide when the population in a certain area is too much.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:14 pm
“Translation: “I don’t want to have to go downtown there are brown people there…” bwuhhhh huhhhuuuhhh *sobs*”
No, I don’t mind brown (and black) people anywhere I go as long as they are good, hardworking people. What I don’t like are the constant panhandlers (white and black) and the criminal element like those stalking the students at Ga Tech.
I will take a good hardworking black man any day over a piece of crap white skinhead on dope and without a job.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:16 pm
“they’ve tried that and it usually is a huge failure. OTP is not a single point on the map, it’s a huge sprawled out mess. Put your office in Lawrenceville and you can only attract people from a portion of Gwinnett County. ”
If you build it, they will come. And they won’t mind moving near where they work, because it is a place they would be glad to call “home”.
Velma
December 18th, 2011
1:34 pm
So only Gwinnett gets hit with this tax? Good to know come November.
interested observeer
December 18th, 2011
1:51 pm
I drove into Atlanta on a packed I-85 Saturday night. From where the HOV lane begins (on the north side) to Spaghetti Junction, we saw NOT ONE vehicle in the HOV lane.
The result is that one-seventh of the highway, on a very heavy traffic night, was abandoned.
On the way back home on Sunday morning, of course there were also no vehicles in the HOV lane going the opposite direction. But traffic was light enough and moving well enough that there would be no reason to pay to use the HOV lane.
Can the DOT explain how removing one lane of traffic from a busy highway – at considerable monetary expense – serves the need of the public or improves the flow of traffic?
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:59 pm
“Can the DOT explain how removing one lane of traffic from a busy highway – at considerable monetary expense – serves the need of the public or improves the flow of traffic?”
They didn’t do it to “serve the needs of the public” or to “improve the flow of traffic”, they did it to MAKE MONEY!!!!
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
2:19 pm
If you say we can’t build any more traffic lanes, then just stop building! Let people decide for themselves if they want to make the commute into Atlanta in return for higher wage jobs. When gas gets to $10/gallon, they will either find the money, change jobs to a closer job, or buy a Prius. Let them decide. But don’t go making it HARDER by taking an existing lane for a “lexus” lane for the wealthy and crowding the rest of us into the remaining lanes. THAT smacks of favoritism to the wealthy.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
2:27 pm
BILLY MAYS HERE: You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth?
——————-
Yes I do. What’s bad about peaceful, safe, roomy, inexpensive, laid-back living, short, easy commutes to nearby office parks, convenient shopping areas, and friendly, small-town ambience?
Sprawl is the answer.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
2:31 pm
interested observeer: I drove into Atlanta on a packed I-85 Saturday night. From where the HOV lane begins (on the north side) to Spaghetti Junction, we saw NOT ONE vehicle in the HOV lane.
———————
Just think how enjoyable your drive would have been if you weren’t such a cheapskate.
Hillbilly D
December 18th, 2011
2:50 pm
Can the DOT explain how removing one lane of traffic from a busy highway – at considerable monetary expense – serves the need of the public or improves the flow of traffic?
My guess would be, if somebody could figure out who has their finger in the pie, that would be the real answer.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
2:54 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
I don’t have to. Anyone here can go compare the crime rates in downtown Atlanta, with Alpharetta, for example. You only have to look at the APS school cheating scandal to see what the schools are like. What percentage of richer Atlantans who live in the city send their kids to private schools versus East Cobb, for example. And last, compare the price of a 2000 square foot house on 1/4 acre in Midtown versus Alpharetta. Everyone else knows these things are true, what is your problem?
So far I see a bunch of subjective excuses you’re passing off as fact, and you’re arguing that more expensive housing midtown is somehow equitable to mcmansions in whatever hellhole you’re from, and you can’t back up “property taxes in Fulton and Dekalb are high because of Grady” with anything, because in your own words, “you don’t have to.”
You’re probably sitting in your chair thinking “heh heh I’m such a smart WASP” but come on dude who are you fooling–besides yourself of course, lol.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
2:56 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
If you can’t argue with facts, just call people names. My first wife used to ride the CCT and love it, versus trying to ride MARTA by going to North Fulton, catching a bus to the train station, catching the train, switching trains, then walking the last four blocks to her work (lovely when it rains). Took her two hours one way on MARTA, took 1 hour on CCT.
You anger is really scattershot here, not sure why you’re ragging on MARTA, obviously she should just be using CCT.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
3:02 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
“You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth”
Yes, because there are lots of us that don’t believe it. Better sprawl than everyone being cooped up in one area in a city. You know lemmings mass suicide when the population in a certain area is too much.
Damn. Just damn, it’s like you’re stupid, but you’re proud of being stupid, and want everyone to be just as stupid as you. I mean even a cursory glance at Wikipedia would give you, in a nutshell, why low density urban development isn’t sustainable in the long run, but you don’t even want to take the time to read something like that. Chances are you’ve done made up your mind how bad them libruls and thur mean ol’ smart growth strategies are, so you want to keep on with your increasingly unsustainable high-energy lifestyle simply because you’re a dull reactionary. If there was a way to turn cognitive dissonance into fuel, you’d be a billionaire.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
3:02 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:09 pm
“You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth”
Yes, because there are lots of us that don’t believe it. Better sprawl than everyone being cooped up in one area in a city. You know lemmings mass suicide when the population in a certain area is too much.
Damn. Just damn, it’s like you’re stupid, but you’re proud of being stupid, and want everyone to be just as stupid as you. I mean even a cursory glance at Wikipedia would give you, in a nutshell, why low density urban development isn’t sustainable in the long run, but you don’t even want to take the time to read something like that. Chances are you’ve done made up your mind how bad them libruls and thur mean ol’ smart growth strategies are, so you want to keep on with your increasingly unsustainable high-energy lifestyle simply because you’re a dull reactionary. If there was a way to turn cognitive dissonance into fuel, you’d be a billionaire.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
3:03 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 18th, 2011
2:27 pm
BILLY MAYS HERE: You have to be told why sprawl is bad for long-term growth?
——————-
Yes I do. What’s bad about peaceful, safe, roomy, inexpensive, laid-back living, short, easy commutes to nearby office parks, convenient shopping areas, and friendly, small-town ambience?
Sprawl is the answer.
If you’re going to troll at least try to be good at it.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
3:06 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:14 pm
“Translation: “I don’t want to have to go downtown there are brown people there…” bwuhhhh huhhhuuuhhh *sobs*”
No, I don’t mind brown (and black) people anywhere I go as long as they are good, hardworking people. What I don’t like are the constant panhandlers (white and black) and the criminal element like those stalking the students at Ga Tech.
I will take a good hardworking black man any day over a piece of crap white skinhead on dope and without a job.
Translation: “I like nonwhite folks! But only the ones who are above my arbitrary standards”
The suburbs were an easy why for whites to stay away from blacks, and that sentiment is still strong today as evidenced by you.
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
3:08 pm
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
1:16 pm
If you build it, they will come. And they won’t mind moving near where they work, because it is a place they would be glad to call “home”.
This is standard issue social conservatism, taking the idealized white suburban lifestyle and marketing it as not only the norm, but universally desirable.
Hillbilly D
December 18th, 2011
3:11 pm
Some folks want to live in the city, some want to live in the suburbs, and some want to live in the country. Live and let live, I say.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
3:14 pm
“taking the idealized white suburban lifestyle and marketing it as not only the norm, but universally desirable.”
So why do all the people (white and black) who can, go out to live in the suburbs? Why do they subject themselves to 3 -4 hours per day commuting? Because the standard of living is better out here. Better schools, better, houses (for the money), less crime. If it wasn’t so desireable, everyone would live in a little 500 sq ft apartment in Atlanta a few miles from where they work.
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
3:16 pm
If the public schools were better and the crime were lower and the house prices not so exorbitant, I think you would see a lot of people returning to Atlanta. But you aren’t going to see that with APS test cheating, and hoodlums holding up Ga Tech students, getting caught, sentenced to one month for armed robbery, and then let loose to do it another 9 times!
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
3:19 pm
“idealized white suburban lifestyle”
Are you saying that blacks LIKE living downtown with their families? I don’t think so! I think if given the chance, they will move out to the suburbs where their kids can play on a swing in their own 1-acre back yard rather than having to go to a public park. Where they know their children will get a good education in the public school system that their taxes paid for, And they are not paying property taxes to support a hospital where most of the patients do not pay their bill!
mountain man
December 18th, 2011
3:21 pm
“The suburbs were an easy why for whites to stay away from blacks, and that sentiment is still strong today as evidenced by you.”
The suburbs were an easy way to stay away from HOODLUMS, whatever race they may be.
ATF
December 18th, 2011
3:42 pm
Turning HOV lanes into toll lanes is welfare for the wealthy. That is a non-solution to the transportation problem.
I love Marta and commuter rail systems. But, the Cobb County TSPLOST proposal that included “light rail” (whatever that is) for 1 mile and 1 station in Cobb and the rest in Fulton/City of Atlanta, that was paid for entirely by Cobb, that one is a “No” from the start. If Fulton/City of Atlanta want to pay a proportionate share of the cost from their own TSPLOST dollars, it would at least move the idea to a “maybe that would work” instead of the gasp of horror at the unfairness of the current proposal. Then, of course, there is the problem of subsidies. Since it would benefit only the Cumberland CID, I suggest they pay whatever subsidies are required to make it affordable. Oh, after they provide low cost, sufficient, and accessible parking for all of the commuters who would have to drive to Cumberland and park their cars to catch the train.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
December 18th, 2011
5:08 pm
Mahopinion
December 17th, 2011
11:14 pm
“”I do drive more than 30 miles to my work, not because I CHOOSE to, but because that’s where my job relocated. So while you are whining about urban sprawl, remember that not everyone chooses to live in an over crowded neighborhood. Some people actually prefer not being quite so cozy with their neighbors.”"
BILLY MAYS HERE
December 18th, 2011
12:30 am
“If you want to be an antisocial coot and never see nonwhites (let’s face it, that’s the real reason you want to live so far out), that’s perfectly fine but you pretty much have no ground to stand on if you think traffic–or gas prices–are problems you want the state to fix.”
BILLY MAYS HERE: Dude, what are you talking about? Nonwhites are found in an abundance in outlying counties, making up over 42% of the entire Metro Atlanta population, including 38% of the population in Cobb County, 45% in Henry County, 47% in Gwinnett County, 48% in Douglas County and 54% in Rockdale County.
In the 21st Century, if you live in a suburban OTP county, chances are that you’re going to be living in a diverse environment. Just because someone chooses to live outside of I-285 doesn’t mean that they are trying to get away from non-whites, especially in this day-and-age where there are many relatively high-income census tracts that are predominantly non-white.
But then again, you’re an admittedly proud “elitist” who lives Intown, so you obviously don’t know that the world does not end at I-285.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
December 18th, 2011
5:28 pm
Courtney
December 18th, 2011
12:41 pm
“When is someone going to be FIRED over the HOT lanes? We want justice!”
They’re not because the HOT lanes are not going anywhere as this is intended to only be the beginning of the HOT lane concept in Georgia.
Despite the widespread hatred of the I-85 HOT lanes, the state has every intention of adding up to two more HOT lanes on each direction of I-85 Northeast outside of I-285 as a way of forcing traditionally transit-averse OTP suburbanites to use buses and trains over the long-term.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
December 18th, 2011
5:57 pm
brother bill
December 18th, 2011
11:46 am
“When gas costs $10 a gallon, there will be great demand for public transit”
Very good point, but with gas prices already well north of $3.00/gallon with recent peaks of close to $5/gallon, there is already overwhelming and increasing demand for mass transit in traffic-choked Metro Atlanta. The only problem has been the increasingly super-incompentent leadership at the state level under the Gold Dome who have refused to even address or acknowledge our rapidly deteriorating traffic and mobility problems over the last decade or so.
For Atlanta to be the 10th largest metro region in the country and be one of two of the 10 largest metros that do not have high-frequency commuter rail service, with seemingly none soon to come, is totally inexcusable and completely pathetic, especially considering our very limited surface road network and the very high volume of traffic congestion and the exceptionally high volume of truck freight on the freeway system.
“……It would take 30 lanes to handle downtown traffic efficiently….It ain’t gonna happen….The best that will happen is HOT lanes, where you will spend $100 round trip to travel at 40 MPH.”
Great observations, especially considering that GDOT has recently admitted that they will most likely NOT be adding any more untolled through lanes to the freeway system in the Atlanta Region.