Campaign for Atlanta Transportation Referendum Kicks Off

[M II A II R II K]

Yes, Georgia, there is a Plan B for transportation

Read More: http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/...ransportation/

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Sure enough, a Plan B — or, more accurately, the first candidate for Plan B — was unveiled recently. It has much to recommend it. The plan comes from the free-market thinkers at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, and it includes $3.5 billion in new projects across the state. Here are some highlights:

• The list includes completing the Fall Line Freeway from Columbus to Macon to Augusta, and enhancing U.S. 27 in the western part of the state, to create a new freight network. This, according to a previous study by McKinsey and Co., would allow between 30 percent and 60 percent of large trucks now on metro Atlanta roads — the equivalent of some 100,000 cars a day — to bypass the region entirely.

• It includes almost $2.2 billion of projects from T-SPLOST lists around the state, selected purely on a cost-benefit basis. In metro Atlanta, that means hundreds of millions of dollars for about a dozen projects, such as building a new interchange at I-285 and Ga. 400 and upgrading Tara Boulevard in Clayton County into a super-arterial road.

• It even includes $65 million a year to enhance mass transit around the state. In metro Atlanta, that means creating a true, region-wide network of rapid commuter-bus service and adding $10 million a year in state funds to maintain MARTA’s existing rail system.

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[mhays]

In other words, the highways-first approach.

I'm an outsider, but it sounds like that would be hard to pass. The urban voters would disagree with the minimal transit benefits. The anti-tax people would be against it regardless. Together that would be a hard barrier to overcome.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by mhays

In other words, the highways-first approach.

Yeah, I have a hard time seeing how this is a "Plan B" and not simply a surrender to automotive interests.

[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Yeah, I have a hard time seeing how this is a "Plan B" and not simply a surrender to automotive interests.

Of course it is. This is what our idiot Governor and clueless Legislature wanted all along....