The other week, I and several other people went to the gold dome to lobby our legislators in favor of common-sense bills such as SB 114 and SB 115 and against HB 1033, which would require a referendum on commuter rail projects.
At one point, those of us who were there were all told that transit is coming. We were told some things we already knew, like the formation of the Transit Services Board and what that will lead to (MARTA will become GRTA), and the Congestion Mitigation Task Force and what that will lead to (presumably, more transit, even if that’s not really true).
The brains behind these initiatives are, as it turns out, misleading Georgia voters. When they say “transit,” they may not really mean transit. In the final report of the Congestion Mitigation Task Force (PDF), there is, buried deep within, a definition of transit. It’s easy to find. All you have to do is execute a search for the word “transit.” You’ll find the word used exactly five times in the whole document. This is what you’ll find:
Transit including bus rapid transit, high-occupancy/toll lanes, truck-only toll lanes
Since when does laying down more asphalt mean building more transit?
That report was very disheartening. “Congestion relief,” for example, could really mean anything. Here, unfortunately, it means more roads.
Comment by Rusty — February 24, 2006 @ 10:11 am
I don’t understand that mentality. To me, more roads means MORE congestion. But then, I guess being able to see the big picture, the long-term, etc. is both a blessing and a curse.
Comment by Amber — February 25, 2006 @ 11:45 pm
That’s almost as smart as when they decided to do away with the eye exam because it takes too much time.
BTW, are you coming to the MARTA Pub Crawl on the 25th? I’m trying to build this up into an event that has enough momentum to start getting press coverage… anything about MARTA in the press that isn’t “hey, let’s see how to bash them today” would be good. I think coverage of people going out having a fun social event using MARTA would help dispell some of the perceptions (at least its a start). So any mention on bloglanta would be appreciated too.
http://www.atlantapubcrawls.com
Comment by Jason — March 9, 2006 @ 11:06 pm