Neil Peirce, a Washington Post writer covering “regional issues of national importance” recently wrote a snapshot of Atlanta’s transportation story for a national audience:

For Exhibit A of the perils, check what’s happening in fast-growing Atlanta. First, there’s the sheer immensity of what the Georgia Department of Transportation favors. Top example: a widening of Interstate 75 in fast-growing, suburban Cobb County, as it heads into the city, to include an incredible mile-long section of no less than 23 lanes.

The story goes on to mention the proposal to double-deck I-75, and the City of Atlanta moving pulling itself up by the bootstraps with the Beltline initiative.

Somehow it doesn’t seem suprising that metro Atlanta is all at once derided for spending billions of dollars on short-term solutions like I-75, yet praised for also moving forward on long-term, cost-effective solutions like the Beltline.