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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 26 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USLawmakers angered over traffic nightmare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anger over Thursday morning’s traffic nightmare lingered in the State Capitol today, prompting a stinging rebuke for the Atlanta Police Department, a little levity and a few ideas.
State Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) started things off by taking to the floor of the House of Representatives and blasting the city police chief for his response to the gridlock.
“My question to my beloved chief of police, Chief (Richard J.) Pennington, is where were you?” Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) said. “Yesterday, you let down the citizens of Atlanta, our commuters, and our guests to these great conventions. This is simply unacceptable for the great international city that I am so proud to represent.”
The police department had no immediate response to Lindsey’s remarks, which drew cheers and applause from lawmakers.
A long-scheduled poultry convention and a motivational event downtown contributed to Thursday’s mess, backing up traffic on local highways for miles. Lindsey said his trip from his home in Brookhaven to the State Capitol took about an hour and 45 minutes when it normally takes 20 minutes. Other morning commuters said it took them two to three hours to travel from the suburbs downtown.
In an interview after his speech, Lindsey said he was “outraged” and “embarrassed” by the police department’s response to the traffic.
“This was not something unexpected,” Lindsey said of the downtown events. “Everybody in town knew they were coming. … What I don’t understand is why at every major intersection we did not have our police out in force directing traffic and moving the traffic through the city.”
Not all lawmakers agreed with Lindsey’s speech on the House floor.
“I don’t think it was a fair statement,” said State Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta). “Hopefully, the police department learned from the experience, but I wouldn’t beat up on them about that.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) also weighed in on the traffic debacle, saying Lindsey was expressing frustration from metro Atlanta motorists who say police don’t always plan adequately for big events.
“I see that happen at a lot of events,” Richardson said. “Seemingly at big sporting events, there is no rhyme or reason. One day you go left, the next day you go right.”
The state can’t continue to lay down asphalt, Richardson said, and think it’s going to solve metro Atlanta’s transportation problems. He called for more public-private projects to create truck-only toll lanes and high occupancy toll lanes. Like many Republican lawmakers, Richardson says commuter rail is not the answer.
“If we have 18 lanes going to Gwinnett County, they will be full,” he said. “I am convinced laying down steel tracks from one defined location to another is not the answer. I think commuter rail has seen its day as a transportation solution.”
Also today, sate Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) briefed fellow lawmakers on a bill he is sponsoring that would allow counties to increase sales taxes by 1 percent — through voter referendums — to pay for transportation improvements. The tax revenues could go toward a variety of projects, including buses, trains and even sidewalks and bicycle paths.
Holmes, who has been working on the legislation since last year, said it could help offset a shortfall in state transportation funds.
“The thing that is needed now is to further mitigate this growing transportation crisis that we have here,” Holmes said before briefing a delegation of Atlanta area state lawmakers about his bill. “People cannot afford to spend hours in traffic. This provides local communities who lack the funds an independent source of revenue.”
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), chairman of the Transportation Committee, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach when he stood on the floor of the Senate and addressed Thursday’s traffic jams.
“As you see today,” Mullis said slyly, “the roads are clear and I would like to commend the members of the Transportation Committee for taking their picks and shovels and making that happen.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politics
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By Steve Stone
January 26, 2007 01:29 PM | Link to this
As a city resident, who lives near the capital, I can tell you this. For three months each year, my family must plan our trips to avoid the whole capital area, as the legislature is the number one problem for all of lower downtown.
Perhaps if you folks would let go of a little money for local uses on transit and the like, we all could get around all year. This city is not equipped, infrastructure wise, with the tools to handle extraordinary events. Unlike Illinois and New York and Florida and Massachusetts, among others, there is little done other than paving cow pastures at the state level here.
By Noah
January 26, 2007 01:58 PM | Link to this
Amen!