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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Is ‘transit’ a naughty word?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Public transportation” have historically been bad words in Snellville.
Voters here were among the most outspoken opponents during a 1990 vote on extending MARTA into Gwinnett County. The Snellville City Council under former mayor Emmett Clower voted to prohibit Gwinnett Transit buses from making routes through the city. Comments about public transportation have been the fodder for city election campaigns, particularly in 1997.
I thought about our city’s history on this issue when I learned that an express bus project planned to link Snellville to inside the Perimeter hasn’t found a park-and-ride lot in Snellville yet. I don’t know if local sentiment is playing a part, but I wondered about it.
The plan calls for Gwinnett’s transit system to provide buses that would run from a point on U.S. 78 near Snellville to an as-yet undecided spot inside I-285 — either Kensington MARTA station or the Emory University area or downtown Atlanta.
The bus routes would not be the type that frustrate drivers, with the buses pulling over and stopping at every corner, but would model the popular express rides serving the I-85 corridor, moving rapidly downtown.
I called Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) to see how things are moving along, and William Mecke told me the start date is now expected to be early 2007, not late this year as initially reported. GRTA is in negotiations with the Stone Mountain Tennis Center for a park-and-ride lot to serve the express bus, he said.
But wait. The tennis center at Stone Mountain is not in Snellville.
In my experience, the worst congestion on U.S. 78 is between Snellville and Stone Mountain Park. It seems to me the park-and-ride lot should be in Snellville where that ride of horror begins.
Mecke said it is still possible that a parking site could be found in Snellville. Nothing is set in stone yet, he said.
Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer, who supports the express bus plan, said he and former mayor Brett Harrell (who now oversees the U.S. 78 Community Improvement District) rode around with GRTA officials to point out some potential parking sites in Snellville.
One was the large parking area at the Snellville Oaks shopping center; one was near K-Mart at the corner of Wisteria Drive and U.S. 78. The owner of one of the parking lots did not want to lease any spaces for the project. There was trouble tracking down the other owner, Oberholtzer said.
The mayor said he would even be willing for the bus to use extra parking spaces at the new Snellville City Hall.
Having grown up in a city (Columbus) that had bus service, I’ve never seen public transportation as a bad thing. I’ve ridden MARTA often. I’ve tried the express bus from downtown to Stonecrest Mall on I-20 and enjoyed the ride.
Years ago I realized that my view was not shared by most folks in Snellville. Since then, however, the stranglehold of traffic congestion has tightened its grip.
So I’m wondering. Do Snellville residents still see public transit as an unwanted intrusion? Do other suburban communities? Or has the time come for transportation options besides the four-wheel variety?
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