Election first step in clearing the air

Atlanta’s most infamous and frustrating season, the smog days of summer, is upon us.

Each year, as temperatures rise, emissions from the endless tailpipes inching around our streets and highways become particularly visible, and provide a direct reminder of our community’s most glaring public policy failure.

This pollution represents not only a significant environmental and health hazard, but also hours of wasted time on traffic-congested roads.

As we know, time is money, and the economic, environmental and health consequences of political inaction on this issue are dire.

Make no mistake, the lack of a modern public transportation system is perhaps the most critical regional problem we face, as it endangers the fundamental quality of life and the consistent, sustainable economic opportunity that have encouraged so many of us to live here.

Gov. Sonny Perdue’s 2008 transportation study confirms that Georgia is $160 billion short of meeting its transportation needs over the next 20 years; and because of this, our state could lose out on more than 320,000 jobs and more than $500 billion in economic growth.

Anticipating this crisis, a nonpartisan group of business, political and community leaders two years ago created the most serious effort yet to address Atlanta’s traffic pileup. The plan was simple and innovative: Give local governments the authority to raise money to fund their own transit solutions and improvements.

But there was an unavoidable, and fatal, catch: Such a plan needs approval from the General Assembly. So much for “local” control.

Now, for two legislative sessions in a row, a status quo of Gold Dome power-plays and politicized state leadership has thwarted the passing of an actionable and efficient transportation relief plan — highlighting our surplus of authority in a vacuum of leadership.

The Atlanta metro area may be the economic engine of the South, but our lawmakers, even when out of money and ideas, still can’t allow us to help ourselves in handling this mess.

Atlanta has a long and well-deserved reputation for bringing business, citizens and politicians together to improve the quality of life in our city and our region; but transportation relief has been the elusive puzzle we cannot seem to solve.

Not only do we have gridlock in our streets, but gridlock in our government, which is preventing communities from implementing their own solutions that would begin to get this logjam moving.

Now Atlanta’s smog season is back, and once again, people from Canton to Buckhead to Peachtree City will ride the brakes through another summer of impassable traffic and dirty air.

But there may be a way to end the gridlock. If the current crop of elected officials can’t solve our traffic woes, the solution will have to come from the ground up, namely, us. And the timing couldn’t be better.

We have two critical elections coming up. Atlantans will elect a new mayor in November, and the state will choose a new governor and legislature next year.

Transportation relief must become a top legislative and executive priority, supported by feasible proposals, a commitment to act and clear measures of success.

As voters and citizens, in order to preserve and improve our own quality of life and sustain the success of our community, we must do our research, ask hard questions and hold each candidate accountable on transportation.

And over the next few months, while you’re stuck in a long Atlanta summer of traffic and smog, remember the months ahead usher in new seasons and a chance for us to clear the air.

They’re called election seasons.

Brian Leary is vice president of Atlantic Station.