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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tunnel, double-deck, but free up traffic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The newest member of the state Department of Transportation board, Larry Walker of Perry, is determined to push the state to fish or cut bait on commuter rail. “Frankly, I feel like this is a matter of such consequence for this state, it is incumbent on us to take some sort of position,” he said during a committee meeting last week.
He is right, of course. It’s a distraction. Except as a scenic excursion, slow rail is of limited usefulness. And unless the 26-mile Lovejoy line is a part of something larger — an overall state development strategy to move state department and agencies out of gridlocked Atlanta, for example, and to push growth south — it makes little or no sense.
Proponents of a line to Athens do try to give it a grander calling, describing it as the “Brain Train” that would link universities in Athens, Atlanta and eventually Macon. During one such presentation last week, a proponent told the committee that “the State Senate voted unanimously to support” the slow train to Athens. Sorry. That should be the “brain train” to Athens.
“You think they’d vote unanimously to fund it?” asked Walker, the former Majority Leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. “It was a resolution wasn’t it? I vote for a lot of those that I wouldn’t vote to fund later,” he said.
Neither line, Atlanta-Lovejoy nor Atlanta-Athens, solves any of a gridlocked region’s transportation problems. Also on the gridlock front:
Atlanta should develop as the locals wish. But as a daily visitor, I’ve got to tell you that given the density being allowed on surface streets that are already in gridlock during some hours of the day, it’s near-insane to spend a billion dollars to introduce more obstructions onto Peachtree Street, namely streetcars. Count on it: businesses flee gridlock.
The failure to prepare Howell Mill Road leading into I-75 in Atlanta to support the density the local government unwisely approved demonstrates yet again the need for a state law to prohibit local governments from zoning or approving projects that create density beyond existing roads’ carrying capacity. Approved development adds 15,000 more trips to Howell Mill.
Next year gridlock gets worse. The I-75/85 Downtown Connector gets repaved. That strip should be double-decked. Or tunneled. It is absolutely essential to develop a way to move traffic through Atlanta. It’s a nightmare bottleneck for north-south traffic.
