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DEL.ICIO.USDevelopment must hinge on road capacity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Until Georgia embraces a transportation plan that actually fixes traffic congestion —- that is, one that gets us moving rather than one that offers so-called “alternatives” —- city and county officials should follow this rule:
Do not zone or approve density greater than the carrying capacity of existing or funded roads.
Even before gas reached $4 a gallon, overdevelopment under the guise of creating “live-work-play” projects had begun. The problem, however, is that most high-density zoning in areas served by inadequate road networks diminishes the quality of our lives. Unless people actually confine their movements to the vicinity of the high-density area, the net result is that traffic’s made worse.
The city of Atlanta, for example, has been active in approving apartments along Marietta Street between downtown and the King Plow arts complex —- without adding street capacity. In three years or less, it’ll be a nightmare. That, I think, is by design —- planned inconvenience for the purpose of forcing residents onto buses. That’s fine for those who live, work and play entirely on bus or rail lines and have unlimited time to invest in getting there.
For the rest of us, though, a policy of deliberately inconveniencing metro Atlantans to effect the lifestyle changes that planners prefer conflicts with our sense of the role of government. Government should serve us as we wish to live —- and use our tax dollars to provide the schools, fire and police services, and roads and sewers that we need.
Some clearly prefer high density —- and that should be approved in areas with sufficient road capacity or next to rail.
Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state Department of Transportation are in the process of developing a statewide transportation plan. As it stands, there’s insufficient money available to fix congestion. The state, therefore, has to have a plan that —- for metro Atlanta, anyway —- measures congestion and allocates the dollars to those solutions that provide the greatest gridlock relief for the tax dollar spent.
Don’t give me “alternatives” that are, in reality, no such thing. Providing “alternative” ways of getting from Point A to Point B —- from Marietta, for example, to downtown Atlanta —- is an alternative only for the relative handful of people who want to move between those two points at the times service is offered.
There’s a tendency, a political inclination actually, to throw together something from every advocacy group’s wish list in a regional or statewide transportation plan. That’s easy. It is, frankly, what legislators did in trying to pass a statewide sales tax this year. And if that’s what Perdue and the DOT ultimately decide, they will bring forth a plan that is the worst of government —- spending our money without solving problems, in this case fixing congestion.
A congestion-relief plan should unlock gridlock on a cost-benefit basis. The greatest mobility for the largest number of people at the least sum. Tax dollars should be spent efficiently and deliver results.
One concern here is that state officials will spend substantial sums on “alternatives” —- commuter rail or other boutique transportation adventures —- while underfunding capacity improvement. Or, more likely, use public dollars to fund the exotics while inviting the private sector to build toll roads.
Toll roads are a part of the solution, no doubt. But every available dollar should be spent buying relief that’s real.
Zonings and rezonings currently under way will, otherwise, make congestion worse and make metro Atlanta far less desirable as a place to live. State officials have to get ahead of congestion.
Ron Sifen, a County Commission candidate in Cobb County, is one of those who advocates public policies to stop approving development projects that exceed the capacity of roads and other infrastructure. It’s an idea whose time has come.
Unless road improvements are approved and funded, or unless there’s existing capacity, city and county officials shouldn’t approve projects that make mobility worse. On a road that links two or more developing cities or counties, capacity should be apportioned by the state DOT. When new capacity is added, new rezonings should be allowed.
Fix congestion. Don’t make it worse. No games. Fix it.
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By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said Monday that guns should be allowed in public areas of the nation’s busiest airport.
a side note, last night the local Fox Media outlet mentioned Sonny as a long shot possibility for the GOP VP slot…..I have not laughed so hard in a very long while…
By ron
July 15, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this
Good morning,And a rousing thank you to Mrs. Godzilla for posting yesterday’s news.There were several news items written in 1932 she might want to consider.
There are several options for cutting congestion.Staggering opening times is one.Longer days,shorter weeks is another,for businesses that can do that sort of change.Toll roads force alternate routes.Stopping new development until it’s figured out will work.
Lake Lanier may have the answer.We’ll just have to wait on that one.
I saw where a beer truck overturned.Are you all right Redneck?
By Road Scholar
July 15, 2008 8:35 AM | Link to this
I have to partially agree with Jim on this one. Many Development of Regional Impact (sq ft > 400,000) have been approved while acknowledging shortfalls in the adjacent roadway capacity. Then add in the more numerous smaller develoments which are not measured and you have a system that has no way of determining impact. There is no apparent corelation between the identified shortfalls and projects within any state, MPO, or local government Tranportation Plan, or the requirement of adding that weak link to a plan.
But the tax system is built on growth. No one today wants to be taxed on their property, or at least as the value increases. So, additional value has to be realized in new development.
Regional models measure segment of road operations and its capacity rating based on volumes. Finer operational models can examine the corridor and the effect of traffic signals and other devices and improvements on corridor operations. In many cases turn lanes would benefit operations and reduce delay (and improve safety) versus needing to widen the entire roadway.
Jim, the new urban policy does not look at operations only. It looks at quality of life issues such as sidewalks, bike lanes, streetscapes, transit, etc.. The corridor you reference on Marietta Street may only need better transit service to address peak hour demand, esp with $4 gas.
Other issue in addressing congestion and the priority of selecting projects to implement should include its functional class (Interstates, arterials, collectors,local), and air quality benefits. The more vehicles using a congested corridor should be factored with the per vehicle delay occuring to determine the priorities based on AQ and total vehicle benefit.
By BFKaJ
July 15, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Democrats create problems to force a particular solution, to prove their value to a society that otherwise doubts their value. Thus, if you want to manufacture a market for alternative fuels, you embrace policies that prevent development of traditional energy sources. If you want to manufacture a phony carbon-trading market that particular individuals can control to their substantial benefit, you create a dubious “global warming” issue. If you want to herd the citizens-sheep through a unionized public transit, you ensure the privately owned vehicle – the symbol of modern individual freedom – cannot navigate the highways.
If the problem were truly cured, who would need the lowly politician?
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this
Concealed Guns at airports? I used to think my only worry was cultish Kari Krishnas and the mettlesome racket of their chants. Now I gotta watch for some brutish hairy klutzes and the full metal jacket in their pants? (I never could make that bit work, could I?)
Traffic this summer is not bad. The market is correcting it. The market works on many levels. Hopefully, the market will prevent any more Wooten blogs about traffic congestion. (His 43rd this year, except that 22 of those were photo-shopped, so you do the math.)
By BFKaJ
July 15, 2008 8:40 AM | Link to this
I neglected to post my standard solution to the gridlock problem, in which solution I have full confidence: relocate all state employees to Macon. With the corresponding movement of those ancillary private companies that contract services with the state – strikingly similar to the bands of prostitutes that followed army riders in the frontier days – the highways of Atlanta would always look like those of Monday holidays.
By Road Scholar
July 15, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
BFK@aJ:
So the republican developers, and the state republican government (they have been in control for the past 6 years) are not to blame for over development during the Bush “golden years”, the lack of a transportation plan to address congestion, and the lack of funding to address transportation improvements, whatever they may be? Sonny’s Fast Forward Program seems to be stuck in the mud.
As for moving all state employees to Macon, you are just shifting the problems (there is more than just congestion). Macon cannot handle the traffic increases based on an immediate influx of 100,000 workers. But if you move to Macon we would benefit from a reduction in mindless,partison blogs which do not offer any real solutions.
Riffing: The colleges and schools are not in full session. That is why traffic is not as bad as it was.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 8:57 AM | Link to this
Sure, jbm, I followed THAT along.
No, traffic is light this summer. Very light. 4 dollar gas. It was $4.50 (in today’s dough) in 1974. (traffic was light then, too). SO we still probably havent seen the top. Funny how the timing of the war’s resolution seems to be following the price of oil as it nears it’s apex. Do humans unconsciously follow the timing of commodity futures trading, is life following the market or vice versa? Do events, like price range tops and bottoms, control our thinking? Does it make us behave in ways we wouldn’t have ordinarily?
Iraq War. Two words that have fueled the fear and uncertainty that speculators have fed on to push the price of oil so high.
We resolve that war, and the bubble bursts, and fast. Under 100. Probably we’ll see 75 dollar oil.
Speculation is mainly human frailties. Emotions. Fear. Greed. Uncertainty. Panic. Then, the same human thinks, “WTF? What was I thinking?” , and does the exact opposite of what he had been doing in the market. If he bought, he sells. Etc.
Humans fall under short term spells and then suddenly snap out of it, like my first four wives did. But I got even, oh, I got even…..you see, I waited till they were at work, and then rifled through their finer things drawer and……..
By Tom Ga Hunter
July 15, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this
BFKaJ ………It is unnecessary to relocate ALL state employees to Macon, simply fire all that are not earning their Keep would accomplish the same thing without lowering the IQ of Macon.
By Robbie
July 15, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this
I agree and disagree with Jim’s comments, because as is normally the case, the real solution lies somewhere in between the two sides. Obviously we need increased road capacity where density increases. Public transit is not ubiquitous enough to force people to use it.
But—and this is a big but—we are seriously behind on public transportation, which means those of us who would like to use it have few options. The tired old argument that we shouldn’t build it because it doesn’t get used just doesn’t make sense. Atlanta’s demographic has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, and many people now desire reliable and ubiquitous public transportation. Ultimately road capacity can only take us so far.
By Get Real
July 15, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Republicans: The solution party.
Oil Crisis= Drill more oil. Traffic Congestion= Build more roads.
How long did it take you to come up with those Wooten? The thought of having “alternatives” to driving your car, with $4 or $5 gas. Soon only the elitists who think everyone else is a bunch of whiners will be able to afford the gas to drive. Maybe thats what Wooten and others want. Back to reality; every major city in THE WORLD has some type of sustainable, reliable public transportation system. I guess Wooten will call voters in Gwinnett whiners if they approve a sales tax to expand Marta there.
Sonny and the Republicans have dragged their feet long enough regarding a transportation. Time to bring them kicking and screaming into the new millenium. Until gas prices subside, which they probably never will, it behooves the State to provide (get this Wooten) “alternatives” for its citizens to get around. Basic common sense.
By Peter
July 15, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Alternative transportation Jim……..rail lines Jim………
All about the oil for Jim………never thinking Correctly !
By ron
July 15, 2008 9:11 AM | Link to this
We like mindless,partisan blogs that offer no solution.That’s why we’re all here.This sanctuary is a diversion from the everyday humdrums that we encounter betwixt the dark and the dark,ere night begins to lower.I’ve been turning a pile of lumber into window trim and door molding for the last two weeks and but for this blog I would be ga ga gonzo about now.Keep up the mindless partisan drivel.I like it.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
Y-y-yeah! W-w-wooten never thinks c-c-correctly!
By gt7348b
July 15, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
How do you reconcile that developers want to build in areas with high density (such as the Marietta Street area), which indicates demand for living in those areas, but that expanding roadways in those areas would destroy what is being built? Aren’t you just then forcing people to make a lifestyle choice in a residential area you prefer that makes people drive? How is that any different that what you accuse pro-transit people of doing?
By Peter
July 15, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this
Concerns about U.S. banking sector drive greenback to record low against the 15-nation euro…..
Great news today for ALL Americans !
Here we are Wrong Wingers……..
This is Bush’s idea of keeping the dollar strong……..
Remember he said he was a President for a STRONG US DOLLAR !…….ha ha ha……
Looks like the Republicans will hammered in the next election……….
I am sure Americans are real happy about this situation, and all the garbage the next administration will have to CLEAN UP !.
By Hillbilly Deluxe
July 15, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this
Building more roads doesn’t relieve traffic it just brings more traffic. Look at 400, 575, etc.
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this
AWAKEN YOUR INNER ELEPHANT
A morning chuckle
AND
It’s 3AM, and John McCain needs to read an e-mail
A morning wake up call
By Tim
July 15, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this
BFKaJ @ 8:36
HUH? Why is it that the your first inclination is to start playing the blame game when it comes to EVERY ISSUE. The problems that we face everyday are people problems, not republican or democrat. I am not sure if you really believe half of the bull that you spout or if you are really just full of you. This country is in real crisis, and folks like you are a part of the reason. We have to get past the point where we are constantly blaming the other side for everything! I am not a republican, I am not a democrat, I am an AMERICAN! an independant AMERICAN that loves my country regardless of which set of theives and liars are in charge.
By CJ
July 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Under the guise of an article designed to give the appearance of serving the metro-wide community, Jim Wooten, to his disgrace, uses his column today to serve his own parochial interests. Wooten, a Cobb County resident, publishes a column today, primary election day, on a topic specifically tailored to help the cause of one of the Cobb County commission candidates.
Ron Sifen, a good man with good ideas, is challenging the incumbent in the Republican primary. Also challenging this ethically-challenged incumbent in this primary is Bob Ott—also a good man with good ideas. Completely unkown at the beginning of this campaign, Mr. Ott has easily been the most effective in the debates, has worked the hardest in terms of meeting with various civic groups around the county, has raise the most money from homeowners, has received contributions from the most homeowners, has generated the most interest as measured by yard signs and is poised to do well today.
On the other hand, Mr. Sifen, a less hard-working and less effective candidate by all measures, has struggled. However, Sifen need not fear because one of his supporters happens to have his own column in the AJC, which can be tailored and timed to support the columnist’s own personal not-in-my-backyard interests.
We all have opinions on which candidates are best in city and county races. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in the AJC editorial section to give each of us our own columns.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Building roads brings development. That’s the point of it. People drive to home work and school. On roads, that if they weren’t there in the first place, there’d be no work home or school, now, WOULD THERE?
You could build a road to nowhere, and guess what? In a very short time nowhere would be somewhere. Somewhere cool.
That’s the whole point of roads.
To get any third world country developed, simply build roads first.
it’s a fact as old as Roman roads.
So if I hear one more belly ache about roads or traffic or development, then I will report all of you to the student drivers association of illegal left hand turns and drive-by moonings.
pants down!
By Peter
July 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Stocks Set to Plunge on Fears About Financials- AP
U.S. stocks headed for a sharply lower open Tuesday as investors grappled with increasing fears about the financial sector, including the prospect of bank failures. Wall Street also awaited a batch of economic readings as the dollar fell to a new low against the euro.
This is what Americans get to celebrate after 8 LONG TERRIBLE YEARS of Bush in OFFICE.
Great Job by the Republicans……..
Please tell me Wrongs after 8 years in office…….. where is the DOW now…….. as compared to when BUSH took over as President…….. ?????????
And are the Messes getting larger to clean up……….or is that the Nations Imagination ?
WEAKEST DOLLAR EVER, LARGEST DEFICIT EVER, LARGEST GOVERNMENT EVER……all under BUSH !
By southsidetoby
July 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
This is one of those rare occasions when I actually agree with Mr. Wooten’s suggestion: “Do not zone or approve density greater than the carrying capacity of existing or funded roads.”
But I would go a few steps further. Local governments should not approve or allow any zoning or additional development without making sure that they have in place sufficient transportation infrastructure, public safety resources and school capacity to support the development. The test should be as follows: if the additional development cannot be shown to improve (or at least leave undisturbed) the existing transportation mobility, public safety and the quality of the local school system, then the development must not take place.
Here is my question for Jim: is he willing to support changes to existing law that will give local governments the authority and power to effectively implement his proposal? Currently, Mr. Wooten’s party is populated by those who consider zoning and building codes to be nothing more than unconstitutional takings of private property. Those in his party loudly proclaim an apparent Constitutional right to develop subdivision after subdivision without question or interference from pesky governments concerned about transportation, public safety and school quality.
By Tim
July 15, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
BFKaJ @ 8:36
HUH? Why is it that the your first inclination is to start playing the blame game when it comes to EVERY ISSUE. The problems that we face everyday are people problems, not republican or democrat. I am not sure if you really believe half of the bull that you spout or if you are really just full of you. This country is in real crisis, and folks like you are a part of the reason. We have to get past the point where we are constantly blaming the other side for everything! I am not a republican, I am not a democrat, I am an AMERICAN! an independant AMERICAN that loves my country regardless of which set of theives and liars are in charge.
By Aquagirl
July 15, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
Government should serve us as we wish to live —- and use our tax dollars to provide the schools, fire and police services, and roads and sewers that we need.
More Republican entitlement mentality. Please, Jim, show me where the Constitution guarantees the right to have a road built to the front door your Kennesaw McMansion. There’s a simple equation: Distance From Center of Development X Cost of Extending Extra Sewer (+Roads,+Water,+Power Grid) = Degree of Dependence on Government Subsidy.
I say we rebuild public housing projects intown and move all the exurbanites there. They’ll be forced to live next to the other welfare leeches.
By Tim
July 15, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
BFKaJ @ 8:36
HUH? Why is it that the your first inclination is to start playing the blame game when it comes to EVERY ISSUE. The problems that we face everyday are people problems, not republican or democrat. I am not sure if you really believe half of the bull that you spout or if you are really just full of you. This country is in real crisis, and folks like you are a part of the reason. We have to get past the point where we are constantly blaming the other side for everything! I am not a republican, I am not a democrat, I am an AMERICAN! an independant AMERICAN that loves my country regardless of which set of theives and liars are in charge.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 10:03 AM | Link to this
Building roads brings development. That’s the point of it. People drive to home work and school. On roads, that if they weren’t there in the first place, there’d be no work home or school, now, WOULD THERE?
You could build a road to nowhere, and guess what? In a very short time nowhere would be somewhere. Somewhere cool.
That’s the whole point of roads.
To get any third world country developed, simply build roads first.
it’s a fact as old as Roman roads.
So if I hear one more belly ache about roads or traffic or development, then I will report all of you to the student drivers association of illegal left hand turns and drive-by moonings.
pants down!
By Hillbilly Deluxe
July 15, 2008 10:07 AM | Link to this
A developer (probably from out of state) comes in and builds a 1500-2000 lot subdivision. They are the ones making the money off this so why shouldn’t they pay for the roads, schools, fire stations, etc that the development will require?
By Peter
July 15, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this
Hey Wrongs are we in a Bear market……….or perhaps one might call it a BUSH WHACKED market !
How many Points has the Dow risen during the Rise and Failures of the Bush Presidency ?
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
GOOD NEWS
With commanding leads among women and young voters and near unanimous support from black voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a 50 - 41 percent lead over Arizona Sen. John McCain, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of likely voters released today.
AND
CURRENT ELECTORAL MAP
There is light at the end of the tunnel my fellow patriots, and for the first time in 8 years it ain’t an uncoming train!
By zeke
July 15, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this
Right on Jim! However the powers that be are single minded in their agenda to control all aspects of our lives including forcing us to use buses and rails, forcing us to live by or with people of their choosing, not ours, and finally making us sheep after their own volution!
By Shane
July 15, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this
Jim, once again you shove the Republican umbrella up our collective butts and then open ‘er on up.
If you haven’t noticed, the city and state have been building roads… lots and lots of them - there’s no end in sight for road-building - the funding for roads is thru the roof.
But, for some reason you want to beat it into all of us that roads, and ONLY roads are the solution even though our city might as well be in the dark ages with public transportation. I
t’s shameful how backwards this city is. I’ve lived here all my life and every time I visit another large city I’m more and more disappointed in my local leaders here in Atlanta. Gubner Perdue is a religious zealot and Shirley Franklin is a black-pandering idiot.
Can we start voting for Clark Howard for Mayor yet?
By Peter
July 15, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
Yes Zeke you will be forced to take a train or bus…..ha ha ha…….
Gee even in Europe there are folks that drive ……. Have you been ?
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
Who’s Next? List of Troubled Banks Worries Wall Street, DC ABC News Has Obtained Privately-Prepared Lists of Most Troubled Banks
2 are here in GA
By BFKaJ
July 15, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
Dear Tim @ 9:48 and several other times, while I agree with most of your post(s), you err in your assumption that I think Republicans are blameless. You are correct that I focus on the obstructers of the lesser party as the primary culprits – my post was motivated by my recent observation of a pattern of destructive behavior across the dem’s wide swath of “policies” – the Guv could cure the traffic gridlock tomorrow with the stroke of his pen. My second post intended to be the second section of the political bookends you seek.
Dear Peter @ 9:49, I know where the Dow was when the democrats took over the house of representatives, and I know it has gone straight south since they proclaimed the end of the tax cuts that buoyed the economy for most of the Bush administration. I know what happened to the unemployment rate right after the dems raised the minimum wage. We all knew what would happen, because I posted it here, for your benefit.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Subsidized, lobbied Capitalism is Communism with Middlemen.
By Peter
July 15, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Poor By BFKaJ……
We have Bush for 8 LONG Disastrous years, and he says it is all about helping Americans earn more money……… and the fact we have a Democratic Congress that we are in a Bear (Bush) market.
HA HA HA…….. yes giving those folks a few more pennies and hour to work really DID cause the Banking disaster…………. and IS the real reason we have the WEAKEST DOLLAR EVER……The LARGEST DEFICIT EVER……. and of course because of raising the minimum wage……… we now have a WAR !
Yes you are making so much sense…….. Please continue on !
Please tell us the BUSH plan to make the Economy Work again ?
Where will the Dow end up at the end of the BUSH term?
Gosh how many months does he have to turn things around?
Since you know all…….. please tell all……….”We all knew what would happen, because I posted it here, for your benefit.”
By Dusty
July 15, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
Well, Jim Wooten has me so stirred up about roads that I am going to go and check one out and “develop” a theory of disentanglement.
When I return I will expect you bloggers to have remedied the trains, planes and the “mains’ of transportation. AND placed the proper blame on the heads of the hedonistic heathens of ‘road runners’.
So get to it. Like MacArthur I shall return! Well, maybe, if I’m not stuck in traffic.
By Peter
July 15, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
Inflation grows at fastest pace in 27 years………….
Must be that good Republican Economic Plan !
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy showed the depth of its twin problems on Tuesday, slow growth and rising inflation, as the nation wrestled with a teetering financial system, a slumping dollar and rising prices for food and fuel.
The Labor Department reported that soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation at the wholesale level up by a bigger-than-expected 1.8% in June, leaving inflation rising over the past year at the fastest pace in more than a quarter-century.
Over the past 12 months, wholesale prices are up 9.2%, the largest year-over-year surge since June 1981, another period when soaring energy costs were giving the country inflation pains.
Yes this is what America gets for raising the Minimum Wage…….. HA HA HA………… Where is the NEW SPIN from the Wrongs Please !
By TomG
July 15, 2008 10:48 AM | Link to this
Florida started linking approval of developement projects based on capacity of the road many years ago. Developers were very upset but the state stood its grounds. Roads were updated then approval was granted.
By @@
July 15, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
Dang Jim! I’m beginning to think you don’t like me. Always taunting me with the Lovejoy Train and now the “connecting corridor” thingamaboober. That’s my road you’re talkin’ about.
I’m thinkin’ positive though. I may be sitting on a goldmine rather than a mine.
For now, Pike County is a good example of restrictive zoning. Many of my friends have moved there but they’re now screaming about the property taxes which have increased every year.
“What did you expect?’ I tell them……’there’s no industry to shore up the infrastructure.’”
Some of the former commissioners and developers who screwed up Clayton have moved down to Pike.
Look out Pike, they’re back…..Clayton County’s WMDs.
By George Hussien Washington
July 15, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
The roads are just fine the way they are, soon there will be no cars on the road as gasoline exceeds 100 worthless american dollars per gallon, thanks to the bed wetting, thumb sucking, but fingering Republicans currently in power….I told you idiots six months ago to buy gold, silver, oil, and Euro’s….Now it is too late….Good, I really enjoy looking at POOR Reukes….. While you wasted your time praising the neocon scum who were robbing america blind, George was moving his wealth out of AmeriKa and away the lying thieving WashingAss crowd…. here, catch ..!..
By George Hussien Washington
July 15, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this
SEC tries to shut down CNBC interview with Ackerman for dissing financial stocks….State control of media coming, thanks Bush…
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
July 15, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
Jim,
The things you speak of in this column allude to central planning an big government.
You’re such a hypocrite.
By middleoftheroadman
July 15, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
Mass transit that is safe and reliable is a much better option than more and more roads - why can’t people get that through their heads?
Those of us who live in Marietta DO want a rail option for going into town for nightlife, sporting events, etc. It works in other places, but here y’all are still fighting over who is at fault, instead of arguing about fixing the problem with real options BESIDES more lanes and more roads.
It’s not going to eliminate cars but sure can cut into the problems of commuting and getting around town.
And the bigotry against people who aren’t white doesn’t resolve anything, except give some people a big KKK type cheshire smile on their face.
By DaveD
July 15, 2008 11:19 AM | Link to this
Road Capacity? JIM…(and those that think like him)… widening roads and creating MORE of them does not solve the problem. Mass transit does. Why is it that multi-millionaire’s that live in Greenwich CT. and Great NEck NY take the train to work….yet in Atlanta do morons need to drive to work? You can read, surf the web, listen to music, even watch friggin’ TV… and get to work on time without the stess and horrors of traffic hanging over your head….that…plus the environmental damage and air quality issues in metro Atlanta…. lead me to once again say:
You are an obvious “product” of GA schools… GA: worst in education and showing it LOUD AND CLEAR each and every day!
By RAZ
July 15, 2008 11:30 AM | Link to this
JW- You continuously fail to grasp the big picture. As with most of your columns you pick and choose sources (or leave them out all together) to support your assertion (faulty journalism in my opinion).
The problem with this column from the start is that you assume that if we continue to fund surface road construction that Atlanta will be able to keep up with the influx of residents and businesses. Atlanta has continued to heavily favor fund surface road construction and expansion for the past couple of decades. I would think by now that you would have realized that it is not working. Based on a rudimentary understanding of the economics of transportation it is impossible to add road capacity and have a long-term, meaningful impact on reducing congestion. You should be focusing on transportation initiatives that make it highly efficient to add capacity i.e. for commuter rail, to add capacity you simply add a car.
If we as a region do not start looking at alternative transportation methods, which have been embraced by almost all comparable metro regions, we will continue this downward spiral of traffic congestion. There is a reason that we have the worst traffic in America and it isn’t because we don’t have enough roads. It is the tired and faulty logic that JW and those like-minded decision makers continuously site that has held Atlanta back.
By George Hussien Washington
July 15, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this
Congestion is easy to solve..George can solve it all in one day….FIVE DOLLAR PER GALLON GASOLINE TAX FOR ALL OF GEORGIA….that will git the riff raff off the roads….
By Chicago
July 15, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
Old man Wooten,
Just because you don’t want to take public transit, doesn’t mean that I don’t. And if you don’t want your tax dollars to fund any type of public transportation, thats fine. I don’t want my tax money going to widening more roads, as that plan has failed so badly. If this is a democracy, let the people decide what they want. Put to a vote like they are in Gwinnett today. Your Republican friends over in the Gold Dome didn’t want us to vote on how WE want to get around. Is that socialism or fascism, tell me Old Man Wooten. You’re a very poor journalist; long on opinion, short on facts.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this
I notice their building new roads in Iraq. What good for the Islamic Hoards is good for us Christian Herds.
Roads is good. Traffic is good. Development is good.
Lets pave the whole world!!!
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this
it had to happen
the mccain “satire” magazine cover
here
By BFKaJ
July 15, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
Dear Peter @ 10:45, “soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation…” An informed reader would infer that burning an inefficient form of corn in automobiles would lead to inflation in both energy and food prices. We can thank our democrat Congress for that bit of wisdom, can’t we? And for blocking drilling for oil? Lack of oil in the pipeline makes it easy to make a fortune betting on oil futures. The most amazing thing is the disconnect you leftists suffer between your policies and the natural effects of those policies.
By fearless fosdik
July 15, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this
it had to happen
Mrs Godzilla…GOOD ONE!
How true…………..
By BFKaJ
July 15, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
Dear Chicago @ 12:54, you got off to a good start then Petered out on us. “…if you don’t want your tax dollars to fund any type of public transportation, thats fine. I don’t want my tax money going to widening more roads, as that plan has failed so badly. If this is a democracy, let the [market provide. Public transportation denizens alone support public transportation with their fares, and road hogs alone support highway construction with their gasoline taxes.]
Elections are two wolves and a lamb voting on dinner.
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this
Outer Limits Sprawling Atlanta seeks new routes to the future
By jm
July 15, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten,
Just like we are not going to drill (or grow using bio-fuels) our way out of our oil problem, we are not going to pave our way out of our traffic problem.
By Peter
July 15, 2008 12:42 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA……….By BFKaJ
“The most amazing thing is the disconnect you leftists suffer between your policies and the natural effects of those policies.”
Can you say Deficit……. and WAR Spending ?
Talk about blind……..
By Planner
July 15, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this
I’m going to keep it simple in the hopes that it will help Mr. Wooten take off his blinders and step out into the sunlight. He’s been beating this dead horse for way too long.
Roads are extremely expensive to build and take forever to get through all the environmental and legal hoops. We simply can’t build enough road capacity to keep up with demand.
Even if we could build dozens of new roadways, $4 gas means many people can’t afford to drive very far on them. And if the price doubles, it may make a personal automobile completely unaffordable.
People who cannot afford to drive will be trapped, robbed of opportunities to take a better job across town or visit grandma in the next county, unless options are provided.
These options are also very expensive and take a long time to implement, so we need to get to work on them ASAP.
Buses and trains carry people much more cost effectively. Attempts by Mr. Wooten, the Reason Foundation and others to paint transit as “white elephants” conveniently exclude the hidden costs of private transport. Ask yourself this simple question: If you had to move 40 people a distance 40 miles, would it be cheaper to do it in a single bus or pay for 40 separate automobiles? It’s basic common sense.
Transit cannot provide door to door service to every single destination imaginable. But a robust system can get you pretty darn close. Not everybody has to live within a block of one train station and work within a block of a station at the other end to make long haul transit viable. That’s what park and ride lots, local bus routes and circulators are for - expanding the catchment area for transit services.
Using transit will certainly involve some loss of convenience for most trips due to transfers, walking to/from the stations, etc. Get over it. You can spare a few extra minutes at the end of each day to save yourself a lot money and stress. Plus it’s good for the environment and most people probably need the exercise.
Many people want options. Options are a good thing. Advocating a policy of only building roads, thus forcing people to own cars and use them for every trip, is precisely the kind of “lifestyle policing” that Mr. Wooten claims to deplore.
Mr. Wooten’s world view seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1960s. The world of cheap gas and the wide open road no longer exists. And the world that future generations will inhabit will probably look very different from this one. Some of us are trying to do what we can to create long term sustainability that will keep Atlanta and the country strong for decades to come. With his stubbon adherence to stale ideas about how to manage growth and transportation, Mr. Wooten has chosen to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. It’s time the rest of us move on and ignore Mr. Wooten and his increasingly incoherent ramblings.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 12:49 PM | Link to this
They be buidlin’ real nice roads in Iraq, word up.
They be handing out cash to sunnis in Iraq. Buy up.
We be eating peanut butter in USA. Potholes and crumbling bridges, but the surge is working, so who cares? Blow up.
The surge be working real good. Working real good, the surge be. Arrghhh!
What is the mission of US troops in Iraq?
What IS the mission of US troops in Iraq? To provide the tanks with which the roads they’re building can get trampled upon? Makes as much sense as 911 was Saddam Hussein’s baby. Did you know that the bush base still believes that?
The vestiges of conservatism’s base still thinks that Saddam Hussein was a pilot in all four 911 planes. That’s the attention span we’re dealing with here, and the IQ that’s necessary for conservatism to survive.
Bush Base: pointed, dented heads and photo Id’s.
Fact.
By Planner
July 15, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
One other point…
By George Hussien Washington
July 15, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this
Close the ajc, that will reduce traffic downtown….improve the smell too…
By TW
July 15, 2008 1:21 PM | Link to this
So, McSame knows how to win wars, but has been saving any hint of this until he is elected president?
Somebody puh-leeeze change that guys diaper and put him down for a nap.
Absolutely mind boggling that the republican party would follow one loser with another.
By Vidal Suisun
July 15, 2008 1:28 PM | Link to this
Mr. Planner,
Salutations,sir. I doubt that Georgia will get it, but your parameters are unassailable. (Much of what you describe is applicable in kind to Georgia schools.)
I haven’t a notion of the decade in which Mr. Wooten is “stuck”, but know only that he is stuck, and since I regard him as something like the best of Georgia, I fear that Georgia is stuck, too.
This offensive thing is true, though: One person brilliantly qualified, by talent, temperament and training, to “handle” this problem, would be William Tecumseh Sherman.
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this
Is there one person who believes the phony polls that indicate the race is even?
If that were true, we would be a different country. We’re not. We’ve changed and people have new ideas about who to vote for, and the very last person on their list is McCain. The polls only make sense if the question is framed thusly, “Who’s candidate’s wife would you rather see in a hooter’s t-shirt serving wings?”
That’d be McCain.
By BFJaKov
July 15, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this
Let me explain it to you imbiciles one more time. The free market will ease traffic congestion. This buildup of never-ending development with no government planning for infrastructure is the best thing that could have happened to us! I’m breathing the air and I’m not dead yet. The congestion is bulging at the seams now, but any minute now (swear to Friedman people, any minute now) the seams are going to burst and the glorious free market will prevail. What will the result be? Silly godless lefties will have no money and no means of transportation and will therefore be removed from the roads (and soon thereafter the gene pool, I pray daily). I will drive whenever and whereever I wish unimpugned. I matter. You do not. Problem solved. All hail the free market!
By Phyllis Turner
July 15, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this
I often don’t agree with Jim Wooten, but he is right on the money in saying that approved high-density development where there is not adequate road capacity. Traffic conjestion is choking metro Atlanta.
I was pleased to see him Cobb Commission candidate Ron Sifen as a strong advocate of this approach. Mr. Sifen has devoted years to this cause. I wish there were a Mr. Sifen running in all the suburban communities around Atlanta. A regional approach to balancing development and infrastructure improvements would go a long way toward preserving our quality of life in the suburbs.
By Bush Voter
July 15, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
“Who’s candidate’s wife would you rather see in a hooter’s t-shirt serving wings?”
Yes. And? What’s your point? It’s perfectly sound criteria for selecting a President. Actually, I think it’s even better than our last one: “Which one-term president’s half-wit offspring needs a job?”
By Peter
July 15, 2008 2:00 PM | Link to this
Funny Guy here………. and know all !
“By BFJaKov
July 15, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this
Let me explain it to you imbiciles one more time. The free market will ease traffic congestion……..”
I bet ………just like Free markets in the Housing Mortgage arena IS WONDERFUL for the Economy !
HA HA HA……….. Sure……..
Republicans tout that free market stuff all the time, a few get Rich, most Americans get screwed, then what happens……… Ops they were WRONG, and the TAX payers get to bail them out…………
HA HA HA………. Yes great ideas by the Republicans !
Hey Another Republican idea……..let’s start another MADE UP WAR !
By THE CATHOLIC HAMMER
July 15, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this
Proof, once again, that American conservatives are few and far between.
Jim Wooten is a LIBERAL and always has been.
Real conservatism is rejected by Americans because America itself was founded upon LIBERAL idealism.
By Midlife Wonder
July 15, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this
Wrong, catholic hummer, america was founded as a free easy place for business to operate without taxes or restrictions. That’s where the smart money went, and why they hung together, and how they could agree from such disparate backgrounds and remote geo-politics. The BOND: Business had to be allowed to operate freely. Period.
That’s why when they signed the declaration and the constitution, they were signing the articles of war for the 1860 war between the states. One side thought slavery was a legit biz, the other side didn’t. Period.
The civil war proves that we have to be told how to behave, that you cant just reason with people of political passions. you have to fire howitzers at them at point blank range or they just dont get it. That’s why the rebel scum kept lining up like automatons in lockstep in front of yankee cannon in battle after battle after battle. they just din’t know no better. The south din’t listen to yankees for 100 years after the civil war. MLK had to tell them how to behave, cause they had no idea.
People dont know how to act, or reason, or make good choices. That’s why we always need leaders. We are leaderless right now. That’s why we’ve drifted so far from the popular trust. That’s why nobody believes a word any conservative says now. not a word.
Obama 08: Insert America here.
By Vidal Suisun
July 15, 2008 2:29 PM | Link to this
BFJaKoV,
Let me aks you, what do you suppose is the optimum speed of travel of a city-dweller?
By Peter
July 15, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this
Hey all did you catch this bright light of inspiration from a person of Religion ?
“Silly godless lefties will have no money and no means of transportation and will therefore be removed from the roads (and soon thereafter the gene pool, I pray daily).”
Gee gotta love a guy who hates America and Americans……
Which God are you praying too……..The Almighty Dollar ?
By Say It Ain't So
July 15, 2008 2:46 PM | Link to this
OK mass transit proponents, please explain why Marta works this way and why I should support them.
I live in Flower Branch, I work in Kennesaw.
In order for me to use mass transit I must travel into Atlanta (inside the perimeter) then catch a ride back outside the perimeter. If mass transit is to work, it must go where people want and need to go. Everything feeding into Atlanta, and then back out will never work for the ‘masses’.
Why must a trip from Gwinnett to Marietta go inside the perimeter?
Until that problem is resolved Marta will never be the answer for the masses.
By getalife "whiners"
July 15, 2008 2:54 PM | Link to this
Lets flip flop on Obama superdelegates
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
another magazine cover “satire”
here
By Peter
July 15, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
By Say It Ain’t So….I agree with you, a better overall plan needs to be accomplished. Many countries like Germany, or Belgium have an excellent transportation system.
We should be trying to emulate what Europeans have been doing for years………then folks in America can have a choice.
I talked with a staunch Republican the other day…… he mentioned the problems with the levies in New Orleans……..
His point was why don’t we send folks over to the Netherlands, to learn how to build levies the Correct way……. why not use proven technologies to get things done ?
I agree with that attitude, the same should go for other areas we are having trouble with such as Mass Transit !
Why can’t we seek help from successful projects already being used today ?
By BFJaK-ov
July 15, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this
Peter, stop being so petty and jealous. I am a scholar of economics, and commune in private meditation with the prophet Milton Friedman every night after dinner when my wife puts on her expensive perfume and strappy high-heels and goes to her book club meeting. The prophet Friedman showed me the way, the truth, and the light. Free market works because those who are better succeed, and those who are losers do not. This is how it should be. If you are a loser, it is what you deserve. Godless lefty losers should all abort themselves, hire me to defend them in court, for which I will take their money while ensuring a conviction. I laugh at their demise. Praise the prophet Friedman! Praise the Allmighty dollar! I just made $400 while I was writing that. The roads will soon be mine!!! A-ha-haaaaaa
Sincerely, the sche!sster formerly known as jbmlaw
By Chicago
July 15, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this
BFKaJ @ 12:35, I do believe the free market has done enough with this country. What, with the housing market collapsing and the financial industry tanking. Free market means nothing more than allowing industry to do what they want with no oversight. If that is the case, then there should be no government intervention to bail these companies out when these industries collapse.
If it wasn’t for government involvement, there wouldn’t be any highway system today. The government has the duty to invest in its infrastructure, which includes new means of transit.
Until this state steps in and does something, this region will choke on its on ineptness.
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 3:37 PM | Link to this
MAYBE WE SHOULD KEEP UP THE WHINING
From AP updated 42 minutes ago
Oil prices plunged Tuesday as worries about the nation’s economic health shot to the fore and OPEC warned that high pump prices are likely to erode global demand for crude.
Prices at one point dropped more than $10 a barrel from the day’s high. By early afternoon, light, sweet crude was down $6.90 to $138.28 in an extremely volatile session.
The turnaround may not signal a lasting shift in sentiment — prices have swung violently in recent days as they flirted with record highs. But it does underscore investor uncertainty about the sustainability of sky-high prices and potentially long-lasting effects on the broader economy.”
By Peter
July 15, 2008 3:37 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA………By BFJaK-ov
Then why are we bailing out Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac?
“Godless lefty losers should all abort themselves, hire me to defend them in court, for which I will take their money while ensuring a conviction. I laugh at their demise.”
Sounds like you are a Muslim ! At least you agree with ABORTION !
By BFJaK-ov
July 15, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this
Peter, I disagree with the Godly Bush administration’s decision to interfere by bailing out corporate failures. Nonetheless, I not only tolerate them, but voted for them twice, and defend them daily. You see, although I am a self-proclaimed libertarian lawyer, there is one thing I hate more than government interference in our lives: LEFTY LOSERS! I support the death penalty for any twisted woman evil enough to murder her own progeny. The government MUST stay the hand of a murderer! (Unless American capitalists are profiting from it on foreign soil, of course.)
I applaud Bush’s appointment of tightly wound rightist Supreme Court Justices who will one day do God’s work and not only overturn Roe v Wade, but will criminilize the deadly act to the furthest extents that our modern death creating technology will take us. Exceptions of course, for liberals who should all die, the sooner the better. God knows I am better than they are, and the free market world will be better off without them. Further, I am NOT a Muslim. I am a good Christian and therefore whole-heartedly support the occupation of Iraq and the wide-scale slaughter of their people.
By Peter
July 15, 2008 3:52 PM | Link to this
Now I get it …….By BFJaK-ov………..you are one of those Car Wreck chasing lawyers……..ripping off folks in the name of Jesus !
Great job, you must have a bunch of jokes to tell us…….
All those Wonderful Lawyer Jokes !
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 3:55 PM | Link to this
DUH is that you at 3:50?
By Mrs. Godzilla
July 15, 2008 4:05 PM | Link to this
Did Obama Force McCain To Flip-Flop On Afghanistan?
By Peter
July 15, 2008 4:06 PM | Link to this
Wow ……. By BFJaK-ov you make me laugh……… as a true flip flopper and hater of Americans in general…….I applaud your stand as a Wrong Winger !
By Jim is an ostrich
July 15, 2008 5:07 PM | Link to this
Folks, we’ve been had. Jim is actually on vacation. The paper is running his best (matter of interpretation) columns from the last two years while Jim plays in the surf off the coast of FL. Next will be his column on school vouchers, followed by his column on Obama flipflopping, followed by his column on… oops, by today’s column again, then school vouchers, then Obama until we are all paralyzed and his “band of conservatives” take over the world. Don’t fall for it.
By Planner
July 15, 2008 5:10 PM | Link to this
@ Say It Ain’t So
OK, first of all I have to say that I can’t comprehend why anybody lives in Flowery Branch and works in Kennesaw. But perhaps you have personal reasons that prevent you from moving within some reasonable distance of your job. So, setting that aside…
You must recognize that your commute pattern is unique. In fact, it’s very likely that you are the only person making the Flowery Branch to Kennesaw trip on a daily basis. That makes exactly one person out of a region of over four million people. Fulfilling your unique commute need is gonna be pretty far down the list of regional transit priorities.
It’s possible that a transit service linking the Mall of Georgia or Gwinnett Place Mall on the east to Marietta or Town Center on the east could be viable. That would mean that you have to go to a park and ride lot, board a bus or train, then use a circulator shuttle or local bus route to reach your final destination. That’s probably the best you can hope for. There ain’t ever gonna be a Flowery Branch to Kennesaw maglev train.
If you want a reason to support transit even if it doesn’t meet your needs, think about this. What if all those people traveling down I-85 through Gwinnett to Buckhead, Midtown and Downtown could use a train instead? That’s tens of thousands of people traveling a pretty narrow route (unlike your commute). It’s a prime market for transit. The same thing can be said for people traveling along the top end of the Perimeter or up I-75 through Cobb. With a substantial number of those people able to utilize a long haul transit service, that frees up road capacity to serve the needs of people like you (for who transit simply isn’t a realistic option).
Just because you don’t actually use a service doesn’t mean it’s not a good investment. I don’t mind my taxes paying for the I-85 / SR 316 interchange in Gwinnett because I understand that keeping our freeways moving are absolutely critical to maintaining the region’s economic vitality, even if I pass through the interchange only a handful of times each year. A robust transit network is also absolutely critical if we really aspire to be a global city and remain competitive in the 21st century. Even if you never board a bus or train, you benefit because the entire Atlanta region benefits. Sometimes you have to be OK with paying for something that doesn’t provide you with a direct benefit and chalk it up to doing what’s responsible for the betterment of your community.
By Vidal Suisun
July 15, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this
….scholar of economics. Was that the self-cancelling phrase? Because if so, that’s pretty funny-cool in a time when “Juvey”, or Juvenile Delinquent, just about covers I’d for anybody who knows, or mighta looked the other way.
Now ‘n’ag’in.
By Vidal Suisun
July 15, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this
….scholar of economics. Was that the self-cancelling phrase? Because if so, that’s pretty funny-cool in a time when “Juvey”, or Juvenile Delinquent, just about covers I’d for anybody who knows, or mighta looked the other way.
Now ‘n’ag’in.
By Vidal Suisun
July 15, 2008 6:01 PM | Link to this
Not my bag. My bag’s lovin’ @@.
But with due respect to Planner, ah say ohellyea all day stuff. And maybe slow down the highway speeds if the state gave us stock-car racing could ever figure out a drag coefficient. And maybe slow, and mix, traffic closer it gets to downtown, so the people get used to handling their Buicks around hybrids and city cars and recumbent bicycles and a city gone mad with all sorts of competing jitney contraptions, plying the major downtown arteries with 30 or more passengers aboard, these notorious, these celebrated, Ramblin’ Wrecks!
By carolelynne
July 15, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this
See this website if you want to see how gas and housing translate into expensive sprawl. Jim and the brain dead Ga. Legislature’s solution is not a solution for the 21st century. Atlanta is late realizing that business is going to where the transit is, not where all roads lead to Cobb County.
Housing + Transportation Affordability Index
By carolelynne
July 15, 2008 6:16 PM | Link to this
See this website if you want to see how gas and housing translate into expensive sprawl. Jim’s and the brain dead Ga. Legislature’s solution is not a solution for the 21st century. Atlanta is late realizing that businesses are going where the transit is, not where all roads lead to Cobb County.
Effects of Recent Gas Prices Compared to 2000: Housing + Transportation Affordability Index
What’s going on in the suburbs: The Next Slum?
By TWJ
July 15, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this
I am a conservative thinker but I don’t agree with anything Wooten says here. Does he think people moving to Atlanta are going to wait on the highway up in Calhoun for roads to be widened or added and then move down? We had no dense or mixed use housing developed since 1950 in Atlanta and what happened? People had to move further and further out and we ended up with a patchwork of traffic jams every morning. The most interesting cities in the world beacon the answers. We need more mixed use of reasonable proportion, and fill in light commercial throughout residential. We should not have to drive four miles for a loaf of bread. We need more crossings over the chattahoochee, some for bikes and scooters only, we need to use every rail line we have to move people on a mass transit schedule, we need to use our river to move people and develop that area, and we need to get out the 1950s thinking that lead us to the mess we are in today. Cities like Paris or Chicago are attractive because of the knitwork of neighborhoods which develop over time in interesting fashion and not because they have fewer people living on the space and bigger roads to drive on.
By Do the Math
July 16, 2008 9:54 AM | Link to this
Road capacity cost too much these days and new developments can not afford it with the margins they are opperating in.
So what do they do? Externalize the costs on the tax payer, turning politicians ears to spend state or federal funds to help make their proforma work.
Guess what? That process is dead for two reasons; dwindling dollars along with escalating construction costs. Unless you get a toll road built concurrently (ten year process) neighbors will have to live with the extra traffic on existing roads.
What’s the answer? Built where there is unused capacity.
By Gary
July 16, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
I would like to present a real life example. In Barrow county a developer built a very large mixed use at an intersection with no traffic light. Once the homes started to sell and people moved in they found it very hard to get into the intersection. Now, who’s fault was it. When you go to buy a home you look at the home very closely don’t yea. But when you move in and can’t get out who do you blame, The DOT. I know because I was one of the many people who recieved these calls. The response I would liked to have given these people was ( Well what did you think was goimg to happen when 400 hundred households try to use one intersection.) The Developers are not working on that small a margin that they should be required to build for the future influx. They just have more pull than people would like to believe. My two cents.
By Reid in EAV
July 16, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
Jim, a thought experiment. Let’s just suppose that even if all of the new drilling and refining capacity were brought online — oil shale, tar sands, offshore, ANWR, the works — there’d still be something to this “peak oil” thing. That is, that oil will get steadily more expensive and scarce until it’s no longer practical as the lifeblood of our economy.
Or, not even going that far, what if a scenario develops in the middle east (say, we attack Iran) where all of the oil-rich countries in that region refuse to sell us oil, running the global spot price to something absurd, like $300+ a barrel?
What then? What do you do?
As a pro-transit, pro-city, leery-of-foreign-oil lifelong conservative, I’m very curious to hear your answer.
By Scrappy
July 16, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this
For once I agree with Jim Wooten, amazing. Developers should be limited in what they can build, should be required to expand the roads as necessary, and should be required to have more than one enter/exit point in developments. Urban planning in this city, and surrounding suburbs has obvisously been non-existent so far, leading us to this mess. We need more roads that go N-S, and E-W and actually get you to somewhere, especially over the river. (All of the North suburbs have to cross the river in 3 spots and we wonder why there is congestion?) Development needs to be managed, not just let to grow as much as the greedy developers allow.
By Terry
July 18, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
Obviously Jim is correct, we need MORE LANES!
“Alternatives” will never work. I only want to drive down I-75/I-85 in the morning. Those 16 lanes are too small. We need to widen the highway to at least 30 lanes and take up tracts of land on both sides of the highway. That is the ONLY solution for me!
By Jeremy
July 26, 2008 2:01 PM | Link to this
Well Jim, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always go to the same place. We’ve always focused on roads first in Atlanta so naturally, that is what we depend on. It’s true that the majority of people drive around our metro region, but it’s also true that they have no other choice in the matter. It may seem senseless in the short run to build rail that “serves a relative handful”, but you’ve got to start somewhere or else you’ll never have a real choice. The Marietta St. corridor would be my vote for one of the best options to have a street car with a hub at 5 Points Station. It won’t likely happen, but I think it should.
For transit to work it must: 1. go places we want to go, 2. go to those places often, i.e on 5-10 minute head-ways, and 3. go to those places all of the time, i.e. 24/7/365.
The only way that happens is if we spend a whole lot of money, and I’m not convinced that our democratic society is equipped and/or willing to make that type of commitment. I wish it were, but I think it will require more than expensive gas to get us there.
By Jeremy
July 26, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this
Well Jim, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always go to the same place. We’ve always focused on roads first in Atlanta so naturally, that is what we depend on. It’s true that the majority of people drive around our metro region, but it’s also true that they have no other choice in the matter. It may seem senseless in the short run to build rail that “serves a relative handful”, but you’ve got to start somewhere or else you’ll never have a real choice.
The Marietta St. corridor would be my vote for one of the best option to get a street car with a hub at 5 Points Station.
For transit to work it must 1. go places we want to go, 2. go to those places often, i.e on 5-10 minute headways, and 3. go to those places all of the time, 24/7/365.
The only way that happens is if we spend a whole lot of money, and I’m not convinced that our democratic society is equipped or willing to make that commitment. I wish it were, but I think it will require more than expensive gas to get us there.
By Jeremy
July 26, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Well Jim, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always go to the same place. We’ve always focused on roads first in Atlanta so naturally, that is what we depend on. It’s true that the majority of people drive around our metro region, but it’s also true that they have no other choice in the matter. It may seem senseless in the short run to build rail that “serves a relative handful”, but you’ve got to start somewhere or else you’ll never have a real choice.
The Marietta St. corridor would be my vote for one of the best option to get a street car with a hub at 5 Points Station.
For transit to work it must 1. go places we want to go, 2. go to those places often, i.e on 5-10 minute headways, and 3. go to those places all of the time, 24/7/365.
The only way that happens is if we spend a whole lot of money, and I’m not convinced that our democratic society is equipped or willing to make that commitment. I wish it were, but I think it will require more than expensive gas to get us there.
By AJC/DNC Management
July 26, 2008 3:04 PM | Link to this
Watchdog reporting central to the AJC’s mission- Angela Tuck, Urinal Ombudsman
Yeah, like a queer little rat “dog” humping some poor bas-tard’s leg, all the rest of us are “watching” as they try to shake your nasty as-ses off.
“Altruistically, many of us got into this field because we take seriously that notion that we’ve got to be people’s eyes and ears,” said Nunzio M. Lupo, the AJC’s managing editor of news and information.-Urinal/DNC
It’s funny how “my eyes” keep showing me pictures of libs with their heads buried so far up Obambi’s as-s they have to look out of his mouth to tell us much they adore him.
Mike Buffington had heard the rumblings you often hear about someone who has held public office for a long time. Then came a specific tip about former Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tim Madison and his secret bank accounts.-Urinal/PMS
Gee, just let me guess, Madison being a Republican?
Opposition research and mud slinging on behalf of the dimwitocrat party does not “investigative journalist” make, it is does, however, make you a toady and a sycophant.
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I missed this yesterday:
After test-firing missiles earlier this summer that could strike European or Israeli cities, Iran signaled on Thursday that it would no longer cooperate with United Nations inspectors looking into Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.-Urinal/PMS
And no kidding, they published the same fake picture that the Iranian Propaganda Ministry photo shopped showing 4 missiles where there was only one.
Do the libs even care anymore about their credibility?
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A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.
“Lord— Protect my family and me,” reads the note published in the Maariv daily.
Aahhh, yes, Lord High Dimwit thinking only of himself, no thanks, no prayers for the needy, nope, it’s like “Yo, watch my back, would ya?”
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ZDF began its special “Obama in Berlin” coverage [German video] at 6:45 p.m. Central European Time: only 15 minutes before the candidate’s speech was scheduled to start. At the time, ZDF reporter Susanne Gelhard was out and about on the so-called “Fan Mile” between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate. “The expectations were highly varied,” she said in her live report, “from a few thousand up to a million. Those were the estimates. But, now, several tens of thousands have turned out.” Barely five minutes before the speech was supposed to start, ZDF Berlin studio chief Peter Frey added, “We do estimate that 20,000 [literally, “a couple of ten thousand”] people have turned out.”
20,000 people? That’s it? Even with the free concert?
Notice how there have been no overhead or wide frame pictures of the crowd shown in the pinko media?
Everything about this dimwit is a lie.
~~~~~
Obama couldn’t have had a luckier political career, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s perfectly timed endorsement of Obama’s 16-month withdrawal plan is earning the junior senator from Illinois all manner of plaudits. Put aside the fact that the commentators now extolling Maliki as the “sovereign leader of Iraq” were, just two weeks ago, disparaging him as an American or Iranian puppet (depending on the day). The fact is that Maliki would not be able to even raise the possibility of American troop withdrawal had it not been for last year’s troop surge, a measure that John McCain championed and Obama — following the Democratic herd — opposed.
To admit that his judgment was wanting on the subject of the surge would irreparably damage — if not kill — the Democratic narrative of the war. Admitting he was mistaken on something is a bridge too far for the supposedly post-partisan Obama to cross. Choosing a president this November, voters would do well to remember which candidate — during America’s darkest days in Iraq — called for retreat and which one presciently counseled a strategy for victory.
James Kirchick is an assistant editor of The New Republic.
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The odd thing is that Obama doesn’t really think this way. When he gets down to specific cases, he can be hard-headed. Last year, he spoke about his affinity for Reinhold Niebuhr, and their shared awareness that history is tragic and ironic and every political choice is tainted in some way.
But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.
Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.-David Brooks, Treason Times.
There is no courage in making up problems and then go about promoting yourself as a hero for fixing those fake problems.
And what of the mass of dimwits that believe in your fake problem?
There is no end to this wonderland grandiosity, you can say that anything is broken when you are lying through your teeth and then waste everybody’s time and efforts applying your ignorance to things that do not even exist.
By John1190
March 24, 2009 11:43 AM | Link to this
Very nice site!