Transportation projects: Roads? Rail? Both? We should think big

Are we there yet? It’s an oft-heard question during long car trips, or even short ones.

In the case of the Atlanta region and long-delayed transportation improvements, the real answer is our drive toward easier commutes is just beginning.

Happily, though, the vehicle is finally in motion. Backing down the driveway is a first step toward eventually cruising down the interstate.

The region’s mobility transmission clunked from park into drive late last month when “The Transportation Investment Act of 2010” passed the Georgia General Assembly to the joyous surprise of long-time observers who’d seen previous efforts stall out in recent years. Barring a bad outcome on the inevitable legal challenges, the bill gives the Atlanta metro a solid start on making a regional way toward big progress on infrastructure upgrades.

It’s worth pointing out here that a start is just that — a beginning. Anyone who’s ever endured a seemingly endless cross-country trip knows that truth well. And, in Georgia’s case, we’re hitting the road without nearly enough money to get us as far as we need to go. In the Atlanta 10-county region, the sales tax, if approved by voters, would wash an estimated $750 million to $790 million each year into a bucket earmarked for transportation work. Yes, nearly $8 billion over the 10-year life of the tax is serious money. By itself, though, it will pay for just a fraction of the work needed to repair and improve transportation options here.

The situation is workable, though, if our region sticks together and acts as a good steward of the money asked of taxpayers. Policy types are hopeful the 10-year sunset of the sales tax won’t prove a hindrance to gaining federal matching money, thanks to a provision in the 29-page bill that permits some of the proceeds to be parceled out beyond the one-decade mark. Public-private partnerships should also be pursued to foot some of the bill. And, as the economy recovers, other sources to pay for needed work should become viable.

With monetary matters apparently manageable, other hard work and transformational thinking will be needed to make the most out of this hard-won new transportation road map. Doing so requires all of us — from everyday voters to politicians — to keep the destination in mind as much, or even more so, than the journey required to get there. We can’t let figurative potholes, political traffic snarls or fender-benders delay or detour this critical trip. Our region’s future depends on our steadfastness in staying a steady course and keeping an even foot on the accelerator in coming years.

That means this region should think big — Atlanta-style if you will — about what should be on the project list. This is our chance to take a stronger swing toward reducing congestion than we’ve been able to do in decades. We should sidetrack dogma and the usual solutions and truly examine what will work best here. Roads, rail, or both, what’s needed in what measure? More importantly, what can be justified when measured against both cost and results?

As part of this process, now’s not the time for our region to devolve into self-defeating rivalry that pits entity against entity. If that carries the day, we all lose.

The price of inaction — or the wrong actions — can be measured with any motorist who has stared at a landscape of license tags and brake lights while crawling along I-20 or I-285. They can attest to the diversity of hometowns paying the price of congestion. Traffic tie-ups are no respecter of persons or geographical boundaries.

The roundtable that will be called into service to oversee the regional sales-tax-fueled improvements should keep a tight focus on the greater good for Atlanta, not how to parcel out equal bags of money to every entity that may howl about getting its fair share. Addressing the biggest problems in effective, innovative ways will benefit the most metro Atlantans, whether they live in Hall or Coweta counties or a place in between.

Unclogging even a few of the worst interstate bottlenecks across the region should be a far greater gridlock killer than spreading out the same money among scattered, smaller, local work.

If Atlanta sticks together and sees through this new enabler of our mobility, we’ll all be better off. The next traffic jam we face should remind us of that fact.

Andre Jackson, 
for the Editorial Board

Atlanta Forward: We look at major issues Atlanta must address in order to move forward as the economy recovers.

Look for the designation “Atlanta Forward,” which will identify these discussions.