Easing congestion depends on you

Let’s pretend for a minute that it’s 10 years from now. How did you get to work today? (Don’t say personal jet pack. Despite our childhood dreams, it’s clear that we’re not going to be the Jetsons anytime soon.) Was your imaginary 2020 commute better or worse than your real commute this morning? If you’re a realist, you said it was worse.

We cleared a major hurdle by passing legislation that will allow citizens in regions across the state to vote on taxing themselves an additional penny of sales tax to provide more funding for transportation projects. This additional penny will be voted on by citizens in 2012, and if it doesn’t pass, your future commutes could be a disaster.

But even with this additional funding, there’s not a transportation plan on the books that promises that your drive to work is going to be any better five, 10 or even 20 years from now. And that’s to be expected. After all, our region is going to have 1 million more people by 2020.

Based upon past experience in metro Atlanta, more people equals more cars equals more traffic. And we still face an enormous challenge with growing traffic but shrinking budgets for the region’s transit operators and the Georgia Department of Transportation.

By the way, does your 2020 world include cleaner air, or have we returned to the days of regular code red and code purple smog alerts?

Half of all air pollution in metro Atlanta comes from tailpipes, so more traffic also means more pollution. And more pollution carries a host of negative effects, especially on the health of our children.

Just last week a study was released showing a strong relationship between ground-level ozone and other pollutants from vehicles and an increase in emergency room visits for children with asthma. One of the most alarming results was that the effects could be seen on days when pollution was at a level below what is currently deemed “safe.”

Later this summer, the Environmental Protection Agency will likely announce new, stricter limits on ground-level ozone. We simply can’t wait for the transportation improvements that may come our way 10 or 20 years from now.

So we’re left to tackle our near-term air quality and traffic problems using what we have available today.

It’s not an exciting solution. Making the most of what we’ve got is about as exciting as opening up that can of soup in the pantry instead of going out to a hot, new restaurant.

But lean times call for breaking out the can opener, not the credit card. And in terms of transportation improvements, we’re likely to be living in lean times for quite some time.

So we’ve got to find a way to reduce the number of cars on the road, especially at peak times of the day. The good news is that small changes every day add up to big improvements.

Just think about how much easier it is for you to get to work on a bank holiday, or during the summer when school is out. Taking a few thousand cars off the road during the peak times of a weekday has a big impact.

The hard part is convincing you to keep your car off the road — we all know that traffic would be better if that person in the lane next to us would just car pool or take transit.

So how was your commute today? If you’re waiting for a new road or a new lane to make it better, you’ve got a lot of traffic in your future.

But what if your commute tomorrow didn’t involve driving at all? Instead, you’re sipping coffee in a friend’s car, snoozing on the bus or working on the train. Or commuting across your living room carpet to your home office. Imagine the possibilities.

If you really want a better commute — one that saves you money, reduces your stress and improves air quality — now is the time to make a change.