I’ve been reading the AJC’s coverage of the machinations surrounding the multibillion dollar transportation infrastructure tax referendum scheduled to descend upon us next summer. And so, a question: Considering the transportation track record of the brilliant traffic planners and engineers in the Atlanta region, do you really have the confidence to put a few billion dollars in their hands for more projects and “improvements”?
Let’s just look at the record. First we’ll deal with that traffic monstrosity known as the Downtown Connector. If you weren’t born here you probably don’t know that what is now the Downtown Connector was supposed to be the route of I-85. I-75 was supposed to come roaring in from the North along what is now Northside Drive to cross I-85 around the airport. Someone decided we could save some money by simply combining the two through the city. That certainly worked out well, didn’t it?
And what about Ga. 400 merging with I-85? If you’re northbound on I-85 it’s a smooth transition. Southbound I-85 to Ga. 400? Four traffic lights. Traveling Ga. 400 to northbound I-85? Five lights. Then we have the southbound I-85 drivers who want to get to Piedmont Road. Take that easy exit to Lindbergh Drive, then right on Piedmont? Oh hell no! That’s an HOV exit! So it’s six traffic lights for you if you’re alone. The cops used to wait for me there. Caught me only once. They say they’re going to fix the Ga. 400/I-85 mess. Are they going to use the same folks who designed it in the first place?
Pity also, if you will, the poor saps traveling down Ga. 400 toward downtown. Your typical suburban families eager for an evening of fun at Underground Atlanta. There our transportation wizards funnel four lanes of traffic down to one for the transition to I-85 ... and Lord help you if you cross the gore, that white line separating the highways from the on- and off-ramps. See you in court.
The new tax is also supposed to fund some rail projects as well, right? Will these projects be designed by the same geniuses who didn’t put a MARTA station at what was then Atlanta-Fulton County Station — a station that would now serve Turner Field — because Atlanta was afraid it would lose parking revenue at the stadium? Can the people who made this decision be banned from getting anywhere near even 1 cent of this new tax revenue?
Speaking of rail lines, how about that $70-odd million streetcar from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center. You could buy a fleet of helicopters and fly people (if you can find any) who want to make that trip for the same money and not eat up quite as much real estate; and the helicopter could tow an advertising banner to offset costs. Oh, and how’s that MARTA Bankhead spur to what used to be called Perry Homes doing? Believe it folks, before they completed a rail line to Alpharetta, where you actually find working people, they built one to a public housing project. Then MARTA went two years with a public housing resident as the chairman of the board of directors. Are they going to have similar folks overseeing this new sales tax money?
Do I dare approach the issue of synchronized traffic lights? There are places in this town where a light will turn green and, seconds later, a light turn red just 75 yards down the road. We’re going to trust the folks who time these lights with billions more?
Then there’s this 10-year thing. We’re told that the extra sales tax would only be for 10 years. Now I guess that somewhere in some forgotten land there was a sales tax that was to be imposed for a set number of years, and which actually went away when the time was up. But that certainly didn’t happen anywhere around here.
Not saying Atlanta doesn’t need the transportation improvements. But would it be wise to determine that the right people will be spending the money?
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