Toll lanes, not rail, are best congestion-reliever for ATL
Rail transit is popular with millennials as well as employers. This is a good idea, but it has little to do with congestion relief. Even if rail transit capacity were tripled, peak-hour use would probably rise to only about 10 percent in spread-out metro Atlanta. In contrast, the Georgia Department of Transportation plan to add variable-toll highway lanes will provide a consistent 45 mph trip to anyone willing to pay a toll or ride in a bus or vanpool. If traffic volumes get too high, and resulting tolls too high, the toll lanes can be changed at no cost to bus-vanpool only – the perfect transit system for serving the entire metro. Since toll lane construction takes years, extra money should be appropriated now to cut buildout time in half. We need to put money where the fix is.
JOEL SMITH, STOCKBRIDGE
Yes, U.S. president should be person of good morals
I am disturbed by the reader’s letter, “U.S. silent majority still stands with Trump” (Readers Write, Sept. 2). There must have been very similar letters written, line for line, to German newspapers after Adolf Hitler became chancellor. (The negative references, of course, were no longer allowed once he became führer.) As to presidential morality, the last president accused of questionable moral conduct was impeached, though not convicted. I feel it does matter that the president be moral, fight fair, and cease painting some of his many opponents as pouting over an election that’s been over for a long time. “Silent majority”? (Remember Nixon?) Booming economy? “Conservative” judges? Low unemployment? Independence and power? Morality? Again, look at Germany in the 1930s. Compare what they thought they were getting with what they got.
MIKE WEST, MARIETTA
About the Author
