Atlanta Forward readers responded to last week’s columns about Cobb County’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan and one writer’s preference for funding express bus service over “fixed guideway” bus rapid transit (BRT). Some select comments are provided below. For more, go to our Atlanta Forward blog at blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-forward/
Commoncents: How about just timing the red lights better on Cobb Parkway? Or the largest intersections, such as Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill, get overpasses, and eliminate the red light.
Last Democrat: Why is Cobb County even contemplating spending $1.1 billion of the taxpayers' dollars on just one bus line when the county could upgrade Cobb's entire bus system for what would likely be only a fraction of that cost? Mr. Sifen is right that relieving Cobb County's severe rush hour traffic problems should be the first and immediate priority of any traffic relief plan that includes expanding transit in the I-75/U.S. 41 Northwest Corridor. Inflation-indexed user fees and private financing is the transportation funding wave of the future, not fuel-tax funding, not public subsidies, not sales-tax funding.
No Hope for Humanity: I lost all hope when this county killed last year's transportation reform. I'm lucky to have moved to Fulton County; oh wait, same story. Here's the lowdown on Cobb/DOT: Construction takes forever. For example, Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw/Marietta barely progresses. When asked, the department blames it on the rain. It was not raining last year. Sorry. The lights do not make sense. They should be synchronized based on the flow of rush hour. It works. Ask other cities, like Chicago. Quite possibly the worst headache of all: ramp lights. How can you justify that this saves time? Well, if you ask the DOT, it decreased interstate travel time. Of course it did, because it shifted traffic over to the surface streets, causing even more congestion.
Mangler: Turn a few of the major thoroughfares into higher-speed "highways," with a concrete wall instead of constant shared-lane medians similar to roads in New Jersey, and eliminate many of the smaller red lights because people can't be trusted to make left turns without getting hit. These would go a long way to eliminating congestion. Businesses do just fine along those corridors. On smaller roads, creating turn lanes at entrances to neighborhoods or at smaller intersections would also help ease backups along them. One car trying to make a left turn on a one-lane road holds up dozens. And since it's becoming more popular to don spandex and ride your bikes along major roadways, typically at rush hour, I'm all for adding bike lanes to as many places as possible. Nothing helps traffic move along like being stuck behind someone grunting up a hill.
Cobb Resident: It seems to me that our best option is weighing in on the roads, as Chairman Lee has suggested. I appreciate that opportunity and plan to do just that. Knowing we are planning for our children and their children, as the Mr. Lee states, I prefer to pay for more than a quick burger at a drive-through!
