Too often, the transportation debate comes down to a question of roads versus transit. It doesn’t have to be that way — and not because I know where tens of billions of dollars are hiding.
Roads with transit on them, in the form of buses, offer a combination of flexibility, versatility and cost-efficiency that rail transit can’t offer in most of metro Atlanta, let alone the rest of Georgia. With few exceptions, that’s the kind of infrastructure we should have in mind as legislators mull various ways to step up transportation spending.
A prime example are the managed lanes Georgia has already built on I-85 through Gwinnett, and which will soon begin construction on I-75 both through Henry on the south side and through Cobb and Cherokee (including I-575) to the northwest.
Waiting on deck is a project that could be truly transformative: up to four express lanes across the top end of I-285. And, from there, Ga. 400 and eventually a broader network spreading outside and inside the perimeter.
Like the HOT lanes on I-85, these lanes will be tolled with variable pricing to ensure a traffic flow of at least 45 mph. Unlike those HOT lanes, they will bring new capacity that supplements, not supplants, the lanes already there.
Because these tolled lanes are envisioned along the existing interstate system, they will go through the same (relatively) dense corridors also pegged for transit: not just Ga. 400, but I-20 east through DeKalb. They would easily accommodate express-bus service.
Think about the top end of I-285. A link from Cumberland, including the new Braves stadium, across to Dunwoody and Doraville would not just help motorists traveling east-west. It would provide a connection for existing transit service: MARTA’s red and gold rail lines and Cobb and Gwinnett’s bus systems. All four services could expect more use with that piece in place.
As I follow MARTA’s planned extension of transit north on Ga. 400, I can’t help but think the debate about whether the line ought to go on the west or east side of the highway is rather moot. With both a MARTA line and managed lanes planned for that corridor, there will be encroachment on both sides — unless the transit extension takes the form of managed lanes that keep buses and cars alike flowing freely.
The Ga. 400 example is instructive precisely because it speaks to the difficulty, not to mention the expense, of trying to address roads and transit separately. Right-of-way is at a premium in the parts of metro Atlanta in most need of additional infrastructure. We should take every chance we have to get two solutions for roughly the price of one.
It’s already working on I-85. A quarter of the people who travel in those HOT lanes during the morning rush hour are on buses. And while you’ll see fewer vehicles in those lanes than in a regular lane, they are accommodating 44 percent more people than each regular lane, thanks not only to buses but van pools and carpools.
That’s a far cry from the “Lexus lanes” epithet commonly used against them. This is a truly broad-based answer to one of our most urgent problems.
