Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, in a Jan. 13 statement announcing his naming to the transportation roundtable executive committee: “Working together to solve the transportation issues facing metropolitan Atlanta is one of the most important responsibilities that our region’s elected leaders face today.”
“The sales tax referendum scheduled for 2012 is critical to helping the region improve transportation infrastructure and effectively address traffic issues.”
State Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Atlanta, in the AJC March 31: “All it’s about is that [project] list. Failure is not an option.”
Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell in the AJC March 30: “The public said by a 70 percent vote [last fall] that they were willing to pay [for restoring transit]. It’s high time for us to get in tune with the public.”
Harold Bost, who heads the Fayette County Issues Tea Party, in the AJC March 20: “I don’t want to take any chance of encouraging any buses or any other regional transportation authority . . . operating into Fayette County.”
“It won’t do anything for us but increase crime.”
From the Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers and Citizens for Progressive Transit’s April newsletter: “Citizens for Progressive Transit has adopted a position statement, declaring that the final project lists should give Georgians transportation alternatives, get cars off roads, discourage urban sprawl, encourage connections between all modes of transportation, and focus on improving the safety and efficiency of roads that are already in place, instead of building new roads.”
From a March 2 Heritage Foundation blog by transportation consultant Wendell Cox: The reality is that virtually every federally funded new rail system costs as much as leasing a car for every new rider on an annual basis, and, of course, the rider would be able to use that car 24/7, in contrast to transit’s limited availability. ... None of this is to suggest that transit does not have a valuable role to play in urban transportation. Transit costs should be no higher than necessary, and transit improvements should cost no more than necessary. Yet the record over at least the past 40 years has been one of expenditures rising much faster than ridership.
