Atlanta’s Transportation Disasters

You will find my first article on problems we encounter driving around metro Atlanta in my June 2011 comedy post, Metro Atlanta Mayhem I. I have more articles on the ARC Transportation Plan every month from July to October 2011. The earlier articles describe the original $126 billion plan and the more recent articles cover the revised $6.14 billion plan.

The fact that we will be voting on this in July 2012 is a travesty. Half of the funds will go to bail out MARTA and the other half goes to overpriced, unhelpful multi-modal fantasies with cost estimates that will give you sticker shock. The worst part of this is that ARC is an appointed, unelected, unaccountable pseudo-government entity with taxing and spending powers that usurp city and county sovereignty. It’s all outlined in the UN Agenda 21 plan for the dissolution of US sovereignty. How’s that for “fundamental transformation” comrades ?

We believe all transit should be private, with no tax subsidies supporting its operations. MARTA should be dissolved and have its assets sold to private operators. MARTA has consumed tax subsidies since 1971 and continues into 2012 with a budget of $750 million, revenue of $120 million and tax subsidies of $630 million. That’s where the road funds went. The problem with MARTA is that trains and buses only go where they go and for most of us, our work commute and errands require us to drive. There is no justification for the TSPLOST plan to spend $3 billion to expand MARTA and provide it with new trains and buses. This is a useless drain on funds that should be used to create a better system of roads. TSPLOST has been pushed by politicians to grab the last of the federal grants. The $1 billion in federal money is a bribe to get us to absolutely squander our $5 billion on this boondoggle. The current federal debt makes It unlikely that federal grants will continue after 2012.

All revenue from all gasoline taxes and license tag fees should go to the GDOT and the cities and counties right after we dissolved the Regional Commissions. The current process for allocating funds is corrupt and needs to be rewritten. The lane-mile method currently used allows rural counties to count dirt roads in their lane-mile total.

The building and maintenance of roads and bridges is primarily a city or county responsibility. The movement of funds to the federal government for redistribution has sabotaged the process and should be reversed. We support the closing of the federal department of transportation and the ceding of responsibility for interstate highways to the states. We also need to close the EPA and transfer its responsibilities to the states with clean air and water regulations that would allow us to expand our road systems and operate our farms.

I consider the immediate Atlanta Metro area to include the City of Atlanta and DeKalb and Fulton Counties where the transportation problem is the most severe. I-285 was built too close in for a by-pass and became a bottle neck jammed with interstate and local traffic.

US 29 is scheduled to become I-785 in Maryland and North Carolina. If that could be extended to Georgia and it was connected to I-85 and I-75 south of Atlanta, it would become an effective by-pass for interstate traffic. That would allow interstate traffic a way to avoid Atlanta. That shouldn’t be forced; it should be a choice given to interstate traffic. That step is necessary to thin out some of the Atlanta interstate traffic we currently have.

In addition, it would be helpful to develop at least one east-west connector highway inside the perimeter in the North Atlanta area to connect West I-285 with East I-285. This would connect Smyrna with Tucker without having to go over the top of I-285. It would run across west to east connecting I-285 in the north, the same way I-20 connects in the south. That would give Atlanta the same highway grid found in the best laid-out metro areas. Currently, the inability to sell houses makes taking a job on the other side of town unthinkable.

Georgia Transportation planning, design and implementation has created a litany of errors. HOV lanes were a useless waste of a lane. The construction of HOV exits were expensive, confusing and lethal. For years, the HOV lanes were as empty as a MARTA bus in Dunwoody. Replacing the HOV lanes with HOT Lanes at the cost of $1 billion was another really dumb idea. We need to turn these lanes back to general use and add an additional lane to I-285. The fact that there are stop lights at our highway entrance ramps should tip you off that the GDOT is an incompetent operation. The state should not be able to create commissions. The GDOT should be a regular department reporting to the Governor. Until it is, there will be no accountability or improvement. Its funding and responsibility should be limited to interstate and state highways.

The next priority for the GDOT would be to redesign the poorly designed exits and entry ramps for I-75, I-285 and I-85 to be less confusing for interstate traffic. Coming down I-75 to find the right exit to I-285 north is the worst. Most of the rest of the worst try to take us from downtown Atlanta to I-75 or I-85.
Road maintenance and expansion costs are twice as high as they need to be. Better design, planning and implementation are needed along with wide-area open bidding. DOTs need to do financial analysis of road building and maintenance operations to keep these costs in line. Unless this is done, we will continue to overpay the same road constructors.

State, county and city road funding needs to come from spending reductions in public education, healthcare and other sand holes we’ve been pouring our tax dollars into for decades.

The poor condition of our road and highway systems is part of the government obstruction that saps our ability to increase our overall production and that is the only thing that will restart our economy.

We urge a NO VOTE on TSPLOST in July 2012, the repeal of the law that created ARC, the reform of road tax revenue allocation and the abolishment all unelected commissions.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader