Georgia: $1 Billion for Roads, Not a Dime for Transit

Journal-Constitution, via MassTransitMag:



The state Senate is poised to vote today on a billion-dollar plan to solve Georgia's transportation troubles. But something is missing.

Funding for any form of mass transportation isn't anywhere to be found in HB 170, the transportation funding bill, which would devote those hundreds of millions of dollars to roads and bridges.

The lack of investment in transit by the state's politicians seems a puzzling disconnect from what metro Atlantans — who account for half the state's population and about two-thirds of its gross domestic product — say is the best way to clear the key arteries in the car-clogged heart of Georgia.

Traffic was seen as the biggest problem facing metro Atlanta, according to respondents to a 10-county regional survey last year — moreso than even the economy, public education and crime. Forty-two percent in the Atlanta Regional Commission poll said expanding public transit was the best way to fix traffic. By comparison, 30 percent thought improving roads and highways was a better solution. ...............(more)

http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11889355/1-billion-for-roads-not-a-dime-for-transit