A decade ago this month I began a public campaign to help the state find the additional money it needed to invest in our roads and bridges. I worked on the public relations and policy end of a group that understood the depth of the problem, but also the lack of political will to fund a solution.
Ten years later I no longer have clients in this space and am not soliciting any. I say that to clarify I have no inside knowledge of the continued efforts to keep Georgians moving, nor a financial incentive in any proposed solutions. I’m just a guy that has noticed that the time I sit bumper to bumper in various corners of the state is getting worse, and likely will continue to do so. Today’s column is brought to by the letter “T”.
Transportation: “Logistics is in our DNA” was an oft repeated quote by former Mayor Kasim Reed. It was part of his pitch to demonstrate the connected nature of the city with the region and state, while showcasing the enviable assets of our airport, road network, and ports. When we get too much of a good thing, however, we get…
Traffic: Congestion in metro Atlanta has been an issue my entire half-century plus lifetime. People are moving to Georgia faster than we build roads. Our new road building has stopped, with respect to interstates. We’re barely adding new lanes. While we remain among the fastest growing states in the country, we’re not matching the people arriving with the ability to move them around.
Two-Eighty-Five: Nowhere is this more apparent that Atlanta’s Interstate 285. It’s a four or more lane perimeter around the Atlanta city center. As the metro area has sprawled to over six million people, it’s no longer a bypass. It is “oversubscribed” much of the day, with lanes backed up for major interstate exists to or from this highway by….
Trucks: If Trucks were our canary in our traffic coal mine, we would have been ignoring them long enough that we would all be dead….
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