Conservative editors/radio people starting to speak up against commuter rail (Atlanta: budget, hotel)

[dbarbee82]

I honestly don't see the big deal, why not have MARTA in Gwinnett County, Gwinnett is not the safe surbuban white bread county it use to be. It is not like MARTA is going all the way to Buford, it is going to Gwinnett Place Mall via Norcross. And if you think crime in Norcross is going to worsen, look at it now, Norcross is a piece of crap compared to areas inside Atlanta. I hope MARTA does go to Norcross at least. It is a shame that Metro DC can have commuter rail go to there surbuban areas, but here in Georgia you residents in Cobb and Gwinnett think your communities are so untouched by crime, that crime could never occur in Gwinnett, that the only way crime could get to you is via MARTA, get over it!!! That is the most ridiculous idealogy I have ever heard. If you wanted to remain so damn "wholesome" you should stop the damn county government from allowing so much construction and growth to occur. For God sakes Gwinnett County has almost 800K people, it is not your typical surburb any more, it is practically urban!!!

[skipcromer]

Originally Posted by Georgia

Really,
Granted it has been awhile, but my history of rides come from working the night hours. Trick or Treat

Oh yes, please do me a favor and try to add some a little thought to your little smartarse comments. Maybe my old co-worker can send you a photo of his disfigured face. Yes, slashed from his right eye down to his neck behind the ear. Just for minding his business and reading the Post. All for a wallet with 8 bucks in it. Yeah, it's BS. BS that the taxpayer who obey's the law and mind's their own business get to grow eyes in the back of their heads while the local government chooses to coddle criminals on the rail and the street.

It was like I stated in my writing. I support transit as long as it is completed with common sense. It's called a Transit Authority and a local or state entity which promotes safety, which both Atlanta and DC have a history of not doing. All you have to do is look at the stat's. But in your mind, I'm sure that is BS too.

Thanks and I will now end my B.S

I got mugged outside of a restaurant in Perth, Australia a couple years ago...guess that means restaurants are a bad idea.

You also said that the Chicago CTA is much safer than DC and then get mad when someone says its BS. Well sorry to tell you, but it is BS. CTA stations are not swarming with cops, but rather CTA 'officials.' These people do absolutely nothing in the way of crime prevention. Id say the big advantage that the CTA has is that it is 95 percent above ground, thus more visible.

Thanks for the laugh though.

[blackrabbit]

Originally Posted by dbarbee82

I honestly don't see the big deal, why not have MARTA in Gwinnett County, Gwinnett is not the safe surbuban white bread county it use to be. It is not like MARTA is going all the way to Buford, it is going to Gwinnett Place Mall via Norcross. And if you think crime in Norcross is going to worsen, look at it now, Norcross is a piece of crap compared to areas inside Atlanta. I hope MARTA does go to Norcross at least. It is a shame that Metro DC can have commuter rail go to there surbuban areas, but here in Georgia you residents in Cobb and Gwinnett think your communities are so untouched by crime, that crime could never occur in Gwinnett, that the only way crime could get to you is via MARTA, get over it!!! That is the most ridiculous idealogy I have ever heard. If you wanted to remain so damn "wholesome" you should stop the damn county government from allowing so much construction and growth to occur. For God sakes Gwinnett County has almost 800K people, it is not your typical surburb any more, it is practically urban!!!

I agree, if anything adding Gwinnett will bring a lower class of passenger into Fulton and Dekalb. .

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Transit is good, but if being financed by the public, it should meet the needs of a large percentage of the population to be effective. I'd be really interested in knowing the statistics on what percentage of people in Atlanta work in and commute to downtown, versus those of use who work and commute outside of the area where MARTA would be helpful. Maybe I'm just out of touch on this point.

I'm not sure I agree with this. There are tons of examples of all kinds of things that we (the tax paying public at least) finance, that many of us never make use of.

For example, a portion of my taxes go toward disability benefits, when in reality only a small portion of people have to rely on those to survive. A chunk of my paycheck is paying for a war that I feel is being handled ineffectively. Another portion of my check goes toward people who have since birth lived off of "benefits" (let's say welfare), and have never contributed to society by paying taxes themselves their whole lives. Homeless shelters that do little more than give drug using bums a place to hang out and harass passers by are funded by our money as well. A portion of my paycheck and insurance premiums are paying the medical bills of illegal aliens who cross the border, use clinics and ER rooms, then walk out and never pay a dime toward their medical costs....

I could go on, but you get the point.

That point being that a huge chunk of what you as a taxpayer finance already, are for things that you'll never take advantage of or that will support you. Yet, we know we're paying into these things and few do more than an occasional verbal complaint.

I live in West Cobb, but I would still support funding for a commuter rail line from Buford to Atlanta, or Cartersville to Atlanta for that matter. It's not like I'll personally ever use either of them, but I'd still not be bothered knowing that a certain amount of my tax money was being used for them. Why? As a whole, they do benefit the region by at least HELPING to reduce car exhaust in the area, taking cars off the roads, and providing some people with efficient ways to stay out of their cars. It doesn't help me directly, but it does good in the grand scheme of things, and that's good enough, so long as it's handled and funded properly with no mismanagement of funds. It's certainly better than paying for wars and the ER bills of illegals as far as I'm concerned.

It's all part of that "me generation" thing. Just because it doesn't benefit ME, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist - so long as it's a true and real benefit for at least some. Maybe I'm just funny that way.

[MorelandWalker]

Originally Posted by blackrabbit

I agree, if anything adding Gwinnett will bring a lower class of passenger into Fulton and Dekalb. .

I lol'd at that one .

As someone who grew up in Gwinnett (Snellville) and later moved into town, I remember firsthand the god-awful traffic and irresponsible development that exists there. It's only getting worse, the 78 expressway has gotten even more horrible the few times I've used it recently. People always claim that they dislike Atlanta traffic, yet running simple errands Gwinnett was always far worse than anything I've experienced closer into the city. A MARTA expansion into the county would be a great improvement for Gwinnett residents, although since I don't really use interstates anymore the change won't effect me much. If people want to sit on the clogged ITP interstates for hours commuting from the burbs, power to them. Gwinnett as well as other counties had their chance a while ago when MARTA was founded, but they opted out mainly due to racism and ignorant preconceptions.

[MorelandWalker]

I also found it humorous that the author of that article lives in Bethlehem and complains about how ineffective his commute on public transportation would be.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

It's all part of that "me generation" thing. Just because it doesn't benefit ME, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist - so long as it's a true and real benefit for at least some. Maybe I'm just funny that way.

Nope...you misinterpreted my comments or I didn't make my meaning clear. I'm not saying that unless something benefits me it's not worth doing. Trust me, if that was my attitude, I'd have moved to NH years ago and not be paying a cent of income or sales tax. I understand doing things in the public interest.

What I am saying is that Atlanta and the planning officials in GA need to consider that commuting to downtown is NOT the only flow of traffic. This doesn't ever seem to enter into the equation. Traffic flows across the top end can be just as bad as those to downtown. Ever been on I-285 at 5pm? Heavy rail costs something like $250 million per track mile, not counting possible acquisition costs. Have ways to reduce traffic (whether involving light rail, or non transit solutions) in other parts of the metro been considered? That was my point.

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Nope...you misinterpreted my comments or I didn't make my meaning clear. I'm not saying that unless something benefits me it's not worth doing. Trust me, if that was my attitude, I'd have moved to NH years ago and not be paying a cent of income or sales tax. I understand doing things in the public interest.

What I am saying is that Atlanta and the planning officials in GA need to consider that commuting to downtown is NOT the only flow of traffic. This doesn't ever seem to enter into the equation. Traffic flows across the top end can be just as bad as those to downtown. Ever been on I-285 at 5pm? Heavy rail costs something like $250 million per track mile, not counting possible acquisition costs. Have ways to reduce traffic (whether involving light rail, or non transit solutions) in other parts of the metro been considered? That was my point.

I'm sorry, but if I understand your argument correctly you would encourage other transportation option, but you have not put forth a better solution. Greg, I and others are clearly public transportation advocates. Every time the idea of rail is brought forward, it's shot down, because it has a long tradition of dissent. These same people never offer an alternative solution, for fear it would a) be more costly b) only beneficial to their community, or c) absurd. This allows them to be on offense and never have to defend their own positions.

The worst part of their argument is it’s self-fulfilling and they clearly suffer from cognitive dissonance. Of course MARTA will not work for them, because they don't vote for MARTA, so no matter how much time and evidence proves public transportation to be the more viable option, its immediate rejected, but rejected only on the grounds that they want to appear consistent. Only they are consistently wrong.

[Merin]

Originally Posted by neil0311

What I am saying is that Atlanta and the planning officials in GA need to consider that commuting to downtown is NOT the only flow of traffic. This doesn't ever seem to enter into the equation. Traffic flows across the top end can be just as bad as those to downtown. Ever been on I-285 at 5pm? Heavy rail costs something like $250 million per track mile, not counting possible acquisition costs. Have ways to reduce traffic (whether involving light rail, or non transit solutions) in other parts of the metro been considered? That was my point.

Agreed, but wouldn't the rail be coming from the North also?

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Nope...you misinterpreted my comments or I didn't make my meaning clear. I'm not saying that unless something benefits me it's not worth doing. Trust me, if that was my attitude, I'd have moved to NH years ago and not be paying a cent of income or sales tax. I understand doing things in the public interest.

What I am saying is that Atlanta and the planning officials in GA need to consider that commuting to downtown is NOT the only flow of traffic. This doesn't ever seem to enter into the equation. Traffic flows across the top end can be just as bad as those to downtown. Ever been on I-285 at 5pm? Heavy rail costs something like $250 million per track mile, not counting possible acquisition costs. Have ways to reduce traffic (whether involving light rail, or non transit solutions) in other parts of the metro been considered? That was my point.

I understand your point.

I think the thing to consider here is that as mentioned earlier on in the thread, there is no ONE solution and there needs to be multiple solutions. It does make sense to expand MARTA into Gwinnett for instance - heck it goes to the County line at Doraville anyway and it's easier to simply expand it that way. Same with Alpharetta getting rail via MARTA's North line. You are correct - the rest isn't so clear. It may not be cost effective to do heavy rail into Cobb, but, light rail might still work. Heavy new rail wouldn't work into the far suburbs of Cartersville, but commuter rail that would be used on already existing railroad tracks might. The BRT system sounds like a joke for many purposes, but maybe BRT is the way to go from West to East and/or along the perimeter... etc.

It will take heavy rail expansion, light rail construction, BRT systems and yes, new roads as well, to make any impact in Atlanta. But the way I see it, every step is a step in the right direction, and it gets people motivated for more. So if MARTA into Gwinnett is all that gets done right now, that's fine - so long as it gets the ball rolling for more varied projects later as well.