[dante2308]

This forum is curiously skewed towards highway-haters anyhow. While some people see mass transit and have a wet dream, I think of it as just a train or bus. Sure trains are nice and move lots of people and can conceivably make me not need a car, but I don't think they should do away with highways.

Some people don't even realize that commuter rail will encourage some sprawl. For everyone who gets off the highway and takes the train, there is someone who will move into the suburbs to fill up that space on the highway. Generally, excluding the lowest rungs of the lower class, people will use whatever means is most efficient to get around. I think it's a good option that should be available for commuters anyhow, even if it wont solve the traffic problem.

Of course there are people who choose to bicycle commute or walk to work, but unfortunately, that has it's drawbacks. Weather, for one. I would hate to bike 10 miles or so on a snowy or just generally crappy day. I don't tend to move around nearly as much when its winter and if i had a car, that wouldn't be a problem. The same applies for an outdoor mall. While quaint, it is subject to weather. Virginia Highlands doesn't beat out suburban malls during a thunderstorm, I don't care what you like. Vendors also take note of that little fact when they decide where to put a store. Another drawback is simply feasibility. You can't really take a big family out for dinner without a car and you can't expect senior citizens to walk everywhere.

Of course, I love transit. I, just think that if we are trying to replace a car-dominated society, we need to make our city equally accessible by other means. The highway system is currently the best way to get commute to most of the cities around Atlanta. While MARTA serves a percentage of the population, most people in the area have no option when it comes to getting around and, believe it or not, they deserve to get to the things they like just as much as urbanites. I'd hate to see our city suffer the cutting of a major artery that literally millions depend on.

As for the high-speed line, I read the report. It isn't feasible with the current budget and the state of the rail lines. This isn't my opinion, this was stated in the study. High-speed rail would be quite nice though and I would imagine using it. Unfortunately, it is only efficient for trips between 100 and 500 miles and unfortunately, few destinations I ever plan to visit are in that range along the planned corridor (currently, Macon and Charlotte are the only cities near enough on the line). I think it would provide better connectivity to Charlotte, though, and it could conceivably be used to link Hartsfield-Jackson to a second airport. We'll see what happens with this. If it does come to fruition, it would be a very long time.

The Beltline seems cool, more power to it. I hope it turns the core around.

As for heavy rail expansions, I wonder what will really happen in the next ten years. Unlike commuter rail, heavy rail has a chance of creating urban pockets and connecting them. The north line and the northeast line shouldn't be the only considerations though. I think the south side of the city is being neglected. Not only are their highways horribly insufficient, they don't have any access to MARTA south of College Park. Unknown to some, the south side has been growing and rapidly in the last few years and represents a larger percentage of the metro region's growth each year. They need new heavy rail and commuter rail stations and, gasp, a new highway and/or highway expansions. Really, they have two and a half highways compared to the north side's half a dozen plus. It isn't as if people won't move into the city because traffic is bad. Atlanta is notorious for bad traffic and people still move in, we should at least keep our roads and transit up with demand. If people can't get somewhere, no developer or rail study will find an isolated area reasonable to expand into. Improvements start with improved infrastructure.

All the while, we transform our communities. You can create dense urban environments with or without highways. We can then improve the way we get around while working towards sustainability. Right now, I think burying the connector is an extravagance that can wait until we deal with the blaring problems.

Just to end my point, I would like to add that the way that this city grows exponentially and attracts people from far and wide, it seems that even with a dream of a transit system, traffic will continue to be very bothersome. If traffic ever lets up in one area, that area will simply attract more of the growth until traffic is bad again. Without restrictions on growth, we'll always be fighting this uphill battle as long as Atlanta is hot. One of the best solutions for the short term is to try to cut commute times and therefore reduce the amount of cars on the road at any time. To do this, I suggest we encourage separate job centers outside the perimeter. If someone in Duluth commutes to Alpharetta instead of Atlanta, then he spends many less hours in his car than if he tried to tackle getting downtown. If certain centers become dense enough, and we encourage that they do and aren't office park wastelands, then we can have transit in the suburbs much like we do in the perimeter. It shouldn't only be the north side either. There should be centers throughout the region. We are past the point where centering all the jobs for 5 million plus in one relatively small city is feasible. The sprawl area wont go away. We are a city on a scale of ten thousand square miles and growing. Best we make use of that space by fitting in better communities and denser developments so that millions coming in the next few decades don't only have sprawl houses far from work and a handful of core condos few jobs could afford to choose from. 470,000 live in Atlanta leaving 4,700,000 to the suburban wasteland. We need to change not only Atlanta but North Georgia.