How Do You Want To Spend $173 Billion?

The only catch is that the money is to update the Atlanta Regional Commission’s long-range regional plan.

Public comment is open until December 13 for the ARC wishlist with projects lasting until 2050.

Before you run over to the ARC’s website a few important points

  • About $33 billion in federal, state and local funds is planned be spent over the next six years on transportation projects and programs across the region
  • The funds, as substantial as they are, won’t “fix” the region’s traffic issues
  • The plan calls for $102 billion, or nearly 60% of the total, to be spent to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure that’s already in place.
  • We all can’t drive alone in our cars at rush hour. Our roads and highways simply can’t support that kind of demand.

The last bullet is probably the most important. It’s fine and good to talk about the political limits of mass transit. It’s fine to say we have some big puzzle pieces in place to alleviate traffic here and there.

However, if we don’t do more, substantially more, to get single-passenger cars off the road….it’s all pointless and Georgia won’t be as prosperous as she could be.

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