By Jack Snyder, director, Gwinnett Needs Mass Transit | Do you commute to work in the Atlanta area? Is sitting in traffic jams worth using your own car? Does our lack of spending on road infrastructure in the Atlanta area bother you? If you answered “Yes” to these questions, then it is time to really consider mass transit as an alternative. Whether you like it or not MARTA is now the best alternative solution.
Snyder
In the metro Atlanta area MARTA has suffered by being perceived as corrupt, wasteful, and bringing undesirables to the suburbs. By the way, this was the same time that BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, in the San Francisco area) began operations.
To address these issues, we would first have to deal with passé thinking. The environment for mass transit has and is changing in Gwinnett County, and with MARTA. As businesses relocate to Georgia, besides the offer of tax breaks for the company, the area’s mass transit also becomes an important concern to top officials in those companies. They know their employees must get around easily.
Millenniums moving to the metro Atlanta area want good schools, parks, and easy access to major events in the area, and with that desire, mass transit is a deciding enticement.
Mass transit station locations are a factor in higher property values to those housing options located nearby. Relocating millenniums want housing that is close to those stations and they are willing to pay for it, thus creating those higher property values.
As for ridership safety, in reports that have been issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation that focuses on safety of ridership, MARTA ranks second best in the nation with only the Metro in Washington D.C. ranked higher. That is higher than in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and the other 250 transit systems across the country.
As for equipment, MARTA is upgrading its buses and trains through already dedicated funding of the Department of Transportation. So, any future funding cuts or government shutdowns are not going to impact these upgrades.
The Sierra Club reports that it was active in helping Clayton County pass mass transit last November. They also tell me that both Douglas and Rockdale Counties are looking to the Georgia Legislature to possibly add them to the MARTA system.
So what needs to happen to bring real mass transportation to Gwinnett County?
Since our county commissioners are not willing to have this on next year’s ballot, contact your commissioner and the chairman of the commission and demand a ballot initiative on the November, 2016 ballot. Call the commissioners or send a letter to Chairperson Charlotte Nash saying you expect to be given the opportunity to vote on this issue. Her address is 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Ga. 30046.
For much too long, the naysayers have influenced the business of county government, and because no other voices were heard, nothing happened. The time has arrived for all citizens of Gwinnett to stand and be heard for progress in mass transportation, and not for business as usual.
You have a voice, believe it or not and if this issue is important to you—make it be heard!
- You can help financially. Go to this site: http://www.gofundme.com/wu4gj6x.
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