MARTA News (Atlanta, Buford, Dacula: 2015, house, employment)

[toll_booth]

Gwinnett’s MARTA referendum: a comprehensive voter’s guide

Most of the proposed expansions are some sort of bus transit, with one big exception: a proposed expansion of the Gold line to near Jimmy Carter and I-85. That's not very much but it would make park-and-ride a much more attractive option to commuters coming down 85.

[aries4118]

Thanks for posting.


What are current polls saying about this referendum?

[Libertarian2]

Here's my recent letter to commission chair Charlotte Nash, and shared with our Gwinnett civic groups:

Re: Transit Tax, Charlotte’s Web

Each day Gwinnett residents cope with paycheck stress and feel “taxed enough already”. If the prospective transit tax were approved, every family would pay hundreds annually for the next 20 years, probably forever, for a political non-solution. The lower and middle income class that truly need commuting trip relief would get more caught up in a regressive sales tax web with no benefit. Yet before the vote is taken the county has already backed an unneeded heavy rail transit station land deal?

Heavy fixed rail is obsolete 20th century urban planning with a strong trend toward fewer riders. Even New York commuters are leaving it. Construction and operating cost per passenger mile are out of control. Gwinnett has non-dense, dispersed nodes of jobs, schools and retail, and intraregional destinations are also dispersed. More bus runs? Every bus with few riders equals heavy subsidy. Maybe such ideas as mesh networking, asymmetric game theory and artificial intelligence can provide better transit options, but for now and the near future our county planning and budget should deal with reality of more cars and trucks. The Gwinnett Transit commuter buses into Atlanta are our only mass transit success to date. Let’s avoid expensive political toys that require decades to build and need operating subsidies.

Rather than protecting the environment, most heavy rail transit and low occupancy buses need substantial energy to build and operate and give off more carbon per passenger mile than owner vehicles.

Politicians and media are pushing for top-down solutions. As with the failed T-SPLOST proposal, they ignore and distort local fundamental facts. Gwinnett Transit would be merged into a re-branded ATL regional authority meaning loss of local control. A transit tax siphons off Gwinnett revenues directly and indirectly to shore up Marta’s crazy streetcars and busways and risky defined benefit pension system.

It’s not good to encourage an expensive, regressive new tax that begins a 20+ year cycle to build a heavy rail to Jimmy Carter with low occupancy feeder buses and endless political intrigue. Gwinnett expanding traffic needs repairs and upgrades, new lanes, synchronized traffic signals and smart signs. Instead with this flawed proposal we get inconvenient and cost-ineffective, someday-future, heavy rail and more buses.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by Libertarian2

Here's my recent letter to commission chair Charlotte Nash, and shared with our Gwinnett civic groups:

Way more tax money already goes to road and car subsidies.

Your efforts are misdirected. Transit can operate as a private business without tax money if you eliminate the car subsidies.

People deserve choices in how they get around. Either eliminate the subsidies for cars and let the people decide with their dollars how they want to get around, or give a similar tax dollar amount to transit so it is a level(er) playing field.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by Libertarian2

Gwinnett Transit would be merged into a re-branded ATL regional authority meaning loss of local control.

Local control is what ruined Metro Atlanta in the first place.

We can't have an actually useful metro or regional train system like other metros (that are already ahead of us, or pacing ahead of us economically), because everyone's so irrationally opposed to any taxation and public works (that would benefit everyone), and because all these tons of counties and their local control.

Transit more than anything else can't have local control in various corners and silos of the metro. It needs to be fully regional in every sense, since we all move around regionally.

[cqholt]

Don't feed the Troll y'all.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by Libertarian2

Here's my recent letter to commission chair Charlotte Nash, and shared with our Gwinnett civic groups:

Re: Transit Tax, Charlotte’s Web

Each day Gwinnett residents cope with paycheck stress and feel “taxed enough already”. If the prospective transit tax were approved, every family would pay hundreds annually for the next 20 years, probably forever, for a political non-solution. The lower and middle income class that truly need commuting trip relief would get more caught up in a regressive sales tax web with no benefit. Yet before the vote is taken the county has already backed an unneeded heavy rail transit station land deal?

Heavy fixed rail is obsolete 20th century urban planning with a strong trend toward fewer riders. Even New York commuters are leaving it. Construction and operating cost per passenger mile are out of control. Gwinnett has non-dense, dispersed nodes of jobs, schools and retail, and intraregional destinations are also dispersed. More bus runs? Every bus with few riders equals heavy subsidy. Maybe such ideas as mesh networking, asymmetric game theory and artificial intelligence can provide better transit options, but for now and the near future our county planning and budget should deal with reality of more cars and trucks. The Gwinnett Transit commuter buses into Atlanta are our only mass transit success to date. Let’s avoid expensive political toys that require decades to build and need operating subsidies.

Rather than protecting the environment, most heavy rail transit and low occupancy buses need substantial energy to build and operate and give off more carbon per passenger mile than owner vehicles.

Politicians and media are pushing for top-down solutions. As with the failed T-SPLOST proposal, they ignore and distort local fundamental facts. Gwinnett Transit would be merged into a re-branded ATL regional authority meaning loss of local control. A transit tax siphons off Gwinnett revenues directly and indirectly to shore up Marta’s crazy streetcars and busways and risky defined benefit pension system.

It’s not good to encourage an expensive, regressive new tax that begins a 20+ year cycle to build a heavy rail to Jimmy Carter with low occupancy feeder buses and endless political intrigue. Gwinnett expanding traffic needs repairs and upgrades, new lanes, synchronized traffic signals and smart signs. Instead with this flawed proposal we get inconvenient and cost-ineffective, someday-future, heavy rail and more buses.

Quoted for stupidity.

Let me guess, you probably think GDOT projects pay for themselves with zero subsidy too.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Quoted for stupidity.

Let me guess, you probably think GDOT projects pay for themselves with zero subsidy too.

Sounds like you can't refute his argument so you call him stupid. How very adult of you. I think the trolls are the ones trying to drive away differing opinions.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by bu2

Sounds like you can't refute his argument so you call him stupid. How very adult of you. I think the trolls are the ones trying to drive away differing opinions.

You're right and I shouldn't have said that. However, all I read in his statement is "more of the same" regarding transportation projects in the county.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Gulch

You're right and I shouldn't have said that. However, all I read in his statement is "more of the same" regarding transportation projects in the county.

Fair enough. But then is the time to argue that more of the same won’t work for gwinnett