The Red Brick Times

Road out of traffic jam must be paved with cash
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Would you be willing to pay a few cents more for a gallon of gas if you knew the proceeds would be used to unsnarl Atlanta traffic?

The region's transportation aspirations plan, the wish list of all the projects that planners believe would improve mobility by that year, carries a price tag of $74 billion.

Privatization of transportation projects may be a partial solution, with more toll roads and toll lanes likely in Atlanta's transportation future.

That has been a big part of the answer in Florida, said Tom Barry, retired secretary of the Florida DOT. The Sunshine State raises more than $500 million a year in tolls. In addition, its gas tax is roughly twice as high as Georgia's.

This article, by Joey Ledford of the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 11/16/2003.

The traffic is hideous, nasty, nauseating, not that good. Coming into Atlanta on I75 during Monday rush hour (5PM), the Northbound traffic was 6-lanes wide, stopped cold or moving at about 10 mph, for at least 5 miles. I took the West bypass and was only stuck in jams two or three times where intersecting roads met the highway during the 23 miles it took to loop around and rejoin I75 on the South of Atlanta. Longer trip, shorter time. And when I crossed the border from Georgia to Florida, the price of 87-octane jumped from $1.35 per gallon to $1.49. That's the "answer" in Florida to traffic and road repair noted above. Now, if the auto manufacturers ignore their customers and actually bring out small cars that get 60 mpg (like Insight, Hybrid Civic, Prius, Hybrid Corolla), the governments will scream louder because gas tax revenue has fallen off by 30% to 50% for passenger vehicles. Then - of course! higher taxes!
Posted 1:41 PM by Andy (0) comments

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