Category Archives: Transportation

Yes we can make a transportation Plan B after voting down T-SPLOST

Politifact Georgia's Terry Lawler examined a T-SPLOST supporter's assertion that there can be no Plan B if voters reject T-SPLOST July 31st and found that claim mostly false. I don't think he went far enough: we can change the legislature in this election, and a new legislature can come up with an entirely different plan.

PolitiFact Georgia read the state House of Representatives bill that was passed in 2010 to allow the referendum. In the last one-third of House Bill 277, there is a sentence that confirms that point.

"If more than one-half of the votes cast throughout the entire special district are in favor of levying the tax, then the tax shall be levied as provided in this article; otherwise the tax shall not be levied and the question of levying the tax shall not again be submitted to the voters of the special district until after 24 months immediately following the month in which the election was held."

That's only what the T-SPLOST enabling legislation says. The legislature could come up with a completely different plan. How about a Plan B like the ones proposed by the Georgia Sierra Club and the Atlanta Tea Party? How about we let the state gas tax automatic increases happen and use that to fund real transportation projects like busses and trains and airports?

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Sierra Club and Tea Party have produced Plan B for T-SPLOST

Yes, there is a Plan B for T-SPLOST. Two of them, actually, and they are in agreement on several major points.

David Pendered wrote for the Saporta Report yesterday, Called to produce their Plan B, groups detail their alternatives to proposed 1 percent transportation sales tax

Two organized opponents of the proposed 1 percent transportation sales tax said Thursday they are baffled by the allegation by tax advocates that the opponents have not offered an alternative to the tax.

The Sierra Club issued its alternative in writing in April, and members of the Atlanta Tea Party have voiced a consistent set of alternatives since October.

“We have common ground on this issue. There some things we don’t agree on, but we agree that this tax has got to be stopped,” said Debbie Dooley, a co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party.

Both the Atlanta Tea Party and Sierra Club responded Thursday to a request from SaportaReport.com to provide their alternatives to the referendum. The request came after the campaign for the sales tax challenged them Wednesday to release their solution to relieve traffic congestion, in lieu of the transportation sales tax.

The article includes details of each of their responses, plus this handy list.

Continue reading →

Georgia gets $2 billion under transportation bill

When Georgia gets $2 billion from the just-signed federal highway bill, why are federal Interstate 75 Exits 2 and 11 on our Region 11 T-SPLOST list?

Charles Edwards wrote for WABE 6 July 2012, Georgia gets $2 billion under transportation bill

The Georgia Department of Transportation will get infrastructure money under a U-S House resolution President Obama recently signed into law.

Yet more evidence that T-SPLOST is a poorly thought out inappropriate tax. We have through July 31st to vote it down.

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Unemployed need public transit to get to jobs: T-SPLOST doesn’t help

If you're unemployed, you may not be able to afford a car: then how do you get to work even if you can find a job? As our own Industrial Authority's Community Assessment of last October said, we need public transportation to promote business by getting employees to jobs. T-SPLOST doesn't do that: it would widen more roads and build no public transportation.

Peter S. Goodman wrote for Huffington Post today, Unemployment Problem Includes Public Transportation That Separates Poor From Jobs

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In the two months since he lost his job driving a delivery truck for a door company, Lebron Stinson has absorbed a bitter geography lesson about this riverfront city: The jobs are in one place, he is in another, and the bus does not bridge the divide.

Stinson lives downtown, where many of the factories that once employed willing hands have been converted into chic eateries. The majority of jobs are out in the suburbs, in the strip malls, office parks and chain restaurants that stretch eastward. Most of this sprawl lies beyond reach of the public bus system, and Stinson cannot afford a car.

The report Janus Economic did for VLCIA 11 October 2011, Community & Economic Assessment: Lowndes County says:

There is a plan for a public transportation system in Valdosta-Lowndes County but it currently lacks funding for implementation. Under current budget constraints it will be difficult to implement such a project, but businesses in the industrial parks and outlying areas may want to implement a limited transportation system if they discover that employee attendance is an issue.

That would be the plan for $7.5 million for a four line bus system that got cut first pass from the T-SPLOST project list, while widening a few miles of Old US 41 North got raised from $8 million to $12 million and is still in the final list.

T-SPLOST would promote more sprawl of exactly the kind we don't need. Let's not do that.

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Updated LAKE front page with some current hot topics

The LAKE front page is updated with some current hot topics to make LAKE blog posts on them easier to find.

There's a primary election on right now, and in addition to candidates, there's a referendum on T-SPLOST, a new 1 percent transportation sales tax on everything including food that would create a new regional level of government run by GDOT in Atlanta and does nothing for public transportation, bicycles, or pedestrians. It's on the 31 July 2012 primary ballot, and early voting has already started.

Other topics include nuclear and how it's holding back solar and wind, water and how planning can affect it, and the ongoing problem of incarceration including ALEC, the lobbyist-legislator public-private partnership that's pushing all sorts of bad laws. Those and more topics are available through the Categories links on the right hand side of the blog, but some of them are especially current right now, so they're also at the top of the LAKE front page.

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SPLOST, LOST, TSPLOST Forum: Tuesday, July 10

The Chamber is holding a T-SPLOST event tonight. According to the announcement:

Make Sense of the 1 Cent Tax and know before you vote. Valdosta Lowndes Industrial Authority to host TSPLOST, LOST and SPLOST Forum for Young Professionals providing an opportunity for an informative discussion regarding the upcoming referendum.TSPLOST Referendum

Presenters at the forum will be Mayor John Gayle (City of Valdosta), Larry Hanson-City Manager (City of Valdosta), Andrea Schruijer (Valdosta Lowndes Industrial Authority) and Caitlyn Cooper (ConnectGeorgia).

At this forum YPs are encouraged to exchange and share ideas, questions and concerns about the legislation above. Leave more informed as a knowledgeable voter regarding the upcoming referendum on July 31. Please join other YPs in a supportive setting to listen, learn and voice your opinions.

LOCATION:

bas bleu
123 N. Patterson Street.
Valdosta, Ga 31601

TIME:

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Click here to RSVP or call 229-247-8100
*Drinks and menu items available

Of these speakers, Mayor Gayle is famously for T-SPLOST, Larry Hanson previously appeared to be against it. I don't know Andrea Schruijer's position on T-SPLOST. ConnectGeorgia is pro-T-SPLOST, so presumably Caitlyn Cooper is, too. So this is likely to be a pro-T-SPLOST forum.

In any case, remember T-SPLOST is on the primary ballot for 31 July 2012, and early voting has already started, so you can vote on it today.

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Why are federal Interstate projects on the T-SPLOST list?

Why are any I-75 interchange projects on the final T-SPLOST list? Especially now that Congress finally got around to passing a transportation bill? I-75 is a federal highway; shouldn’t it be paid for with federal tax dollars, not $31.5 million of “local” sales taxes?

About the transportation act, and then three T-SPLOST I-75 projects. Richard Simon reported for the Sacramento Bee 29 June 2012, Congress passes transportation bill, halts student loan rate increase. Jamie Dupree’s Washington Insider had some more detail in the AJC 28 June 2012, Congress moves highway, student loan bills. Here’s the actual H.R.4348 — MAP-21 (Enrolled Bill [Final as Passed Both House and Senate] – ENR).

In the final T-SPLOST District 11 report there are still two I-75 interchange projects:

  • $19,872,610 TIA for RC11-000081 I-75 at CR 27/Lake Park-Bellville Road Interchange Improvements – Exit 2
  • $11,631,517 TIA for RC11-000082 I-75 at SR 31 Interchange Replacement – Exit 11
  • $31,504,127 total TIA for two I-75 interchange projects in Lowndes County

Those are just the T-SPLOST dollar amounts; not the total costs of those two projects. A third project, for exits 22 and 29, got moved to TIP money, which is federal money. Why didn’t these two also get moved to TIP and off of the T-SPLOST list?

Previously I reported on Corrected T-SPLOST Southern Region Cost Changes including a list of projects. Of three I-75 projects, two are still on the final project list of October 2011. Here’s a summary:

Number
+ Name		Original Total
Cost Estimate
+ Updated 		Difference
Diff%		TIA Funding
(includes Inflation)		In Final List?
RC11-000081
I-75 at CR 27/Lake Park-Bellville Road Interchange Improvements – Exit 2		 $38,965,901.00
$39,745,219.00		 $779,318.00
2%		 $22,379,786 yes
RC11-000082
I-75 at SR 31 Interchange Replacement – Exit 11		 $22,806,928.00
$23,263,033.00		 $456,105.00
1.99985%		 $13,098,977 yes
RC11-000083
I-75 from North of SR 133 to Cook County Line – Exits 22 & 29		 $44,617,196.00
$44,617,196.00		 $0.00
0%		 $0 no

Finally, here are the details for each of those projects, extracted from the final report for exits 2 and 11, and from the unconstrained list for exits 22 and 29. Why are the remaining two not like the one that got moved to federal funding?

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Project Sheet

Continue reading →

Budget, boards, and abandonment @ LCC 2012-06-26

The Lowndes County Commission appointed people to four boards, approved a budget for next fiscal year, made some unspecified changes to this year’s budget, and demonstrated they could both stop speeding traffic on a rural road and put a cap on a construction contract! All this in one meeting, their Regular Session of 26 June 2012.

Here’s the agenda. Here are videos of the previous morning’s Work Session. And here are videos of the 5PM (actually 4:57PM) budget hearing.

Here’s a video playlist:

Budget, boards, and abandonment
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 June 2012.

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Closing one end of Brinson Drive to stop speeders @ LCC 2012-06-26

Closing one end of a dirt road to stop speeders: it turns out the county can do that, after all! And it’s a popular thing to do.

One spoke against, but changed to be for. Three others spoke for. The agenda item at the 26 June 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission was

7. Public Hearing: Abandonment of a Portion of Brinson Drive
  • John L. Lewis who lives in Lanier County but owns property at 4718 Brinson Road spoke against closing Brinson Drive. County Engineer Mike Fletcher clarified that they weren’t closing the whole road; they were abandoning a portion of it near Pikes Pond Road, making Brinson a dead end to stop speeding through traffic. Lewis seemed mollified.
  • Richard Rigby spoke for the closing of Brinson Road, saying it was the greatest thing the Commission had done in the last ten years, other than keeping Haunted House Road open.
  • Amanda Parker spoke for closing Brinson Drive; she lives on Oak Hill Drive at the end of Brinson and almost got run over that morning.
  • Loretta Steed spoke for closing Brinson Drive; she lives on Pikes Pond Road near one end of Brinson. She said she had been against the closing until she learned from Rigby that the county was keeping Haunted House Road open. Instead she wanted to know how it would be closed so as to stop the speeders from getting on it. Chairman Paulk said a culvert would be removed.
  • Commissioners voted unanimously to close one end of Brinson Drive.

Three years ago in a similar situation, the county insisted on paving Quarterman Road instead. Quarterman Road, which, unlike Brinson Drive, doesn’t even go anywhere. Paving resulted in speeders and drag racers through a residential neighborhood. As resident Carolyn Selby put it:

You designed a mile and a half straight-away, and they have come. Welcome to the Quarterman Road Drag Strip!

The county continues to insist speed humps are out of the question. It’s good to hear Commissioners have become concerned about safety somewhere in the county.

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Historical Population, Lowndes County, Georgia

Increased population is using increasing resources in Lowndes County, Georgia:

Increased population is using increasing resources

Increased population is using increasing resources
Chart by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) from Georgiainfo data.

CensusPop.
1830 2,453
1840 5,574
1850 7,714
1860 5,249
1870 8,321
1880 11,049
1890 15,102
1900 20,036
1910 24,436
1920 26,521
1930 29,994
1940 31,860
1950 35,211
1960 49,270
1970 55,112
1980 67,972
1990 75,981
2000 92,115
2010 109,233
Georgiainfo data

The population of Georgia has almost tripled during my lifetime, has about doubled since 1970, and has increased 18% in just the ten years from 2000 to 2010. That blip up between 1950 and 1960 is Moody Air Force Base.

That kind of growth doesn’t happen without increased resource use. If we want a livable county and region for ourselves and our descendants, we need to think about what we’re doing, with water, with transportation, and with energy, not to mention education, jobs, and pretty much everything else. We already cut down and sold off almost all the forests. Now we need better ways than using up all the resources that were here.

Hm, how about some knowledge-based jobs in energy and telecommunications and agriculture?

Speaking of Moody, the U.S. military learned in Afghanistan that shipping oil to places where you can generate solar energy produces a vulnerable supply chain. Moody is already leading in local solar energy. How about we help our base help us help them to move ahead in solar for everybody in Lowndes County and the state of Georgia?

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