There is a plan for a public transportation systemAlso on page 9 of the corresponding presentation slides under Product Recommendations: Continue readingin 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.
Tag Archives: bus
18 years later in Troup County
Natalie Shelton wrote March 2011 for LaGrange Daily News Online, Parents: Seek other options to school consolidation
There are some unhappy parents and students: Continue readingIn considering the change at West Side, officials noted in last year’s budget proposal talks that about 73 percent of its students are bus riders, brought from all parts of the county. The school posts a per-student transportation cost of $1,198, more than twice the zone average of $529.
“Why is West Side so important to the county?” parent Brandi Kennedy asked. “You have buses picking up kids all over the county to go to West Side.”
Because children are chosen to attend the magnet school through a lottery, Kennedy said she couldn’t understand funding the fine-arts focus of the school when it is not more prestigious than other county schools.
Lowndes County: commuter rail hub
![](http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6100036578_ed5806244d_m.jpg)
Add
a bus system and local commuting becomes very practical.
People could take the train to town and catch a bus to work.
Many people could walk or take a bicycle to their work from the
train station.
This could work the other way around, too.
People could live in Valdosta and work in Ray City or Lakeland or
Hahira or Lake Park or Clyattville and not have to drive to get there.
That would save
a lot of wasted time and wasted fuel.
This kind of mass transit would attract the knowledge-based workers
we supposedly want around here.
Including jobs our high school and college graduates could take,
so they wouldn’t have to move elsewhere.
And upgrading the railroads, building stations, building and refurbishing houses and apartments near the stations, etc., would employ a lot of construction workers; probably as many as road projects and sprawling subdivision projects, but without the sprawl.
-jsq
$12M to widen US 41 N is more than $7.5M for a bus system
One short stretch of road vs. a three-line bus system to connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall.
Road and bridge proponents usually mutter that a bus system won’t pay back for years, if ever. And that’s right: bus systems usually operate at a loss because local governments subsidize them for the social and economic benefits they bring, such as these:
This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.Employment, safety, and less sprawl, all from a bus system.
What road and bridge proponents don’t ever mention is: Continue reading
$7.5 million T-SPLOST for a bus system
What would be the benefits?…including the creation and maintainance of a Public Transit System in the City of Valdosta and Greater Valdosta-Lowndes County.
This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.And that’s the entire description for this project. Nothing about promoting sprawl. Would actually promote dense close-in development. Can’t be very important, then, right?
Not when the sprawl plans for Val Del Road and Cat Creek Road add up to $6 million, or almost enough for the entire bus system.
Last time the transit system was being considered by the county,
I was asked by a prominent local politican, “would you ride it?”
Not every day.
But more often than I would drive on the $10 million five lane New Bethel Road.
If you’re interested in a potential bus system, here is a lot more information about it.
Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the 171 page PDF.
Project Sheet
Transportation Plan Open House, MPO
![](http://www.sgrc.us/transportation/images/VLMPO_planningarea.jpg)
Here’s a transcription of the PDF flyer:
Public Open House
Wednesday, February 17, 20103:00 PM to 5:00 PM
at the
Southern Georgia Regional Commission
327 W. Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, GA
2035 Valdosta-Lowndes MPO
Long Range Transportation Plan Draft Project List Review
Valdosta-Lowndes MPO
229-333-5277 … chull@sgrc.us … www.sgrc.us/transportation