Transportation
It's Not Easy Being a Transit Advocate in Atlanta
How do you improve congestion when there's zero political will to raise money to fix it?
Last July, residents of Atlanta took their long pent-up frustration with some of the worst traffic congestion in the country to the voting booth. On the ballot: a one-cent sales tax increase, projected to raise billions of dollars over 10 years to improve local roads, upgrade the transit system, build out streetcars, trails and Bus Rapid Transit. The vote was, in and of itself, a major milestone in this car-bound city.
"Congestion is bad here and we’re not unaware of it – everyone in Atlanta wants to do something about it," says Ted Bradford, a local transit advocate. "It really came to a head when we decided 'are we going to come together and cooperate and tax ourselves at a higher rate and do something about it?'"