For the first time in 50 years, streetcars prepared to criss
cross the streets of Atlanta in a 2.7 mile route that connects residents and
visitors to several tourist attractions, museums and entertainment venues. At a
grand opening ceremony that unveiled the streetcars, which will operate free of
charge to riders in their first three months of service, Mayor Kasim Reed
offered some advice to lawmakers readying for a knock-down debate over
transportation funding: They should apportion the transportation funding 55%
in favor of roads and the other 45% for transportation.
“I think that we have to respond to peoples’ lifestyles and
what the public is demanding,” said Reed. His statements were also connected to
the recently published Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation
Infrastructure Funding's report that serves as a transportation blueprint for
the state of Georgia. The long-awaited transportation blueprint offered no
recommendations for a mass transit funding split, but suggested a historic
investment to the growth of transit. It pointedly said lawmakers should
encourage the “development of responsible, well-funded and coordinated public
transportation” in metro areas.
Source: The Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Washington Times
