Atlanta's Mayor Reed wants 45% of transportation funding dedicated to transit

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