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The incredible disappearing transit machine

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Last Friday an agenda item about a transit presentation by Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce CEO, Northpoint CID Director and Georgia DOT Board member Brandon Beach magically appeared on the Alpharetta City Council docket for Monday night. I was surprised to see such an item appear out of thin air and wrote about it in this post over the weekend.

Well apparently I wasn’t the only one surprised. Several City Council members told me that they didn’t know anything about it until last Friday either.  Then yesterday, as magically as it appeared, the transit presentation disappeared and never took place. Curious stuff.

Maybe Mr. Beach saw the recent article “The Public Transport Revolution – Why does it never Arrive?” on Newgeography.com and realized that MARTA trains were a waste of time and money. You can read the whole article here but below are a few highlights.

Urban economist, Anthony Downs, writing in “Still Stuck in  Traffic?” reminds us:

“….trying to decrease traffic congestion by raising  residential densities is like trying to improve the position of a painting hung  too high on the living room wall by jacking up the ceiling instead of  moving the painting.”

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One of the arguments used against building more roads – and  especially against more motorways – is that as soon as they are built they  become congested again because of “induced demand.” Such “induced demand” is  surely the natural expression of suppressed demand. It seems unlikely  that motorists will mindlessly drive between different destinations for no  other reason than they can.

However, let us accept for a moment that “induced demand” is  real, and suggests that improving the road network is a fruitless exercise. Advocates  of expensive rail networks claim they will reduce congestion on the roads and  improve the lot of private vehicle users as a consequence.

But surely, if the construction of an expensive rail network  does reduce congestion on the roads then induced demand will rapidly restore  the status quo. Maybe the theory is  sound after all. It would explain why no retrofitted rail networks have  anywhere resulted in reduced congestion.

This is the time to invest in an enhanced roading network while  making incremental investments in flexible public transport. Roads can be  shared by buses, trucks, vans, cars, taxis, shuttle-buses, motor-cycles and  cyclists – unless compulsive regulators say they are for buses only. Railway  lines can be used only by trains and if we build them in the wrong place they  soon run empty. The Romans built roads and we still use them.

So maybe the incredible disappearing transit machine shows that local business leaders now realize raising sales taxes to pay for expensive, inefficient trains is a waste of time and money. And maybe the Georgia Department of Transportation will make up for decades of neglecting roads in what has been one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.

And maybe I’ll ride a flying pig to Braves games this Summer.

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Last day of Georgia’s legislature and they vote to give tax breaks to mall developers. Just what we need. http://bit.ly/eRjhxy

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Update 9:49 a.m. 4/15/2011

Yesterday I relied on the article cited above when writing this post. The Augusta Chronicle article said:

The Senate Finance Committee voted  unanimously to amend House Bill 234 by adding wording that will give the  developers of resorts, amusement parks and large malls sales-tax money to cover  as much as one-fourth of their construction costs.

After reviewing the legislation as posted on the state website here I think the newspaper article mischaracterized the part about large malls. The bill actually attempts to exclude malls with the following wording:

A tourism attraction shall not include the following:

(A) Facilities that are primarily devoted to the retail sale of goods, shopping centers, restaurants, or movie theaters

Based on my review of the actual legislation I believe my characterization was also incorrect and inaccurate. I am not a fan of targeted tax incentives thrown into unrelated bills and there is still plenty of wiggle room for some malls to benefit from the bill but I do believe I erroneously called the bill a tax break for mall developers.

I apologize for the error and will be much more cautious when relying on newspaper articles from established print media sources in the future.

Fare Thee Well Chipper

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Fourteen years ago I came home from work and my wife told me she wanted a dog.

At the time Mary Anne and I had been married a little over a year and we lived in a townhouse. We were both about 30 years old. We didn’t have any children and when we weren’t working we travelled so we were rarely home. Weekends were spent out of town visiting friends or family and whenever the opportunity presented itself we would fly off for vacation. Life was good.

So I wasn’t really looking forward to having a dog at that point. I’ve always loved dogs and there was at least one in my family’s home the whole time I was growing up. But I never had a dog after I moved out on my own even though I loved them. Being responsible for another living thing was just too much of a commitment for me when I was single and on my own.

But I wasn’t on my own anymore and Mary Anne wanted a dog. And even though I knew I’d be the one cleaning up after the little critter I gave in without a fight because in the back of my mind I thought, “Well, maybe this will buy me some time before she wants to have kids.”

Mary Anne finally settled on a little cream colored maltee-poo that we named Chipper. Chipper was a little too high strung for my tastes but he latched on to Mary Anne immediately. He followed her everywhere and when she wasn’t around Chipper tolerated other people until his Mama got home. And once she walked in the door he would go nuts. He’d run around in circles and yap until she picked him up. On road trips, as long as Chipper could sit on Mary Anne’s lap he was a happy camper, so he turned out to be a great traveler too.

Then four weeks after we got Chipper I came home from work and Mary Anne told me she was pregnant. Once the shock of the news started to wear off I can remember smiling at Mary Anne and saying, “Can we take the dog back?”

For the next few months Chipper was in heaven. He tolerated me being around and he soaked up all the affection that a pregnant woman could give. And Chipper gave it back just as good as he got.

But once our son Justin was born Chipper had to adjust to not being the complete focus of Mary Anne’s affection anymore and he didn’t like it. As a matter of fact I’m not sure Chipper ever accepted the fact that he wasn’t Mary Anne’s only child. Eventually Chipper did begrudgingly tolerate the little baby much like he did me and we watched together as Justin grew over the years.

Then when Chipper was seven years old we brought home another baby and he was once again quite annoyed. Later we brought another puppy into the family and by then it hardly seemed to faze Chipper at all.

In fact having a new pup around gave Chipper the chance to finally boss someone around and he seemed to relish the opportunity. And it was hilarious to watch a 6 pound maltee-poo intimidate the new kid on the block even after that little pup grew into a 100 pound labradoodle.

Then a few years ago I turned forty and noticed that my eyes weren’t nearly as sharp as they used to be. Aches and pains started to pop up that I had never felt before. I slipped a disc in my back. Age was starting to take its toll and I was no longer invincible.

And it started happening to Chipper too. He started having trouble jumping on to his favorite chair. He too slipped a disc in his back and his eyesight started to go. Age was taking its toll on both of us.

But time was working much more quickly in Chipper’s case and his aging served as a powerful reminder of my own mortality.

Yet even age couldn’t keep Chipper from going crazy every time Mary Anne came home. She could walk into the house after a long day at work and the kids might not take their noses out of video games or television and I might keep typing away on the computer but Chipper always ran to the door to greet Mama. You always knew when Mary Anne came home because he would be running around in circles and yapping his head off.

But no more. Chipper took his last breath today. And for the first time in fourteen years I will lay down in my bed tonight without that ornery little guy acting annoyed at my intrusion and then snuggling into the small of my back.

Fare thee well Chipper. You were like our first child.

P.S. I was just kidding about taking you back.