by Victoria Broadus
June 30, 2010
There’s still hope for sustainable transit around Peachtree Street.
On June 2, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a comprehensive transport bill (HB 277) for the state, which we’re hoping will help Georgian cities – Atlanta, in particular – invest more in urban sustainable transport.
As The Economist highlighted last week, traffic in Atlanta is “purgatorial” on its best days and hellish all the rest.
Between 1987 and 2007, metro Atlanta’s population nearly doubled, from 2.6 million to 5 million, and in turn, the number of drivers during peak hours doubled, as well. By 2007, the 2.4 million drivers on Atlanta’s roads each day wasted a total of 135 million hours – and 96 million extra gallons of gasoline – stuck in traffic jams.
Georgia’s transit infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Between 2000 and 2006, Georgia was the third fastest-growing state, but it still ranks 49th in terms of infrastructure spending per capita.
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