Over half the total funding, $3.2 billion, is going to a mode of transportation that less than 5 percent of commuters choose to use — mass transit.

I'm having fun reading through all of the misguided anti-transit editorials being slung around these days.  This thought of the week is from Steve Brown a Fayette County Commissioner.  He's trying to make the case that spending money on transit is a waste because only 5% of the metro area uses transit and that it is subsidized.  However, what he doesn't address is that virtually everyone in the metro area benefits from the transit system.  It takes over 400,000 trips off the roads each day.  That's 146,000,000 trips a year that would most likely be made by car on our roads.  So, the next time you hear someone say MARTA or transit is worthless, think about adding all of those cars to the roads... where does that get us?  STUCK IN TRAFFIC.  

I'd also like to point out that MARTA ridership would be much, much higher if for commuters could "choose" to ride.  That's the objective with the TIA2012.  Give Atlanta more choices.  

Comments

[Darin]

I wonder how accurate that "less than 5%" figure is. Is that the percentage of people in the metro who commute with MARTA (which of course doesn't cover the metro) or is it the percentage of people who use any kind of transit, including the Cobb system and the Gwinnett commuter buses?

Of course the ridonkulous this about pointing out stats on current transit usage at all is that metro Atlanta is one of the most transit-starved metros in the US as far as complete coverage goes. How can someone choose transit if it doesn't exist in their area?