Notes and a bit of Politickin’

Two Upcoming Rides:

Annual Mid-Summer (Lughnasad) Celebration Night Ride

Goes on Monday 13 August at 7:30 P.M. (promptly)

“Original Triple Gap”

Goes on Thursday 23 August at 8:00 A.M. (promptly)

For Route Description, Directions to Start, and other details, please refer to last Monday’s Post.

Now for the Politiks!

I work to leave my political views and opinions completely removed from the content on this blog.  I find it extremely annoying when others don’t.  Honestly, when I pick up a cycling magazine, or click into a cycling site, I am emphatically not interested in reading some writer’s or editor’s political jibes, jabs or japes.  That’s not why I went there.

So why am I about to write about the T-SPLOST?  Not so much because of its political connections, but rather because it is a transportation issue, and it’s local.  Transportation issues affect cycling.

Tomorrow is the Georgia Primary.  In addition to voting for or against the scoundrel of your choice, you will be afforded the opportunity to vote on a Referendum.  This is the notorious T-SPLOST.  That stands for “Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.”

I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of this monster.  But rather to simply point out that, in my opinion, it’s an incredibly bad deal.  It amounts to a method for Atlanta, the “North Metro” counties, and MARTA to be able to reach into our pockets.

Supposedly the tax will sunset ten years from now.  Normally a SPLOST is written so that it ends when either a pre-specified amount of money is raised, or on a date certain, whichever comes first.  But there is some odd and troubling language inside this SPLOST bill.  It can be argued that the wretched thing would go on for a long time.

The bulk of the money collected is intended to go to MARTA, and the thing, if passed, will put MARTA in our back yards.

I don’t see any of that as positive.

But wait!  There’s more!

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is in this thing up to its neck.  There has been a lot of wind expended by ARC and its spokesbeings (those clean shiny young men and women in their $1,000.00 suits, with the Oh-SO EARNEST and sweet expressions on their faces) about how the T-SPLOST will do so much good for pedestrians and cyclists.  Isn’t that just special?

Friends, I don’t claim to be especially well versed on all of the issues surrounding the ARC, but I have lived and worked in this county for the past 26 years.  In that time, I have been pretty active in bicycle advocacy, and I’ve paid a lot of attention to transportation “issues.”  I’ve been to a weary huge number of meetings.  I’ve seen a large number of ARC’s “consultants” come and go.  (These folks are sales-people, pure and simple.)  I’ve participated in lots of “community involvement workshops.”  I’ve attended a pretty good number of “Public Comment Hearings,” and “Project Presentations.”  Here’s the sum total of my experience in that time.

1. ARC isn’t all bad.  And yes, some regional planning and coordination makes sense.
2. ARC wants more control over the surrounding metro counties.
3. When ARC and the rest of the gang want to get something done, they are ready to promise the Sun, Moon, and Stars to the pedestrian and cycling communities.
4. Once the project is approved and funded, the promises turn out to be a paragraph or two of nice words about cycling, and the occasional “Share the Road” sign.
5. ARC and company are aware that cyclists vote.  They court that vote.  It can make the difference in a close referendum.  All well and good, but after the dust settles, they have a nasty habit of forgetting who their friends are.

Big Highway projects, MARTA, etc are not good for cyclists and pedestrians.  They put obstacles in the way of our riding and walking.  (If you don’t believe me, please go and look at the section of GA-74 between GA-54 and GA-85, or go and look at what is being done on the “West Bypass” between Sandy Creek Rd and GA-92.  (And if you don’t think those routes are going to get re-zoned and “commercialized,” I’m afraid you are in for a bit of a disappointment.)

The Kicker:

The T-SPLOST is a tax, pure and simple.  It will increase the cost of goods in our area, for at least ten year, and quite possibly longer.  Taxes decrease business.  Local sales taxes drive purchases to other locations or onto the Internet.  They also take money out of your pocket directly.

I urge you all to get to the polls tomorrow and vote NO! on the T-SPLOST.

Be sure to check out tomorrow’s post.  It’s the next in new three year long series on developing as a cyclist.