Transit Archives | Page 8 of 16 | Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Tag: Transit

Friday Facts: August 15, 2014

posted 5 years ago on August 15th, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

It’s Friday! An important reminder: We want you to continue to receive our updates! To ensure that you receive Foundation e-mails, please add us to your address book or safe list. Events Aug. 28: “Unaccountable Government in Action: Capital Markets in the Fed’s Cross-Hairs” is the Foundation’s noon Policy Briefing Luncheon at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. Former SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins and the American Enterprise Institute’s Peter Wallison discuss the dangerous regulatory expansion of the Dodd-Frank Act. $30. For more information and to register, go to http://www.georgiapolicy.org/?p=13956. Sept. 19: Register now to reserve your seat at the 2014 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum. Talk show host and former presidential candidate Herman Cain is one of the… View Article

Getting with the Program on Georgia Transportation

posted 5 years ago on August 15th, 2014 by admin 2 Comments

By Benita M. Dodd The regional transportation sales tax referendum failed two years ago across most of Georgia and in metro Atlanta. So it’s encouraging to see movement again, in the form of a joint study committee on transportation funding that met in Atlanta August 5 for the first of seven meetings around the state before the 2015 legislative session. Testifying at the first meeting were Keith Golden, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation, Ray LaHood, former Secretary of Transportation, and Michael Sullivan, chairman of the Georgia Transportation Alliance, which is an advocacy arm of the Georgia Chamber. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has long maintained that transportation policy needs to be about congestion relief and improving mobility: Get… View Article

Friday Facts: August 8, 2014

posted 5 years ago on August 8th, 2014 by admin 2 Comments

It’s Friday! Events August 28: Mark your calendar to hear former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission Paul S. Atkins and the American Enterprise Institute’s Peter Wallison discuss the dangerous regulatory expansion of the Dodd-Frank Act. Registration for “Unaccountable Government in Action: Capital Markets in the Fed’s Cross-Hairs” opens next week. September 19: Register now to reserve your seat at the 2014 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum. Talk show host and former presidential candidate Herman Cain is one of the keynote speakers at the forum, whose theme centers on, “Tearing Down Walls,” in recognition of this year’s 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Experts will discuss tearing down the walls to… View Article

Transportation Deja Vu All Over Again

posted 5 years ago on August 7th, 2014 by admin 2 Comments

By Benita M. Dodd Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in town this week, advocating a 10 cent increase in the gas tax to go to Washington to fund transportation, citing crumbling transportation infrastructure and the state of the interstates. He said now that he’s out of office, he can speak more freely. He said Georgia, with the world’s busiest airport, has no one to influence Congress’ transportation policymakers. He said that we should send Washington the money, and maybe they’ll stand up and do the right thing. This he said after the state DOT commissioner, Keith Golden, talked about how undependable the federal government is and how the way the feds are spending is unsustainable. LaHood lectured legislators to… View Article

GPPF Friday Facts: August 1, 2014

posted 5 years ago on August 1st, 2014 by admin 3 Comments

It’s Friday! Events September 19: Registration is open for the 2014 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum. The theme this year is, “Tearing Down Walls,” in recognition of this year’s 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Keynote speakers include radio talk show host and former presidential candidate Herman Cain and Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute. Experts will discuss tearing down the walls to tax, education and health care reform in Georgia. Find out more and register at www.georgiapolicy.org/?p=3264. September 22: Mark your calendar for the showing of “Rockin’ The Wall” – about the impact of music on the fall of the Berlin Wall – sponsored by the Foundation at the… View Article

Op-ed: Buses, not costly rail, needed in Clayton

posted 5 years ago on July 23rd, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

The July 19, 2014, Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an op-ed by Benita Dodd on mass transit in Clayton County. By Benita M. Dodd By all accounts, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is operating infinitely more responsibly and responsively and, for that, CEO Keith Parker and a largely sensible MARTA board deserve credit. Unfortunately, that and the flimsy prospect of MARTA rail service for Clayton County hardly justify adding a penny to Clayton’s sales tax for MARTA to operate its mass transit. There’s that famous saying: “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Many Clayton workers have struggled with public transportation since the 2010 shutdown of C-Tran service. Remember why it shut down? That was the result of… View Article

Friday Facts: June 27, 2014

posted 5 years ago on June 27th, 2014 by admin 1 Comment

It’s Friday! Quotes of Note “The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill.” – Calvin Coolidge “[T]hinking that more federal aid will make college affordable is like believing that a dog can catch its tail if it goes faster. One reason colleges charge so much more today is that federal aid makes it easier for students to cover the bill. The more the government does, the less reason students have to demand cost control, and the higher tuition will climb.” – Steve Chapman “For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Events Today: Dinesh D’Souza’s latest movie, “America …… View Article

Friday Facts: June 20, 2014

posted 5 years ago on June 20th, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

It’s Friday! Quotes of Note “[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachment of the others.” – James Madison, Federalist No. 51, 1788 “It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final.… View Article

Studies: Cars, Not Transit, Will Help the Poor

posted 5 years ago on June 17th, 2014 by admin 3 Comments

‘Car ownership plants the seeds for upward mobility’ By Scott Beyer (The Daily Beast) For decades, urban planners have preached mass transit as the key to economic mobility, but new studies show that improving access to cars may be the best way to help the poor. Sometimes academic studies are good at officially validating what people already know intuitively. For Americans who wait through lengthy public transportation commutes, it’s common sense that owning a car would offer advantages. Now two recent studies show that cars offer more than just convenience: they can give lower income Americans an economic leg up. A 2011 Brookings Institute study (PDF) found that in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas, only 22% of… View Article

Cato Institute: The Rise of High-Cost, Low-Capacity Rail Transit

posted 5 years ago on June 16th, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

In his Policy Analysis for the Cato Institute released June 3, 2014, Randal O’Toole questions the motives of rail advocates who are willing to support high-cost, low-capacity rail transit, noting: “Supporters of low-capacity lines are not truly interested in transportation; supporters of high-cost lines are not truly interested in urban efficiencies.” The Worst of Both: The Rise of High-Cost, Low-Capacity Rail Transit Executive Summary By Randal O’Toole Most new rail transit lines in the United States and around the world are either light rail, including lines that sometimes run in or cross city streets, or heavy rail, which are built in exclusive rights of way, usually elevated or in subways. Heavy rail costs far more to build than light rail,… View Article