I use to work at the headquarters of a very large retail corporation in the Smyrna/Vinings area. Around the time of Katrina when gas prices went up, one of the women who sat in a cube near my was complaining about her commute from Newnan. She was also upset by how much it cost for her husband to drive to his job in Norcross everyday. These people are free to choose where they want to live and want to work but should they also be free to have the government bulldoze neighborhoods between their freely chosen point A and point B in order to build nasty dirty interstates that deaden the areas around them? This wasn’t an isolate example either. We’re a metro of people who think transportation systems magically appear to sooth the consequences of the choices they’ve freely made.

If we stop blindly building insanely expensive transportation systems that have all manner of negative side effects in reaction to the choices freely made the residents of the metro, we might see some more rational behavior evolve. As it stands, people believe that they can freely choose whatever living and work situations pleases them and then require the government to come to their rescue when there are logistical consequences of the choices they freely made.

The problem is, the erstwhile leaders representing us have all been schmoozed and bribed with donations into believing that dumping federal, state and local taxpayer money into all these transportation pork barrels is somehow like a viagra stimulus – needed to enhance future development. When it comes to more highways and commuter rail, bigger isn’t better if you can’t afford and don’t really need it. And anyway, the taxpayers have “had enough already.”

I for one am tired of all this pessimism.

Governments depending on Type A/H1N1 and mutations for population control will be disappointed.

When you have Liberals like Handel and Deal running you must move to the Right.

True dat. He’s making Ralph Reed blush.

But it was all I could do not to type “Rusty, bless your sweet heart” after I read his first comment. (Hi Rusty!)

And I also agree about this being a potential problem in the general, though not an overwhelming one. But based on the tactics of the Ox thus far, I don’t think he believes he can move far enough to the right. His strategy, at least at this point, does not seem to be concerned with a general election.

If you read the comments, you’ll see that I actually agree with naughty Icarus’ political calculus. My point was although this may be a winner in the primary, I don’t see it having that great an upside. And it could haunt him in the general. It is a mistake to think everyone “within five miles of Briarcliff” is a hard core liberal. And the people that defeated the GA 400 in the 70s and the Carter Interstate in the 80s have a history of being nasty thorns in the sides of politicians.

I just don’t see the upside balancing out the potential long term damage.

The next governor needs to starighten out a dysfunctional DOT and needs to establish a modern funding source for transportation. After he has some clue about how much money can be spent, he can began to speculate on options and set some priorities.

Oxendine’s plan moves it outside the metro Atlanta area to the far northern counties with the idea of moving a lot of truck traffic off of I-285 and preparing as Atlanta and Chattanooga continue to grow towards each other.

The areas that would benefit the most from Oxendine’s plan would more likely be Calhoun/Dalton, Dahlonega, Corneila, and Commerce.

On the west side, it would be Calhoun/Dalton, Rome, Cedartown, Carrollton, Newnan, Barnesville, and (the City of) Forsyth. The western route will also add North/South access to the new Kia plant in West Point.