Atlanta announced yesterday that the city’s long talked about bike share program will be up and running later this year.  It will feature 500 bikes at up to 50 different stations around the city, according to Creative Loafing.  Here are a few more details supplied by CL…

The city’s planning department is currently determining where to install the bike share stations. The bike share operation will use Social Bicycles’ smart-bike system to equip each bike with a GPS-enabled locking device. That system will allow a rider to park the bike at any public bike rack or rental station. Officials also plan to set up a website and mobile app to allow riders to find and rent available bicycles.

You may recall that when word of a Atlanta bike share program was first announced back in 2013, Decatur was thinking about collaborating with Atlanta on the transportation project.   However, we learned last March that Decatur dropped plans to operate a similar bike share in conjunction with Atlanta due to its expense.

More info on Atlanta’s bike share program HERE.

The Georgia Legislature’s Transportation Committee has approved a new version of its transportation bill, which now heads to the Rules Committee.

Here are some highlights from various articles as to what’s changed and what’s stayed the same in this version of the bill.

• Local SPLOST and HOST funding won’t come from gas tax, but rate increases – From the Atlanta Business Chronicle. “…in a tradeoff aimed at addressing complaints from local governments, the bill would increase some of the hodgepodge of sales taxes charged at the local level – including Atlanta’s sales tax financing the city’s ongoing sewer system overhaul – from the current 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The increase would help offset the financial impact of a provision in the bill prohibiting local governments from collecting sales taxes on gasoline.”
• Specifics on the “hodgepodge” referenced above from the AJC ” HB 170 would leave alone SPLOSTs and similar taxes levied by school districts but require any revenue raised from motor fuel go to a wide variety of transportation uses. Any municipal option sales tax or local option sales tax used to roll back property taxes, however, would no longer apply to motor fuel and the rate would increase from 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The bill would still abolish existing state sales taxes on motor fuel and implement a new excise tax of 29.2 cents per gallon of gasoline and 33 cents per gallon of diesel fuel.”
• $5000 Electric car state income tax credit axed –  From the AJC – The bill would “also would end the state’s $5,000 income tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles and create a new annual registration fee for electric cars. The fee would be $200 for personal vehicles and $300 for commercial cars, trucks, vans and buses.”
• Airline tax break on gas eliminated – The bill “strips Delta and other airlines of a tax break on the purchase of jet fuel.”  The airline industry has benefited from the tax break for over a decade according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
• Gas tax to increase 20 cents a gallon – A WABE article adds that the original and revised bill increase the state tax on gas by 20 cents a gallon.

Back in late January, we spoke with City Manager Peggy Merriss about the potential impact of lower revenue from HOST.  Here’s her thoughts on what it would mean for Decatur…

If the HOST sales tax is reduced by redirection to a state excise tax, we would either have to do fewer HOST projects, use more property tax revenues or repave fewer local streets.  And the local projects that are funded by sales tax revenue will not be funded by the state excise tax, as that will go to state projects.  There is no win for local governments in this equation.

We’ve followed up with the City Manager for her thoughts on the recently revised bill, which increases the tax rate from 1% to 1.25% to offset the loss of gas taxes.  We will update this post when we receive a reply.

UPDATE: Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss says that based on their rough estimates, the new proposal to exempt motor vehicle fuel, but up the % levied from 1% to 1.25% should be a “revenue neutral proposition”.

Photo courtesy of Chad

Polls are showing that Atlanta’s $250 million transportation bond is likely to pass when it goes before city of Atlanta voters next month.

We reported back in January that the plan included removing the DeKalb Avenue “reversible lane”.  But obviously there are a lot of other projects on the proposed list.  A broader reaching item on the list is syncing Atlanta’s traffic light system.  Creative Loafing reports…

As part of its upcoming $250 million infrastructure bond package, it currently plans to spend more than $35 million — the final figure and list of projects is still being approved — to sync traffic signals and replace others across the city. Though traffic engineers have updated signals in some parts of Atlanta, lights haven’t been synchronized on a citywide level in a long, long time. According to at least one report, we’re talking the 1970s.

More than one-third of the city’s intersections with traffic signals — about 350 out of 960, the mayor’s office says — has received upgrades. Some of those improvements have occurred thanks to a Georgia Department of Transportation grant program. Mayor Kasim Reed spokeswoman Jenna Garland tells CL the city could complete the work needed to sync up all intersections if voters approve the bond package on St. Patrick’s Day.

However, when drivers wins, pedestrian and cyclists often lose.

CL quotes Sally Flocks, president and CEO of pedestrian advocacy group PEDS, who suggests that the city should make sure lights are timed to encourage driving at slower speeds.  Additionally, Michael Hunter, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, suggests that all modes of transportation need to be considered while optimizing traffic lights.  He also notes that a one-time influx of funding to fix the issue isn’t enough.  Funding for ongoing maintenance is important and often overlooked by cities.

**Related Note** And before anyone jumps off on the tangent about Decatur’s traffic light synchronization, check out this post from last August.  Decatur is waiting for DeKalb to upgrade traffic signals around the city before taking over traffic light synchronization.  That upgrade project has been pushed back until 2017.

Decatur Active Living’s Cheryl Burnette sends in this announcement…

The tenth annual “Georgia Rides to the Capitol” will be on Tuesday, March 24.

The event, co-sponsored by the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association (MAMA), is designed to raise support for the development of a regional-scale bicycle network of both on-road facilities and multi-use trails, and cycling connections near major facilities, activity centers and schools. The bike ride is free and open to the community but participants should pre-register at www.GeorgiaRidesToTheCapitol.org. Preregistered cyclists will receive a free reflective leg-band.

Join Commissioner Fred Boykin and other City of Decatur staff members for the Decatur leg of the ride. The Decatur ride leaves from the north parking lot of the East Lake MARTA Station, 2260 W. College Avenue at 10:45 a.m. and arrives at the Capitol at approximately 11:40 am. The ride from Decatur is five miles one way with some hills and will proceed at a slow pace.

Visit www.georgiabikes.org for more information.

Decatur Station circa 1987 courtesy of RailPictures.net

So I realize that the railroad lines in Decatur are anything but “hidden”.

Horns blare. Trains regularly stop traffic.  Especially this week, as CSX has caused major traffic havoc along Decatur streets, closing the South McDonough and Candler Street intersections for rail maintenance.

But have you ever considered: why IS there a train line in Decatur?  Or perhaps a better question is “why was a railroad built through Decatur?”

Quite often the location of cities and towns are highly influenced by the natural landscape.  This is most obvious in cities situated along rivers, lakes and oceans.  Cities more likely to survive and thrive exist in areas when the natural landscape provides them with an advantage over other areas.  Think about the  “natural ports” of New York City, Charleston and Savannah.

Decatur – and Atlanta’s – natural advantage isn’t quite as noticeable as a large body of water or a rushing river.  Yes, Atlanta has a river, but the fact that it’s no where near the population center is a good clue that it wasn’t a major influencing factor in the settlement and success of the city.

To see Atlanta and Decatur’s natural advantage, you actually gotta look at a topographic map.

Read the rest of this entry »

As we reported back in January, the 2014 Citizen Survey showed that a majority of Decatur residents voiced their approval of a 25 MPH city-wide speed limit for residential roads.  We followed up with the city who told us they were still working through the many questions associated with the project.

At last night’s meeting, the commission listened as residents along Harold Byrd Drive and Maedris Drive in the Westchester neighborhood submitted a petition for traffic calming measures along their streets (four-way light, speed humps, etc), to deal with cut-through traffic from Scott Boulevard and Clairemont.

They then listened as numerous Decatur Heights residents took the podium and asked that the city commission take action on the 25 mph residential speed zone petition for Sycamore Drive the entire Decatur Heights neighborhood, which was accepted by the commission back in 2011, and also address other lingering speed-related issues in the neighborhood.

Later in the meeting, Asst. City Manager David Junger described to the commissioners the many difficulties involved of lowering the speed limit on any residential street in Decatur, let alone across the entire city.

Decatur Heights residents along Sycamore Drive have also separately pursued a 25 MPH Residential Zone speed limit along their stretch on road north of Ponce. So far, they’ve achieved a 30MPH Residential Zone designation. However, the requested 25 MPH hasn’t been accommodated, because of the method used by the Georgia Department of Transportation to determine speed limits. A new speed study request is in the queue.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE IV: AJC reports the Southbound Connector has reopened.

UPDATE III: The device has been detonated, and the police are now working to reopen the connector, but are strongly advising that you avoid Midtown/Downtown Atlanta.  At this point you better break out your Waze app, or Google Maps, or head over to the GDOT website because it’s going to be a rough commute home for many.

————————————————

Read the rest of this entry »