Monday, June 18, 2012

T-SPLOST: how will local governments spend their share?

In Public ‘in the dark’ on T-SPLOST $1B, the AJC explores the question of how local governments will use a sizeable chunk of money that is allocated to them:
Each of the region’s counties, cities and towns would get a share of the $1 billion to spend on transportation. But unlike the regional $6 billion fund, there is no requirement to list a single project for the $1 billion local fund. In many cases, voters at the polls July 31 will have no way of knowing where the projects are that the local money would build. . . . The Atlanta Regional Commission has been working for months to get the local governments to assemble lists. Its referendum website has a place for counties and towns to post their discretionary project lists. A few have. Most have posted nothing. Some have generic transportation Web pages.
So... off to the Atlanta Regional Commission's website, and in particular, their T-SPLOST section. A small link at the bottom shows plans for DeKalb (pdf). There are other maps/presentations at the ARC's website so make sure you visit.

Below is some detail for our area. Looks like ours side of Clairmont gets nothing, but Buford Highway gets some pedestrian improvements, thank goodness. There are also improvement plans for North Druid Hills Rd.

Red = roadway projects, Blue = transit projects, Green = Bike/Pedestrian projects
from http://www.metroatlantatransportationreferendum.com/documents/project_maps/DEKALB_V2.pdf
And here, a screen capture of the GoogleEarth Flyover Tour of projects for the inside the perimeter central region. For the whole presentation, go to http://vimeo.com/36774786. Clifton Corridor improvements are highlighted ~6:36 minutes into the video, the Lindberg/Emory rail around 6:5,1 and the image captured below, showing cycling/pedestrian improvements within City of Decatur, around 7:40.
Screen capture from Central Subregion Referendum Tour http://vimeo.com/36774786