This wise and obvious solution is one that will never be mentioned in any commission meeting.
Gas prices are rising and aren't likely to fall anytime soon. Already super-high car insurance premiums in the CSRA will increase, and in the May 2 paper we read that Augusta is the 21st-worst city in terms of air quality in the nation.
Augusta is a car city. With the current bus service, walking and bike paths, it is difficult to get around without your own transportation. Owning and driving a car is only going to get more expensive. People are already looking to drive fewer miles and have fewer vehicles. Several of my friends pay more to stay on the road than in their home.
Augusta is set to grow. Augusta State University and the Medical College of Georgia have both been increasing enrollment. Fort Gordon has grown. New businesses have been opening offices and manufacturing facilities here and some local businesses are really taking off. Even if we looked at the demographics alone, Augusta is just going to grow. We're not ready for it.
We've got to start thinking about other modes of transportation than just the car. Berckmans Road, the only sensible road between many neighborhoods, doesn't even have shoulders to walk or bike on. Crossing Washington Road any week outside of Masters Week is like playing the old video game Frogger .
It will take us a long time to build up our transit system to be reliable, frequent and extensive enough for it to be feasible for a more sizable portion of the populace. But until then, it would be great to at least have the privilege to bike to more places -- getting exercise, saving money, saving gas and reducing traffic congestion and air pollution -- without fearing for my life or impeding motorists. I think bike and foot paths, lanes or sidewalks are a much smaller step that more of us could get behind.
Sam Van Deest, Augusta
Comments
This wise and obvious solution is one that will never be mentioned in any commission meeting.
This type of thinking will get you labeled a liberal tree-hugger. The far-right is so bent on destroying our planet in the name of corporate profit, that all ideas to conserve and make our planet cleaner is met with aggressive slander.
if it weren't for profits, who would you suck dry to pay for your beloved welfare state. how would you promote bad behavior and irresponsible illegitimacy?
The people who are making the profits, are also getting tax breaks. corperate welfare.
I think the author was trying to find something that would get a lot of common ground.
Interestingly enough, the south use to be much more pedestrian and bus friendly as we were the poorer part of the country and had fewer cars.
I love Frogger!
Do you not realize all corporate taxes are paid by that corporation's customers in the form of higher prices?
People in Augusta are often too lazy to even park in the back of a parking lot and walk to the store. Most would definitely do anything to avoid walking or riding a bike to get around.
I would take the bus if it would run all of the CSRA!
Of course a bus service is important. I was astounded when a certain politician's wife thought otherwise on the radio recently.
I am always amazed by the myth that people in this area have bought into that Augusta is rapidly growing. Fact: The city of Augusta has fewer people today then it did in 2000. Fact# even though the metro Augusta area has seen modest growth in the last 8 years, it stil falls behind the state and national average. The only county within the metro Augusta area that has seen substantial growth is Columbia COunty, which added 20,000 people since 2000, but remember that some of those ppl came from neighboring counties like Richmond. So yes the Augusta area is growing, but not to the degree some ppl are suggesting it is.
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