It is a beautiful Monday morning. Yes, schools and government employees are off today. I could tell by coming to work an hour later this morning, and it taking me less time than the norm. What a difference schools being out make. In response to the Blue lady's solutions to traffic problems in this city, here's one for you: schools should mandate that only seniors be allowed to drive to high school. That would lessen the rush hour traffic by an enormous amount. Also, if parents would put their kids on school buses, provided by their tax dollars, we'd all be better off. I do like the idea of other transportation options in town, as driving will get worse because of all the building and new residents/business tenants being attracted to the area. Atlanta has never been a lesson in architectural intelligence. Then there's the MARTA mantra. I've ridden MARTA quite a bit. The disadvantage in the suburbs is just trying to get to a station. There's no good way to do it. The thought process for most people is; it takes so long to get to the station, I may as well continue to my destination because it's not that much further. There's another issue with MARTA. I had no problems with riding it any time of the day until about 1-2 years ago. I've noticed an increase in bad behavior on the trains, we know there have been incidents in the recent past of crimes committed at the rail stations, and there are NO MARTA police to be seen around the stations and especially in the rail cars themselves. This is unnerving, thus I haven't ridden on MARTA for a good while.

I don't believe any municipality should be forced to have something they don't want. If the taxpayers decide they want public transportation, then it's their obligation to let the elected officials know. MARTA has been in financial straits for a good while, due to inept board members sqaundering funds along with poor planning. As long as they parallel the Atlanta City Council, why would other counties want to spend money having MARTA as another burden. Why is tax money being spent for an independent MARTA police force when they're not available for riders? There is the Blue lady's argument about those counties benefiting from being part of the metro area, but the counties that have MARTA also benefit from people traveling from non-MARTA counties and spending money for entertainment, shopping, etc. There is also another discussion to be had about why some counties don't want MARTA, but we won't go there.