By
Richard Arena

Three years ago Metro-Atlanta voters roundly rejected a one percent (1%) transportation tax when the public learned that the proposed T-SPLOST was not a remedy for Atlanta’s chronic traffic congestion as promoted but actually a taxpayer funded stimulus for developers who planned to transform Metro-Atlanta from a predominantly suburban landscape into a high-density, high-rise environment concentrated along MARTA rail lines.

While Metro voters roundly rejected urbanization, still the state, some municipalities and other parties with vested interests haven’t given up on their plans to stack-and-pack we the unwashed into multifamily housing and have us riding cheek-to-jowl on public transit. They’re just coming at it piecemeal and shifting to subtler forms of marketing propaganda to convince us that urbanization is: 1) inevitable; and 2) what we really want.

Turning back to the problem – traffic congestion – the question is: is public transit, be it bus or rail, really the best solution? If this was 1890 or even 1990, it might be, but this is 2015. Practical technology exists to transform transportation so radically that traffic congestion and highway carnage can (and I predict will) be eliminated within a decade or two – all without sacrificing the privacy of travel in our own vehicles or having the freedom to travel when and where we like. How? Intelligent Transportation.

Cars are available today with on-board guidance capabilities that are the forerunners of vehicles that will literally drive themselves. Already you can buy cars that self-parallel park, adjust speed to traffic conditions, stop or stay in lane if the car is on a collision course. Soon those features will be coupled with the GPS. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where that goes. In the not too distant future you’ll be able to order a vehicle on your mobile that fits your precise needs for each intended trip. Need a one-passenger to take you to the dentist or an eight-passenger to carry the whole family, the dog and beach gear to Lanier; no problem. You’ll voice program your destination and off you’ll go. When you arrive the car will self-park or return to a pool to await the next customer – your option.

That technology is here – NOW. Just as carriage makers and horse breeders lost out when the internal combustion engine transformed transportation at the turn of the 20th Century, so too there will be “losers” with the upcoming transportation paradigm shift. Accidents will plummet and that will impact the insurance industry and automotive repair businesses. Since we’ll be able to get the specific car we need whenever we need it, car rental will boom while car ownership will decline – along with auto dealerships, homes with garages, parking decks, quick lubes etc. Expect all those vested interests, including the advocates of public transit and urbanization, to try and stand in the way of the coming transportation revolution. Perhaps they’ll hold up things for a while, but as the Japanese and Europeans embrace Intelligent Transportation, the U.S will have to follow.

What’s the point? Let’s don’t let our elected representatives rope us into 19th century solutions when the best of all transportation worlds is on the near horizon.

Intelligent Transportation, a future we can live with Atlanta!