It is disappointing that the regional roundtables' executive committee produced a project list missing enough funding to start building light rail for Gwinnett. Yet the prject list includes almost all the funding for building a road in the route where the outer perimeter highway was to be built before public sentiment against it scuttled that project. This will just add to the sprawl that we are already dealing with and rewuire more infrastructure (water and sewer lines, more roads, etc.) to be built to support that sprawl on aroute that studies showed wouldn't be needed until 2030 if growth continued at the rate it was ten years ago.

Good article. Thanks for the work and sharing.

RE light rail - I think the biggest issue with light rail and the existing MARTA footprint is that it's really limited to low volume locations. Look at cities with large subway systems and how sprawl is handled. If you have to drive in gridlock to get to a bus or rail station and this take a train then a bus to get where you really want to go then why not just drive yourself? Public transportation requires the rider to give up the freedom of having their own vehicle available to go anywhere anytime they want to go. If light rail were to connect more areas rather than just point A and point B maybe it would be a more favorable option to consider. But how does light rail from Doraville to the Gwinnett Arena help people in Lilburn, Stone Mountain, Snellville, Lawrenceville, Winder, Loganville, and Buford?

As I recall Gov Perdue scuttled the outer perimeter, not public sentiment.

Even though operating expenses for buses are higher than light rail, capital infrastructure cost for buses must be a fraction of any type rail.

With rail is there any possiblity that it will ever recoup the infrastructure cost?

RE: "Some pro-transit residents argue that light rail, etc."

Yeah that's a great idea. Let's tax the oil industry that is already required to obtain oil from OPEC nations because we can't drill for our own oil. In case you "Greenies" have not noticed, when you increase taxes on businesses, they pass along their increased costs to consumers in the form of higher prices, so we will all pay more money for gas in our cars. That's O.K., though, as we we can all get on our bicycles or just walk to work and the government can provide "incentives" for us to drive less. Absurb! "Greenies" forget that the money for "incentives" is either borrowed from the Chinese or taxed from American taxpayers. If California is doing so well, we should all adopt fiscal policies to mimic them so we can all go down the drain together. Save America! Abolish the EPA!

Brian - I agree with your first comment about starting to produce more than we have in the earlier 2000 years, but if you look at the graph you link to it's been a steady decline since the mid 80's so your loose blaming it on the Bush Administration seems a little hasty.

As for your 2nd comment I'm not sure what year you're looking at, but it seems our OPEC imports are in the high 40% or at 50% of all our imports since 2005. (http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_neti_a_ep00_IMN_mbblpd_a.htm)

Finally, last I looked California was nearly broke and is one of the more higher taxed states in the country. That's why businesses are leaving California as fast as they can.

Crawford and Scott, I have asked the American Petroleum Institute (API) for their latest figures on domestic production and foreign imports.

@Crawford. No, I am saying I don't trust your math.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fkbEuCQss
Here is your Hero Mr. Crawford, using his own words. Tax big oil, which as Mr. Orr has stated is simply passed down to the consumer (higher gas prices) and "give the people some money back in the form of a rebate" (my words). NO DRILLING Mr. Obama says because it wouldn't do anything to help us for a long time. Well, that was nearly 4 years ago. How much closer are we to being energy independent now? We have those awesome wind turbines..., oh wait, their killing all the birds, and those electric cars are doing so well...oh wait, they only sold 125 +/- Volts in the entire US last month. At least we found one pre-election promise that President Obama has kept. He said then he wasn't drilling and he hasn't.

Brian - Check this one too. It's recent.

http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-amazon-pulls-out-in-california-over-sales-tax-debate-20110629,0,4048023.story

Georgia isn't far behind with recent talk about the "use" tax and that the state is missing out on tax money when people buy online items or when somebody from DeKalb county comes to Gwinnett and pays our 6% tax rather than their 7% tax.

I don't wish to get into a LEFT/RIGHT discussion, but why is it always the first word out of so many politicians mouth to raise taxes (or close "loopholes") to help balance the budget when it is some of the same politicians that developed the loopholes in the first place. Why don't we hear about real plans to limit spending? Why must we fund everything by higher taxes? Let's cut spending so we can cut taxes and then we would all have more money in our pocket to support some of these local businesses that are having a rough time in the current economy.

Those of you commenting to Crawford need to realize that there are still socialist among us who continue to believe that it the late socialist President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who through his so called "New Deal socialist programs, brought America out of the Great Depression following the stock market crash of 1929. This has been handed down to each subsequent socialist generation. It is not correct. What brought America out of the Great Depression was the Japanese at a place called Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941. FYI, when Obama returns from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard and announces his job plans for America, look for said jobs to be similar to those created by Roosevelt's WPA program. Some of you will recall that it took 8 WPA workers to cut the grass in an area that measured 25 ft. by 25 ft. Why 8 you might ask? The answer is that with the WPA you would have 2 coming, 2 going, 2 wondering, and 2 mowing.

Good to see the memory of John Birch is kept alive. Or is that John Birther?