In case Tim Lee and other supporters of TSPLOST are still in a daze over why an $8 million ad campaign didn’t win over the unwashed voting masses, here’s a little lesson in political reality: We voters aren’t as stupid as you think.
We have seen how you’ve spent transportation and highway improvement money recently around Cobb County firsthand and it doesn’t make you look smart with our tax dollars. To wit, on Roswell Road, from the 120 Loop eastward, we now have a totally unnecessary, multi-million dollar right turn jug-handle to get on the 120 Loop from Roswell Road. This in spite of the fact that that the left turn under the bridge has worked fine for many years. Plus, we now have very handsome, red brick turning lanes, curbs and retaining walls up and down Roswell Road which are unnecessary as well.
We have almost a mirror image of this kind of useless expenditure on Sandy Plains Road at Sprayberry High School. Same thought process, redo the curbs, put in cute brick turn lanes — same waste of money. Not to be outdone, our highway gurus in government decided to redo the bucolic two-lane Wigley-Jamerson Road. More cute red brick islands and turn lanes and now CURBS and SIDEWALKS the entire length of the road from Sandy Plains to Canton Road at a cost of more millions. The traffic on this road was only moderately busy during rush hour, but new curbs and sidewalks should improve that. What on earth does a country road need with curbs and sidewalks? We have spent millions on a two lane country road to turn it into, are you ready, a two lane country road.
Thanks Tim Lee and all the others in government for showing us hay-seed voters what really can be done when you want to waste money on transportation. We got the message — did you get ours?
Dr. Richard Erickson
Marietta
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The only messages Lee pays attention to are the ones from the Cobb Chamber telling him what to do, what to say, who's rear end to kiss and when and where to go to the bathroom.
Without those instructions he wouldn't be able to find his way home each day.
Tim "bought and paid for" Lee is a leadership disaster.
Cobb built this 10 million dollar traffic center on the backs of our children's and grandchildren's futures. If there is anyone in there watching traffic, they have not come up with any solutions for timing the lights.
We all know that the worst commute in terms of time is getting onto the expressways. T-SPLOST did nothing to address this problem
Roswell Road was widened to 3 lanes east of the loop access. The right turn lane heading west on Roswell Road allowing access to Barnes Mill Road was removed, yet we now have a left turn lane for Wendy's. Yes, this turn lane goes no where else but to Wendy's, but now to go right on Barnes Mill to access I75 North, we must wait in a long line at the light.
I love the multi-million dollar round-about on Holly Springs Road that replaced 4 stop signs which had always worked. There is little traffic on Davis Road and this boondoggle was unnecessary. Fulton County installed 4 stop signs on Johnson Ferry Road recently, a much busier street than Holly Springs Road.
While waiting in line to turn right on Barnes Mill Road three times a week that I need to travel that way, I enjoy gazing at the empty turn lane into Wendy's. Great use of our tax dollars.
Otherwise there would be little need for the highly paid engineers who sit around thinking up ways to pave as much of our county as possible.
They are building capacity into the road system to address a few hours out of each day.
Not a very smart expenditure of scarce tax dollars.
I have live off of Sandy Plains Road for 25 years and preferred it the way it was before the engineers raped it with their big ideas.
Now instead of a pleasant, tree lined road we have a racetrack where you look into the backyards of houses along the way.
That's "faux" brick in a gaudy red color. You can't have a "world class" city without them. (And, they look great in front of all the beige faux stucco strip shopping centers with no trees.)