The state of our transit system in Cobb leaves a lot to be desired. We’ve primarily designed our transit system around commuting, and it shows. Buses on almost all routes run with 30 minute frequencies, and on Sundays every hour. Most residents don’t live near a bus stop, and even if they did the bus can’t take them where they need to go.
Aside from the functionality of our transit, a vocal minority of residents and many of our elected officials oppose expanding transit and view it as unnecessary. Efforts to address the short falls of our system are consistently met with opponents showing up to city and county meetings angrily in opposition. These people are often scared their neighborhoods will change, while others claim busses and trains are outdated forms of transportation.
The Facts
Transit is the backbone of any major city. This doesn’t mean people can’t drive their cars, but what it does mean is that alternatives need to be available, well maintained and well funded. Somewhere along the way of developing our cities, we decided that moving as many cars from one place to another was more important than how many people we were actually moving from one place to another. Busses and trains allow us to move dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of people in one vehicle between locations all at once, while taking up smaller amounts of the limited amount of land we have.
As our cities grow we can not continue to infinitely expand our roads and lanes to accommodate for more people. Transit is the solution to this problem.