I am always astounded by the short-sightedness, selfishness, and plain sutpidity displayed in this region, especially when it comes to public transport. Jeff Cape’s post is just simple-mined idiotic macho swaggering. No, we do not love our roads and our cars as much as he says–yeah, if I only had to drive 10 minutes everyday, maybe, but a lot of people waste a lot more of their lives–alone, isolated–in cars than that.
Second, a few disruptive instances on public transport–compared to millions of smooth rides people have everyday–is not a sound, intelligent reason to dismiss it altogether. That’s just sensationalism and another example of this society wanting to barricade itself from problems rather than getting into the mix of life.
Did Mr. Cape ever consider the cost-benefit ratio of his few imagined naked people versus the millions of pounds of pollutants that would not go into our children’s lungs? The increased time public transport allows people to say, I don’t know, read or talk with other people outside their daily orbit? The competitive edge Atlanta would have over other backward cities that still think the way ATL does now about public transport? (Charlotte is already gaining fast on us.)
No, instead he creates unlikely scenarios and can’t see beyond his own windshield.
Living in Atlanta stinks compared to many other more enlightened cities up north–it’s a pain to get anywhere, not that there’s anywhere but generic strip malls to go to anyway. Then add many people like Jeff Cape who still think their outdated viewpoint is relevant to a fast-growing, globalized world with almost 7 billion people. Get with it Gwinnett.

Left by Jaimye on July 16th, 2008

Hi Jaimye.

I just stumbled upon this site and read your response.

A few things – the AJC heavily edited the column you see from what I originally wrote. Not that the message is different, but some items like “we name our roads after…” was written toungue-in-cheek..the ajc edited that and worded it differently than I wrote it (which was supposed to read funnier).

Also, I actually did do a cost-benefit analysis in my column. Again, the ajc cut that out mostly. My example sited that if I drove to, say, Lenox Square everyday, the cost to ride MARTA would save me a little over a dollar a day.

That brought me to my larger point. When you are on that train, you’re stuck with the people on it, good or bad. I used other examples (again, cut), like the girl who got trapped with 6 Mormons who spent their time trying to convert people in between stops.

I realize these are mostly isolated incidents, but they are far from “unlikely”…they are just common enough to make people by and large not want to ride MARTA. In your car, you don’t have to deal with that nonsense.

All that said, the column was actually written with a more humorous tint as I said – not as straightforward as you read it.

Just a couple of the reasons people won’t vote for it.

I appreciate hearing your viewpoint, however.

Left by Jeff Cape on July 21st, 2008

Yeah, when you don’t get paid to write ‘em, they can pretty much edit them as they see fit.

Left by Jeff Cape on July 22nd, 2008