Category Archives: Transportation

Local state legislative delegation at the Country Club

At the State Legislative Luncheon at the Country Club yesterday, sponsored by the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce, I found it more interesting what the legislators didn’t mention than what they did.

Frequent attendees told me the audience was much larger than in previous years, and one attributed that to the recent school consolidation referendum. Sitting side by side were Chamber Chair Tom Gooding and FVCS President Sam Allen.

Jeff Hanson introduced the legislators. He’s the Chair of the Chamber’s Government Affairs Council (GAC). He said they are seeking more participants. Hm, they have an Energy and Environment Policy Committee that’s chaired by someone from Georgia Power….

Tim Golden announced that the local delegation’s highest priority was to get $32 million for a Health Science Center for VSU. VSU Interim President Dr. Levy was there, as was former president “Dr. Z” as Tim Golden called him.

I was just talking to someone from SGMC in the food line about how it would be nice if the Industrial Authority would promote healthcare industries more. It’s good that the legislators are doing that, although it’s not clear that there are not other things that should be even higher priority.

Tim Golden also wants to remove a sales tax Continue reading →

Map of traffic fatalities in Lowndes County related to paving and widening

What do you see when you zoom in on traffic fatalities in Lowndes County, Georgia? Lots of road deaths on roads recently paved, for one thing.

Simon Rogers wrote for the Guardian 22 November 2011, US road accident casualties: every one mapped across America

369,629 people died on America’s roads between 2001 and 2009. Following its analysis of UK casualties last week, transport data mapping experts ITO World have taken the official data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – and produced this powerful map using OpenStreetMap. You can zoom around the map using the controls on the left or search for your town using the box on the right – and the key is on the top left. Each dot represents a life
The national view is very interesting, but let’s look at Lowndes County:

I don’t know what that adds up to, but it looks to me like a lot of dead people, and in just nine years, from 2001 to 2009. Far more dead people than killed by terrorism.

OK, but where are these fatalities happening? All over the county. Let’s zoom in on Hambrick Road: Continue reading →

Valdosta absorbed into Florida truck-to-rail network

Sometimes it’s better to just connect south of the border with Florida rather than waiting for Atlanta to do something.

Mark B. Solomon wrote for DCVelocity today, Florida East Coast to add Valdosta, Ga., to relay rail network, Expansion will take place early next year.

Florida East Coast Railway Co. (FEC) said today it would add Valdosta, Ga., to its so-called relay rail network, which allows truckers to drop off trailerloads with the FEC and have the railroad, rather than the truckers, transport the freight down the Florida peninsula to Miami. The expansion will take place early next year, the railroad said.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based FEC already operates such a service at Savannah, where truckers delivering loads originating in the Midwest and Southeast drop their loads with FEC at the Georgia city. FEC then trucks the trailer to its railhead in Jacksonville, where it is transloaded onto one of its trains for the 350-mile overnight trip to Miami. The trucker can then pick up a trailer in Savannah, a major manufacturing and distribution center, for the westbound return trip. Once the trailer is offloaded in Miami, FEC returns the empty equipment to Savannah.

Hm, you’d think the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) would be announcing something like this….

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Bicyclists at Valdosta City Council 10 November 2011

Courtesy of the camera of George Rhynes, here are the Citizens to Be Heard at Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting. Most of them are frequent cyclists, with a surprise ally speaking first. I think that’s all of them.

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How about some bike racks? —Matt Portwood @ VCC 10 November 2011

Matt Portwood told Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting that since his last address to the Council was so well received this time he brought friends (such as Heather Evans, who had just spoken) and an ally in the front row ( Roy Taylor, who spoke first) This time he asked for bike racks. If City Hall had one outside, their bicycles wouldn’t have been locked to the front step railing.

Here’s the video:


—Matt Portwood @ VCC 10 November 2011
bicycle, path, health care, health, sidewalk, grant,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 November 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

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Community’s need for public transportation, bike lanes, and walking —Heather Evans @ LCC 10 November 2011

Heather Evans provided a petition with more than 200 signatures, and told Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting she got requests frequently while working in community service for something to be done about non-automobile transportation. She presented a variety of evidence.
Ideally, I’d like to see bike lanes all over town. But if I had to pick one to start with, St. Augustine would be my choice. I choose this road because it also needs to have a completed sidewalk segment. I can’t tell you how many people including myself have been endangered while using this portion of road.

George Rhynes took this video and remarked:

WOW! Valdosta-Lowndes County is now being seen as a real metro city and citizens are asking questions to their elected officials. WOW! The old control, suppress, and abate is apparently unacceptable in 2011 as we get ready for the 2012 Presidential election.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Health and safety through bicycles —Roy Taylor @ VCC 10 Nov 2011

Roy Taylor spoke first in Citizens to Be Heard at Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting:
We need bicycle paths in this community, very very badly. I travel to Europe… and they have bicycle paths all over, and it helps our children as they are growing up. It helps us as adults…. It helps all of us…. It is good for our children, our community.

I want you to think about the health care cost that those bicycles can save. In the health care we have to pay, the hospitalization, the medical costs, if we keep our bodies in good shape.

You have a grant in here now of about $75,000 to $100,000 … school money. I can think of no finer way for those children than to walk the sidewalk and to ride a bicycle.

That’s right: Roy Taylor spoke in favor of a grant, and for bicycles. Bicyclers listened from the back before some of them spoke: Continue reading →

Bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation —Warren Turner to Roy Copeland @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

Two attorneys brought a point into the light that CUEE doesn’t like to talk about: bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation. That was stated by the attorney for the Lowndes County School System, Warren Turner, 4 October 2011.

Roy Copeland brought up some names from the past: Mrs. Copeland or Mrs. Adams, and the newscasters Huntley and Brinkley. He then asked about the consent decree on desegregation from back in that era:

Has anyone given any thoughts to the issues relative to the consentdecreee, desegregation, and the realignment of school districts relative to the Voting Rights Act 1965 preclearance, and all those other issues.
Lowndes County Schools Attorney Warren Turner answered the question, after Roy Copeland mentioned they were neighbors. The answer was basically that there would be a hearing before November 8th. Hm, I wonder what happened with that? As far as what happens if consolidation is approved by the Valdosta voters, he said, among other things:
So the concept of a neighborhood school, where everybody stays where they are, is not going to happen in my opinion, because the federal government is not going to allow that to happen.

Finally, Roy Copeland asked: Continue reading →

Public Transportation recommended by Industrial Authority’s Community Assessment

Perusing the Community Assessment for Lowndes County sponsored by Georgia Power and prepared by Janus Economics for the Industrial Authority, I noticed on page 28 under Recommendations:
There is a plan for a public transportation system in Valdosta-Lowndes County but it currently lacks funding for implementation. Under current budget constraints it will be difficult to implement such a project, but businesses in the industrial parks and outlying areas may want to implement a limited transportation system if they discover that employee attendance is an issue.
Also on page 9 of the corresponding presentation slides under Product Recommendations: Continue reading →

T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn report by Matt Portwood

Received this morning. -jsq
Today’s [yesterday now] T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn was the final event in the city’s
community planning month. The event was hosted by Corey Hull who taught the basics of the state’s 1% transportation sales tax. Hull’s powerpoint presentation was apparently the same one he’d spoken on several times before. As a result there was no new information. However, the presentation was revealing to me, as I’ve not been following the state’s T-SPLOST plans.

Hull spoke for roughly 40 minutes then opened the floor for Q&A. The audience quickly split between enthusiastic supporters and opponents. One supporter, a member of the Berrien County Chamber of Commerce vented her frustration over the number of businesses that will be leaving her county due to crumbling roads and out of touch freight centers. As she argued, T-SPLOST would allow a smaller community like Nashville to reduce the need for its citizens to travel to Valdosta to shop, providing a much needed boost to the local economy. One man, a strong opponent of the tax plan, described it as simply a “redistribution of wealth.” As he explained, if the T-SPLOST plan were to pass following the July 2012 vote it would only hurt local business owners. Furthermore he claimed that if local municipalities were to take responsibility for state and federal highway management, local governments would retain the costs in the long term.

Hull seemed reluctant to challenge either audience member. Instead he focused on highlighting the basics of the plan. This included explaining the basics of the 75% regional revenue pot and the 25% local discretionary pot. The approved project list that Hull passed out included plans for improvements to the Five Points intersection, a St. Augustine Road overpass, and widening of Jerry Jones Road. Hull explained that this would include both Jerry Jones and Eager Road. I asked Hull about Larry Hanson’s statement concerning the City of Valdosta’s rule that all road widening projects include a bike lane. Corey Hull explained that the road improvements to Jerry Jones would include a bike lane which would link to the lanes already on Melody Lane and Lankford Dr. This would create a bike lane from St. Augustine Road to N. Oak Street.

-Matt

Corey’s slides are on the SGRC web pages. The problem with T-SPLOST is that it forces communities like Nashville and Valdosta to all vote on projects that don’t have much relation, with penalities for not voting yes. The mayor of Nashville is the chair of the steering committee, and even he complained that if they didn’t turn in a list of projects by a given time, there was a penalty for that. These penalties are reductions in state transportation funding for other existing projects. For that matter, why should the Jerry Jones bike lane be tied to the Old US 41 N widening boondoggle that went from $8M to $12M in two months? No one will tell us who raised it or why, nor who made all these other wild swings in estimated costs. Meanwhile $7.5M for a bus system from Wiregrass Tech to southside, from Moody to the Mall, by way of VSU, VHS, and LHS, has vanished from the list.

Anyway, regarding yesterday’s event, according to Corey Hull, the City of Valdosta was going to video it and Corey will advertise when it will appear on the City’s TV channel. For those of us who don’t get that channel, there is some unknown level of possibility the videos may be on the web.

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