Gary M. Wisenbaker, Valdosta Today Opinion Contributor
October 1 marked the 107th anniversary of America’s marriage to the automobile, officiated by Henry Ford and his Model “T”. That day the world entered an era of personal transportation free of the horse, mule, ox, elephant and rickshaw boy.
The idea caught on here and with it broadened the average American’s sense of liberty and independence.
The United States DOT estimates that there are over 204 million personally owned vehicles in America, about 1.8 vehicles per household
Valdosta is no less prolific with three cars for every two households. More than that, roughly 90 percent of Valdosta’s population owns at least one vehicle. If one doesn’t own a car, they know someone who does.
Local transportation options, then, aren’t limited to Shank’s pony.
Yet last May the Lowndes County Democratic Party figured it’s time for taxpayer funded public transportation in Valdosta.
The concept is not new.
Back in 2006 a Metropolitan Planning Organization public transportation study concluded that a transit service would have a “fairly high probability of success”, whatever that means.
Two years later another MPO report confirmed that finding. No surprise there.
All this from the same traffic and engineering brain trust that gave us the Oak-Patterson-Ashley Streets-vehicular confluence at Five Points. Sheer genius on display.
The MPO, by the way, is a federally mandated and funded transportation policy junta made up of appointees from local governments and transportation authorities.
That a federally funded, unelected policy board would recommend the expansion of government based on a “fairly probable” outcome is something of a denouement.
In any event, the studies were tabled and Valdosta continued to grow and prosper, the absence of publicly funded transportation notwithstanding.
Now, nine years later, the MPO returns peddling another public transportation and truck traffic study. The county and city governments voted to pony up a fraction of the study costs while the feds picked up around 90 percent of the $280,000 price tag. Smart move.
The decision also made sense because, whether or not a system is implemented, the information gleaned from the study will no doubt be useful for other planning purposes.
This new study will no doubt conclude that a public transportation system might benefit Valdosta’s urban area and might have a “fairly high probability of success.” To buttress that argument the study will include results from a recently announced single vehicle shuttle pilot program fully funded by federal money offering free ridership for those who fill out an online form. One would be hard pressed to name any free service that failed.
Meanwhile, the local left, never to disappoint in pushing an agenda to expand the size and scope of government, is content to justify a multi-million dollar taxpayer subsidized public transportation scheme because, first, it would improve Valdosta’s quality of life and, second, a “reliable automobile” doesn’t exist for “many Lowndes employees” making them more likely to “miss or be late for work”.
The latter, they claim, is “one of the biggest complaints among employers. . .”
Really?
The Valdosta Lowndes County Development Authority recently conducted a survey that included interviews with local employers. Topics included the available workforce, local community quality of life, and governmental support services.
Those interviewed mentioned nothing about employee underperformance due to transportation.
“Overall, labor availability was not seen as a concern—relatively easy to identify and hire labor for most common needs,” the report said. It is axiomatic that labor availability depends on employees with adequate transportation.
More telling, perhaps, was the conclusion regarding “Local Community and Quality of Life” which was simply: “Extremely high praise”. Maybe the interviewees were unaware that Valdosta didn’t have a taxpayer subsidized public transportation system.
Then there’s this: public transportation only serves 1.5 percent of all personal trips. In other words, 98.5 percent of the time alternative transportation arrangements are made. Doesn’t seem to bode well for elective ridership.
The left’s call for taxpayer subsidized public transportation is nothing more than a siren song.
And while it may seem appealing, there is no broader public good or benefit justifying the additional burden on the taxpayer.
Gary Wisenbaker, B.A., J.D. is a native of South Georgia where he practiced law in Valdosta and Savannah for 31 years. He has served as state chairman of the Georgia Young Republicans and Chairman of the Chatham County (Savannah) Republican Party. Gary is a past GOP nominee for State Senate, past delegate to the Republican National Convention and has consulted on numerous local Republican campaigns as well as chaired or co-chaired campaigns for President and US Senate on the county and district level. He is the principal and founder of Blackstone, LLC, a corporate communications and public relations concern as well as Wiregrass Mediation Services, LLC, a general civil litigation mediation firm.
Gary hosts his own blog at www.garywisenbaker.com and recently published his first fictional work, “How Great is His Mercy: The Plea”, on Amazon.com. His opinions are regularly published on ValdostaToday.com and the Valdosta Daily Times.
