Is it Saturday already? How did that happen?
Well, while I was away:
- The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) wrote model legislation for the structure of a regional transit authority to be delivered to the House Transportation Committee. But rather than having a turn on the legislative runway, this model looks to be destined to spend the season backstage.
“This is a major investment in the community and so we need to take our time and be careful,” Rep. Donna Sheldon, R-Dacula, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, told the AJC.
Transit advocates wanted to see a regional transit system formally established this year so that voters would have plenty of time to become familiar with what it is and how it will work before voting on whether to fund it with a transportation tax in 2012.
Legislators don’t appear to be inclined to move that quickly, though. “On the Senate side, Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, said this week that there is no groundswell for major transit legislation this year,” the AJC reported.
- A Fulton County jury found that MARTA and one of its contractors were liable for injuries that Patricia Weeks sustained when an escalator malfunctioned at Five Points Station on New Year’s Eve in 2007. Weeks’ $1.4 million lawsuit charged that MARTA and the contractor, Schindler Elevator Corp., failed to properly maintain the escalator.
Weeks’ leg was broken when the elevator suddenly ran in reverse, throwing riders to floor at the bottom. About a dozen other riders sustained less severe injuries.
The Oppidan Omnibus 