Five Georgia transportation projects will be part of a national public outreach program to show the human side of transportation and infrastructure programs.
Part of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials ad campaign entitled “The Benefits of Transportation: The Solutions State DOTs Bring to People & Their Communities”, the projects will be part of an interactive map designed to increase public awareness about the range of benefits transportation investment brings to communities across the country.
“The professionals working at state departments of transportation know these benefits first-hand because they’re responsible for planning, designing, and building the transportation projects that keep America moving by car, truck, rail, bus, and bicycle,” said Jim Tymon AASHTO executive director. “This year will be pivotal for transportation because Congress must pass a new surface transportation bill before the current law expires at the end of September. The purpose of this campaign, website, and report are to help citizens understand the important connection between transportation investment and the benefits we experience today and into the future.”
Four of the Georgia projects highlight projects that reduce travel time, improve safety, protect the environment, increase mobility and/or boost the economy. The last project shows the critical active transportation connection within the Metro Atlanta community in bringing more than 8,000 residents in the Buckhead and Lindbergh Metro Atlanta Regional Transit Authority station together.
“In the transportation industry, we talk a lot about reducing travel time and improving mobility,” said Commissioner Russell McMurry, P.E., Georgia Department of Transportation. “But the results of the projects highlighted in the AASHTO campaign are more personal than that. It’s the parent who can make it home from work in time to be in the stands for their child’s ball game because the Northwest Corridor Express Lanes reduce rush hour congestion by over an hour. It is an elderly rural Georgia resident who is able to stay in her home because Georgia’s GDOT-funded Rural Transit system takes her to medical appointments.”