Atlanta people! Freedom from the car!

Few friends come as good as K. (for Katharine, who’s identified herself with her blog, so I’m glad to do the same) who writes at pointedview. So I think she’ll forgive me for cribbing her whole post, addressed to metro Atlanta residents. But leave her the comments; it’s how you show the love.

Metro Atlanta residents: If you’re interested in providing input on proposed rail and bus improvements, visit http://www.tpb.ga.gov/. They are also conducting public meetings. By the way, the questionnaire could stand some improvement in the design department, but I suppose it’s at least a means of getting feedback.

God knows the Big Peach needs better alternatives to private automobiles. I was thinking about car alternatives for the South today, but more about coaches and trains between cities than within a particular city. I saw a map (via Andrew Sullivan’s blog, via Wired) about carbon dioxide emissions keyed to United States locations. The data comes from the Department of Energy and NASA-funded Vulcan Project.

You can look at the high-CO2 big red dots on the Vulcan Project map, shown at Wired. Indeed, do so. No wonders, because the red dots match population centers. Now look at the service maps at Megabus. It’s practically a plan for new service corridors: Seattle-Portland, Tulsa-OKC-DFW (perhaps Little Rock), Houston-New Orleans, Jacksonville-Miami/Tampa-Orlando. But there’s lots of opportunity in the Southeast.

Huntsville-Birmingham-Atlanta. Atlanta-Greenville/Spartanburg. GSP-Columbia-Charleston. GSP-Charlotte-Greensboro (Triad)-Raleigh (Triangle).

Rail would be better but given the poor level of service by intercity bus, I’d start there — if I was the King of Transportation — and build ridership. Connections to larger en route towns, colleges and airports would be ideal.

Of course, you can leave a comment about that here.