19th Century Technology?

It's been a week! Heading into the holiday a week ago, Alex Taylor, chairman of Cox Enterprises (founded by his great-grandfather in 1898), used the newspaper he owns, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1868), to publish an op-ed about trains being “19th-century technology.”

We assume he wrote it under electric lights (1802), at a QWERTY keyboard (1870s), in order to tell Atlanta (1837) that the future of transportation is more cars (1880s). He recommends we look at Jacksonville (1822), whose autonomous minivans move a whopping 70-ish people per day as a model.

But somehow, we are supposed to believe Atlanta's modern-day would-be robber baron (1870) that electric light rail is an outdated technology? Like the other technologies above, light rail has advanced and seen as much, if not more, high-tech advancement as other mobility technologies.

The age of an idea is not the issue. Whether it works is.

Light rail works. Car dependence does not.

Finish the trail. Keep the green. Build the rail. 🚊🚊

AND see BRN's rebuttal to the Taylor opinion piece, and again this Sunday in the AJC in the E-paper edition