Readers Write: April 10

State should consider outlawing pit bulls

I read again today in the AJC about another attack by pit bulls (“Family dogs attack Hall County girl, 5,” News, April 6). This time, there were three of them that seriously injured the family’s five-year-old daughter. She was flown to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at the Scottish Rite. The AJC said they were “pit bull-mixed breed.”

On Jan. 18, the AJC reported on the front page an attack by “two mixed-breed pit bulls” that killed a six-year-old and seriously injured a five-year-old, who had surgery at Children’s Hospital.

It is time to outlaw ownership of any dog that is pitbull — full or mixed — in the state of Georgia. They were bred to fight. How many more children will die before Georgia outlaws them?

MARY C. DASH, ALPHARETTA

Where is city planning when you need it?

The problem is not the collapse of Interstate 85. The problem is the single-contingency design of the transportation system in Atlanta. The problem is transit, not MARTA specifically, but the inefficient and vulnerable plans adopted by Atlanta, L.A., Houston, and other American cities that can’t seem to understand that the systems of New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, and others require less person-time commuting, less energy use, less environmental impact, and have greater reliability. On that last point, are the multiple Atlanta snowjams and, now this, not enough for city, state, and federal planners to notice?

Where is the media? What new MARTA bus routes are being added for commuters to get to work? Where are the new park-and-ride (bus) points along I-85 to collect folks and take them to a train or other central-city locations?

And to the commuters themselves: Don’t drive into a road system which we know with certainty cannot handle the load. And, presuming the right answers to the government questions, announce to commuters that here is what to do and it’s a smart MARTA solution.

T. H. TAYLOR JR., ATLANTA