BeltLine plans streetcar line along Peachtree Road in Buckhead

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by jsvh

I think it is still important to highlight that while the Buckhead Business Association may not understand that road diets/ bikes / streetcars are the only way to fix traffic on Peachtree, they are still supportive of transit and realize it's importance. Even willing to tax themselves to pay for it:



http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/m...sion-plan.html

So they are still ahead of many other metro communities.

I think the "give it 3 years" sentiments coming from people like Sam Massell could be right. Sometimes people need to make the mistakes themselves in order to learn from them.

The sad truth, then, is that it will cost more money to repaint the road. The reason it was going to be done now was that the resurfacing meant that it would need to be painted again no matter what, and that the crews would already be there to do it.

If we wait another three years, it'll be an additional project. The existing paint at that point would need to be scraped, a crew will need to come out for it, more paint will need to be bought, etc.

This is one of those things where we're loosing the opportunity while it will cost us less.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

I thought that the left turn lane is still in the works even without the dangerous bike lane. No?

Oh that dangerous bike lane, one that will ride MARTA to the suburbs and steal people's TVs, then ride back. Or one that cut over 3 lanes at the last minute to make it's exit, without any regard for other people on the freeway.
There is nothing dangerous about bike lanes, in fact research shows that adding bike lanes makes the road safer for cars, cyclists, and peds.

[UrbanConquistador]

Anyways... If the old timers could stop complaining about evil bike lanes for 5 minutes, I'd like to ask a couple questions about the actual Streetcar lines

This is a higher-res image than I was able to find on AJC or the Beltline's website. Just ignore the Buckhead portion.

1. Will these streetcars be given their own ROW or will they be stuck in traffic with the rest of the cars, like the Downtown line? I'm mostly referring to the crosstown routs, since the Beltline loop will obviously not operate in mixed traffic. I can't really see the benefit of a large investment in mass transit if it will be mostly stuck in traffic.
2. How will the crosstown connections that also function as outer loops, work? I.e. the Purple and Red routes. I can't quite picture how they will operate in a circle, yet also cut down the center. Will they basically operate as a "figure 8" ? OR would they operate as basically two independent loops? The Beltline website describes their operation as "Bi-directional on-street/one-way loop operation".

Thanks

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by UrbanConquistador

Anyways... If the old timers could stop complaining about evil bike lanes for 5 minutes, I'd like to ask a couple questions about the actual Streetcar lines

This is a higher-res image than I was able to find on AJC or the Beltline's website. Just ignore the Buckhead portion.

1. Will these streetcars be given their own ROW or will they be stuck in traffic with the rest of the cars, like the Downtown line? I'm mostly referring to the crosstown routs, since the Beltline loop will obviously not operate in mixed traffic. I can't really see the benefit of a large investment in mass transit if it will be mostly stuck in traffic.
2. How will the crosstown connections that also function as outer loops, work? I.e. the Purple and Red routes. I can't quite picture how they will operate in a circle, yet also cut down the center. Will they basically operate as a "figure 8" ? OR would they operate as basically two independent loops? The Beltline website describes their operation as "Bi-directional on-street/one-way loop operation".

Thanks

1) They will most likely run in mixed traffic as Atlanta's roads do not have wide ROWs to build exculsive lanes for the Streetcars, without removing a vehicle travel lane. There are portions of the routes where a lane could be taken away from vehicles and for streetcar/bus exclusive travel. eg: North Ave between BeltLine and Piedmont Ave.
2) My understanding from BeltLine/Streetcar meetings is a bi-directional loop operation will result in a NB purple line using the WB downtown line then returning NB once on the BeltLine, to continue around the BeltLine returning to the downtown portion WB, then SB on Peachtree. It's hard to explain without drawing it out. It's like a figure-8, going in both directions.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by UrbanConquistador

Anyways... If the old timers could stop complaining about evil bike lanes for 5 minutes, I'd like to ask a couple questions about the actual Streetcar lines

This is a higher-res image than I was able to find on AJC or the Beltline's website. Just ignore the Buckhead portion.

1. Will these streetcars be given their own ROW or will they be stuck in traffic with the rest of the cars, like the Downtown line? I'm mostly referring to the crosstown routs, since the Beltline loop will obviously not operate in mixed traffic. I can't really see the benefit of a large investment in mass transit if it will be mostly stuck in traffic.
2. How will the crosstown connections that also function as outer loops, work? I.e. the Purple and Red routes. I can't quite picture how they will operate in a circle, yet also cut down the center. Will they basically operate as a "figure 8" ? OR would they operate as basically two independent loops? The Beltline website describes their operation as "Bi-directional on-street/one-way loop operation".

Thanks

1) Some will, some won't. Even stuck in traffic, they will have far higher capacity than the equivalent number of cars they displace. Here is a good example of how useful the streetcar can be even if it's still in traffic.

2) You'll see pairs of travel on the routes. So, you'll see counterclockwise and clockwise circulating trains. For example, on the northern half of the Purple line, you'll have some trains that are running along the inside of the Beltline, going clockwise, until they turn onto Irwin and head west, downtown. Once they meet back up with the Beltline at Fair St. , it will go north, and resume along the inside of the Beltline, traveling clockwise, again.

On the southern half of the Purple line, you'll have trains that are running along the outsideof the Beltline, going counterclockwise, until they turn onto Fair St. and head east, downtown. Once they meet back up with the Beltline at Irwin, it will go south, and resume along the outside of the Beltline, traveling counter clockwise, again.

[UrbanConquistador]

Thank you cqholt and fourthwarden, for the useful explanations.

[primaltech]

The exclusion of the Peachtree Rd corridor thru Buckhead from the streetcar plan is ridiculous, and I hope they re-visit that decision by the time the rest of the system is being built out. Buckhead is like 1/3 of the city, has the worst traffic issues, and is under-served by transit. That corridor in particular needs something. Streetcar running in a dedicated lane, or at least with signal priority, would be perfect.