MARTA to make an $8 billion pitch to change the face of Atlanta (Roswell: gated, ferry)

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Signal Priority is a huge positive and the technology does not cost a lot of money, especially since Atlanta is upgrading most of it's signals. They could be Priority Signal ready and just need a software update.
Also, WiFi on buses is a way to attract people to buses by allowing them to work while riding, something they cannot do while driving alone.

If you read MARTA's Types of Transit Services & Vehicles Attachment C at the end of the PDF, you'll see that MARTA actually characterizes its Arterial Rapid Transit as having signal priority and que jump lanes.

It looks like they're trying to resurrect the 'Q' service that they were playing with from Kensington Station along Memorial Drive, but in different corridors. Hopefully this time around, there's better results?

At least they're not calling it BRT this time. I can dig the ART designation as the intermediate step between standard buses and true BRT.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

GRTA runs buses from Johns Creek to Doraville Station. The 408.

See, in a sense I can understand why Johns Creek is so anti-MARTA. They pay the 1% sales tax for it, but the only bus route they get is not even MARTA.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by primaltech

See, in a sense I can understand why Johns Creek is so anti-MARTA. They pay the 1% sales tax for it, but the only bus route they get is not even MARTA.

You would think they would invite MARTA because of the taxes they pay though.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by primaltech

See, in a sense I can understand why Johns Creek is so anti-MARTA. They pay the 1% sales tax for it, but the only bus route they get is not even MARTA.

Part of the problem is that they don't have the rail line backbone that a lot of the rest of the metro does have, so any bus routes there, at least with the older way of thinking in MARTA, would have required long routes pushing down to North Springs. We see this in the Alpharetta based bus lines, which use GA 400 as a spine with limited Park-n-Ride lots.

With rail, they can better launch bus routes off of train stations without worrying about the extra distances for the buses. That means that it'll take fewer buses to keep the same frequencies.


That said, it's not like Johns Creek is the only ones who are under served. That's the entire point of the expansions, after all, to bring service to places that haven't been well served at all.

[primaltech]

Hey fourthwarden, special request. Can you please do one of your signature awesome transit maps, for an ART/HRT/LRT MARTA transit network? Based on these green ART routes mentioned in KP's letter, and the probable ART corridors in DeKalb, that cqholt mentioned.

No commuter rail, no streetcar or Beltline transit, and only all the existing, and official proposed rail expansions (incl. the one additional stop on Blue line west, to 285). And the I-20 east "BRT" would be ART.

The main thing I want to see, is what it would look like, if all these ART routes had limited, named stops (only stopping about 1/4 mile apart or so), and if that were all integrated into one official looking unified MARTA rail + ART map. You know, with the lines all at neat and nice angles, like you do it. With tiny fonts for the bus stops.

Make it altogether look like a New York subway system...

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Hey fourthwarden, special request. Can you please do one of your signature awesome transit maps, for an ART/HRT/LRT MARTA transit network? Based on these green ART routes mentioned in KP's letter, and the probable ART corridors in DeKalb, that cqholt mentioned.

No commuter rail, no streetcar or Beltline transit, and only all the existing, and official proposed rail expansions (incl. the one additional stop on Blue line west, to 285). And the I-20 east "BRT" would be ART.

The main thing I want to see, is what it would look like, if all these ART routes had limited, named stops (only stopping about 1/4 mile apart or so), and if that were all integrated into one official looking unified MARTA rail + ART map. You know, with the lines all at neat and nice angles, like you do it. With tiny fonts for the bus stops.

Make it altogether look like a New York subway system...

I was thinking about doing this. It'll require a good bit of guesswork on my part as far as stations are concerned.

Why not only certain streetcars? Should there be the I-20 West extension? What about the Clayton Commuter rail?

[primaltech]

The Clayton commuter rail would be fine, yeah. Since that's official. And yes do include the West/Blue extension.

Yeah, as far as bus station names, you can just name them all after their street names, or whatever all the stops are currently called, but you would just skip/cut 2/3 of them. So for the 110/Peach route, it would only stop at 4th St, 7th St, 10th St, 14 St, thru Midtown, not at every block as it does now.

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by primaltech

The Clayton commuter rail would be fine, yeah. Since that's official. And yes do include the West/Blue extension.

Yeah, as far as bus station names, you can just name them all after their street names, or whatever all the stops are currently called, but you would just skip/cut 2/3 of them. So for the 110/Peach route, it would only stop at 4th St, 7th St, 10th St, 14 St, thru Midtown, not at every block as it does now.

Why does the bus even stop at Art Center, the 110 should be a continuous loop from Lenox to Five Points. Art Center is 2 blocks away from Peachtree, or wait until you get to Midtown, it's one block.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by onemanarmy

Why does the bus even stop at Art Center, the 110 should be a continuous loop from Lenox to Five Points. Art Center is 2 blocks away from Peachtree, or wait until you get to Midtown, it's one block.

I totally agree. It should just stop at the High Museum on Peachtree, with a sign that says "train station this way ->" Would save probably 5 minutes.

Also I think the 110 should run to Brookhaven instead of Lenox, so that there's no turns at all, and it's just the simple Peachtree only route. That would also allow for a stop in front of Phipps Plaza.

Apparently KP agrees, he has it marked that way in his example.

[ccdscott]

Also I think the 110 should run to Brookhaven instead of Lenox, so that there's no turns at all, and it's just the simple Peachtree only route. That would also allow for a stop in front of Phipps Plaza.

Yep. Think about it, the 110 is the flagship route of the city, running on the most famous named streets in America. Meaning, it shouldn't be any turns or anything at all. You get on and go straight. If you have the ART on this line, it can get close to what Walker was talking about at the end of his book -- the blending of the street and the urban environment as one.

As for the other comments, every time I'm up in north Fulton I think the area is ripe for MARTA to be up there in a greater presence -- rail and bus. North Springs just seems so out of place when so much economic activity is 5-10 miles NORTH of it.

Great discussion. MARTA is doing its part to change the face of Atlanta...