Stats that show the Atlanta Streetcar was a complete and utter failure of epic proportion (utilities, living in)

[AnsleyPark]

It is unfortunate that the city didn't have the money available to build a more robust system initially. I believe that it was a mistake to start with the little line instead of a larger system. I know, there were all sorts of factors that caused the city to do what it did, but, still... Just sayin'

[MikeHonchoATL]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

It is unfortunate that the city didn't have the money available to build a more robust system initially. I believe that it was a mistake to start with the little line instead of a larger system. I know, there were all sorts of factors that caused the city to do what it did, but, still... Just sayin'

It was absolutely vital to get it right the first time. Instead, we have $100 million empty trams running around downtown at 6 mph. That isn't exactly the sort of results that influences people to want to build more of this.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

It was absolutely vital to get it right the first time. Instead, we have $100 million empty trams running around downtown at 6 mph. That isn't exactly the sort of results that influences people to want to build more of this.

Apparently it was not "vital". Three fourths of Atlantans were able to see the broader vision and voted to approve the very large streetcar system expansion.

Glad we got this starter section going while we had the opportunity. Another wise move by the CoA.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Apparently it was not "vital". Three fourths of Atlantans were able to see the broader vision and voted to approve the very large streetcar system expansion.

Happy it worked out that way, proud of Atlanta for seeing the vision through the current situation. It was up against so many click baity headlines willfully ignoring the strategy behind building this segment. No one ever said this was it, luckily folks were smart enough to think 5 years down the line.

[MikeHonchoATL]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Happy it worked out that way, proud of Atlanta for seeing the vision through the current situation. It was up against so many click baity headlines willfully ignoring the strategy behind building this segment. No one ever said this was it, luckily folks were smart enough to think 5 years down the line.

Explain the strategy. This segment, supposedly the central core of the line was built with now designated ROW and has an average speed of 6 mph. How is that going to support a larger line? This has been an epic planning failure that will only be fixed by tens of millions of more dollars to rebuild this existing route. It'll be great to get some new ridership stats to show just how poorly this thing it doing.

[Pemgin]

Mike, how did you vote on MARTA expansion?

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

Explain the strategy. This segment, supposedly the central core of the line was built with now designated ROW and has an average speed of 6 mph. How is that going to support a larger line? This has been an epic planning failure that will only be fixed by tens of millions of more dollars to rebuild this existing route. It'll be great to get some new ridership stats to show just how poorly this thing it doing.

The National Transit Database is posted up to Sept. 2016. That Atlanta streetcar has data posted through to Sept. 2016. There is no missing reported data.

[MikeHonchoATL]

LOLOLOLOLOL!

It is averaging well under 1,000 rides given a day. Their initial ridership projections, which were already incredibly low, were for 2,500 per day. It is underperforming so badly.

How can anyone defend this failure?

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Apparently it was not "vital". Three fourths of Atlantans were able to see the broader vision and voted to approve the very large streetcar system expansion.

Glad we got this starter section going while we had the opportunity. Another wise move by the CoA.

Indeed. We know the primary source of funding for the first phase was a federal grant; if Atlanta hadn't built the streetcar, the money would have gone somewhere else. Future sections are going to be dependent on federal money too; and the fact that they'll be expansions of an existing system may help make them more attractive when competing against other cities' proposals.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by MikeHonchoATL

Explain the strategy. This segment, supposedly the central core of the line was built with now designated ROW and has an average speed of 6 mph. How is that going to support a larger line? This has been an epic planning failure that will only be fixed by tens of millions of more dollars to rebuild this existing route. It'll be great to get some new ridership stats to show just how poorly this thing it doing.

This isn't like a MARTA line where every train will be flowing through this corridor. This is a link in a much larger system, this isn't going to be a bottleneck that the entire system has to pass through. They can make improvements to the speed of this area, but this also isn't exactly a unique situation compared to other well utilized/established streetcar systems around the world.


The strategy was to get a portion of the SYSTEM built. To keep ignoring that and the defining the streetcar as is requires willfully ignoring facts. It's quite easy to defend when you actually plan for the future.