Midtown Transportation Plan (Atlanta, Monroe, Buford: 2015, homes, safety)

[primaltech]

Yeah, an excellent express bus system with park&ride, would serve the corridor well, with rail not needed. If done right. Articulated high-capacity bus, with frequent service, like 10 minutes or better during peak hours, 20 minutes other times.

Bus starts in the bus loop at Arts Center station, runs 2 blocks west down 15th St (ideally in a bus-only lane, and with signal priority). Directly accesses managed HOT northbound ramp at 15th. Runs in a managed, strictly enforced (ideally barrier separated), HOT lane all the way to Akers Mill. Exits there, travels in a bus-only right-hand lane, about 500ft, to a new Cumberland Transit Center, at the Galleria. With large park&ride decks. That's stop 1. And that express shuttle trip between Arts Center and Cumberland should be less than 15 minutes of travel time. Maybe 15 minutes in peak congestion. The Braves shuttle would use that loop, and the Cumberland Transit Center would be an easy walk to/from most of the main stuff in the area. And it would be the dropping off point for all local bus routes and circulators.

North of there, the bus would use bus-only lanes on Akers Mill, and Cobb Pkwy. Ideally it would run as BRT service, in the median of 41, out to Acworth. And with park&ride lots.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bu2

Depends on where the Cobb County commuters go. I haven't seen any maps or charts showing their trip destinations. Do many of them go to midtown? And if they go to Buckhead, you have the same issue.

Here you go. I posted these a few weeks ago.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by primaltech

That plan wouldn't happen because it doesn't make sense. No offense, Arjay.

Maybe not, but you've got to appreciate how great it would be if Cobb stayed out of MARTA for decades because of a fear of black people, and when they finally did join the system, we made Bankhead their main transfer point.

[fourthwarden]

The Midtown Alliance has released their final transportation plan.) The projects are:

TR-01 Transit Station Enhancements
TR-02 Midtown Core Transit Circulator
TR-03 North Ave Complete Street
TR-04 MARTA Route 110 Improvements

PF-01 Art Walk
PF-02 17th Street Redesign
PF-03 11th Street Space Reallocation
PF-04 10th Street Bridge Redesign

SC-01 One-way to Two-Way Street Conversions
SC-02 Peachtree Street Lane Repurpose
SC-03 North Midtown Street Grid Reconfiguration
SC-04 Piedmont Avenue Lane Repurpose (14th to 15th)

IN-01 New Traffic Signals
IN-02 Buford-Spring Connector Access Reconfiguration at Piedmont/Monroe
IN-03 Peachtree Street at Beverly Road Intersection Improvements
IN-04 West Peachtree Street at 12th Street Realignment
IN-05 10th Street at Myrtle Street Signal Enhancement
IN-06 North Avenue Alternative Freeway Access and Corridor Enhancement

NC-01 15th St Bridge and HOV/HOT Ramps
NC-02 13th Street Extension
NC-03 11th Street Extension
NC-04 Peachtree Place Bike/Ped Bridge and Corridor
NC-05 Williams Street Extension to Ponce de Leon
NC-06 Re-open 3rd Street Tunnel

BK-01 West Peachtree Street Complete Street (Pine Street to Peachtree Street)
BK-02 Spring Street Complete Street (17th to Linden Avenue)
BK-03 Peachtree Place Buffered Bike Lanes
BK-04 North Midtown Multi-Use Path Connection to BeltLine
BK-05 15th Street Bike Lanes and Street Improvements
BK-06 10th Street Road Diet (Howell Mill Road to Williams Street)
BK-07 10th Street Cycle Track Extension (Myrtle Street to Juniper Street)
BK-08 Piedmont Avenue Complete Street (Ponce de Leon Ave to 15th Street)

[tikigod311]

What a bunch of interesting ideas. If half of them are implemented, we are in luck.

The Art Walk concept is a fantastic use of underutilized space. The North Ave hook is an interesting concept. Buffered bike lanes on W Peachtree/Spring/Peachtree Pl/Piedmont, ped/bike bridge over the connector south of 10th, 15th St bridge w/ HOV ramps and possible general tolled ramps.

Drool.

[primaltech]

Awesome! I love all of that stuff, especially that it seems like they're going to try to connect 13th between Crescent and Peachtree, instead of block it with that new development (maybe they can do both, with like a skinny tower or something.)

If I may make a few further suggestions for the general area, though, that I hope could happen (eventually):

-In Midtown, connect 16th St between West Peachtree and Arts Center Way (as part of the MARTA Arts Center airspace TOD development), and make it more of a major street.

-In Home Park, acquire ROW and connect 15th St between Atlantic Dr and Barnes St, so that 15th goes all the way from Mecaslin St to Piedmont, and make it also more of a major street. This will improve the connection between Atlantic Station and Midtown.

-In O4W, acquire ROW and connect the 2 gaps in Linden Ave between Piedmont and Boulevard, and make it more of a major street. This will help to relieve Ponce and North Ave.

-In SoNo, straighten the alignment of the Peachtree @ Pine intersection, and make all of Pine/Angier a 2-way, major east-west street. Then rename Civic Center MARTA to Old Fourth Ward Station.

-Put traffic lights on every street intersection all throughout Midtown, and properly stripe all the streets.

-New MARTA infill station at Peachtree @ Beverly. Brookwood Station would be a good name for it, IMO.

-"The Stitch". Do that awesome plan. (I guess that's technically in Downtown).

-All throughout Midtown, slightly narrow the vehicle lane widths, and add the difference to the sidewalk width.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by primaltech

-New MARTA infill station at Peachtree @ Beverly. Brookwood Station would be a good name for it, IMO.

This has zero chance of happening due to (among many things) the tunnel curvature, tunnel grade, and provision for the Northwest Line that is located in that exact spot.

[primaltech]

That provision hasn't been used for my whole life, and has such little chance of ever being used, due to Brookwood Hills NIMBYism, Cobb County opposition to MARTA and heavy rail, and NW Buckhead being too rich to care about transit. And the fact that they built the Red Line instead, and they already have the 2 lines serving Midtown, where 3 would be way overkill. So maybe they should just get rid of that provision, and then do whatever they need to do to adjust the tunnel so that they could do the infill station there. Which, would be close enough to Brookwood, and pedestrian access to it would be helped by the protected sidewalks on the new Peachtree St bridge. If they would have just put a station there in the first place, Amtrak would have been within walking distance of MARTA HRT all this time.

Or, heck, go ahead and finally build the NW line. But even if the Mellow Mushroom at 26th was turned into a Brookwood MARTA station, there would still be a gap in that north Midtown area, where you gotta walk almost a mile to a station.

Anyway, just throwing that out there. Not my problem. Just think it would be good for Midtown.

[primaltech]

Or how about, put the new station a tad south of there, at Pershing Point. Before the provision, so that you could keep that.

That would coincide with their goal to redesign the street grid right around there, and get rid of that flyover ramp to Buford Spring. Rhodes Center and Peachtree circle could be straightened and connected better, and there would be more freed up room for new development around there.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

The Midtown Alliance has released their final transportation plan.) The projects are:

TR-01 Transit Station Enhancements
TR-02 Midtown Core Transit Circulator
TR-03 North Ave Complete Street
TR-04 MARTA Route 110 Improvements

PF-01 Art Walk
PF-02 17th Street Redesign
PF-03 11th Street Space Reallocation
PF-04 10th Street Bridge Redesign

SC-01 One-way to Two-Way Street Conversions
SC-02 Peachtree Street Lane Repurpose
SC-03 North Midtown Street Grid Reconfiguration
SC-04 Piedmont Avenue Lane Repurpose (14th to 15th)

IN-01 New Traffic Signals
IN-02 Buford-Spring Connector Access Reconfiguration at Piedmont/Monroe
IN-03 Peachtree Street at Beverly Road Intersection Improvements
IN-04 West Peachtree Street at 12th Street Realignment
IN-05 10th Street at Myrtle Street Signal Enhancement
IN-06 North Avenue Alternative Freeway Access and Corridor Enhancement

NC-01 15th St Bridge and HOV/HOT Ramps
NC-02 13th Street Extension
NC-03 11th Street Extension
NC-04 Peachtree Place Bike/Ped Bridge and Corridor
NC-05 Williams Street Extension to Ponce de Leon
NC-06 Re-open 3rd Street Tunnel

BK-01 West Peachtree Street Complete Street (Pine Street to Peachtree Street)
BK-02 Spring Street Complete Street (17th to Linden Avenue)
BK-03 Peachtree Place Buffered Bike Lanes
BK-04 North Midtown Multi-Use Path Connection to BeltLine
BK-05 15th Street Bike Lanes and Street Improvements
BK-06 10th Street Road Diet (Howell Mill Road to Williams Street)
BK-07 10th Street Cycle Track Extension (Myrtle Street to Juniper Street)
BK-08 Piedmont Avenue Complete Street (Ponce de Leon Ave to 15th Street)

Can MARTA have that stylized "M" on that sign on page 21? I'm not a big fan of the color scheme but otherwise I REALLY like the design of it.