MARTA unveils its dream project list for November Referendum (Atlanta: complaints, job)

[UrbanConquistador]

Originally Posted by primaltech

MARTA needs to have higher bus frequency, with fewer routes, with fewer stops. With straight, efficient routes, and 100% nice, inviting stops. Not just a pole in the ground.

.....

100% agree. I love riding the buses now, but I rarely mess with the routes that have 40+ min headways. Living in Midtown, I frequently use the 110 to get along the Peachtree Spine, the 12 to get to West Midtown, and the 102 or 2 to get to the Ponce City Market area. Those routes have decent headways, but I'd love to see higher frequency on those routes too.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Which has gone nowhere and made no real improvements. Further, MARTA has indicated they have no interest in an efficient bus system given the mess that are the Clayton routes. Routes which they had a clean slate to get right from the beginning.

To the contrary, it is done, and MARTA's started implementing it already. Many of the recent service changes appear to line up with it, and every bus route upgrade that was on MARTA's list from November was part of the plan. In fact, some routes are getting better service than the plan originally called for.

As for Clayton, the county was not part of the system when the analysis was commissioned. I agree that a better job could have been done, but it's not surprising that it wasn't I suppose. Moving forward, though, we should be pushing to do a similar review of routes in the newer county.

Originally Posted by StoicTao

MARTA should create an independent website and have a few dedicated employees getting information out to the public regarding expansion. They should really hire a worldclass PR firm. Branding and communicating information is just important as building the system. Commenting on Facebook, twitter, instagram, the AJC comments section, other Atlanta news and development websites. A big time PR and information campaign. Controlling the narrative. How is the money being spent? Timelines? Road blocks? Suggestions? Public input and meetings, etc. Countering trolls with their own upvote bots, etc.

If Keith Parker can control the narrative, communicate to the public effectively, and implement a plan to expand MARTA efficiently then the $2.5 billion is just the beginning. There will be trolls, criticism galore about the futility of public transit because of politics and racism. Please get ahead of the narrative now!

I generally agree. Seattle's website for ST3 was rather amazing for a lot of this. It looked like MARTA tried to do this with the More MARTA website, but it's woefully underbuilt.

I know MARTA is shaping how they're going to communicate the expansion efforts moving forward, with much like you're saying. That is, there will be project costs, timelines, how funded something is, etc. I don't know when that'll come out, but it's being built.

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Cool. Do they outline the steps of their COA on their website?

No, sadly. I've been trying to get a full copy of the report, but all that's really been published was the factsheet.

[primaltech]

MARTA's bus strategy makes no sense. Look at all this loopy mass confusion:

http://itsmartaelb-727066833.us-east...inner-2017.pdf

I mean, the resources and funds are clearly there. That's not the issue. There are 500 something buses in the fleet, and I have no idea how many bus shelters they have scattered about. Probably well over a thousand.

Why don't they just start from scratch, and re-think literally everything. Blank slate it. Pool all the buses and shelters, and re-allocate. Focus on quality first, excellent service levels and frequency, and just make sure every area gets at least one route. With future funding expansions, you can add more routes. But keep the quality level of everything always very high.

Imagine all of these routes with 5-10 minute bus frequency main hours, 10-15 off peak. 24/7/365. With routes as straight as possible, with stops only about every 1/3-1/4 mile. With every stop having at least one shelter, with benches, trash can, well-lit, sidewalk, and a simple sign with the name of the stop, and the line(s) it serves. And an all-new easy to read system map, with all the bus lines and stops.

Route 1: Peachtree St/Rd
Route 2: Ponce
Route 3: Piedmont/Roswell
Route 4: Howell Mill/Marietta St
Route 5: Moreland
Route 6: Buford Hwy
Route 7: Clairmont
Route 8: Campbellton
Route 9: Boone
Route 10: Cascade
Route 11: Cleveland Ave
Route 12: N Highland/Briarcliff
Route 13: N Druid Hills
Route 14: Perry Blvd/West Marietta St
Route 15: Candler
Route ...
Route ...

Etc etc. Just keep going on like that, adding more routes until you run out of buses/shelters (funds). Then you can ask the taxpayers for more funds, for more new routes, but always maintain that same high level of quality. With simple routes.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Route 5: Moreland

Yes, please. I would give anything to just be able to stand at the bus stop a block from my house on Moreland, and ride it to any of the numerous things I want to do north of DeKalb ave. But I can't, because they all dump out at the train station five blocks away.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by magnetar

Yes, please. I would give anything to just be able to stand at the bus stop a block from my house on Moreland, and ride it to any of the numerous things I want to do north of DeKalb ave. But I can't, because they all dump out at the train station five blocks away.

The Moreland route should be a high frequency, straight bus line that runs all the way up from Conley, to Sage Hill at Briarcliff @ Clifton, where in the future there will be MARTA light rail station right there to connect with/ bus loop around, and you can also connect there to another high frequency route that would run on N Highland/Johnson/Briarcliff out to Northlake Mall. Originating at Peachtree Center, where you can walk a couple easy blocks to/from the heavy rail station. With zero turns on the entire bus line.

I really want to design this system. I bet I could double, maybe even triple the ridership. Just with design.

[primaltech]

And the bus wouldn't turn off the road to loop at Inman Park station, either. No bus routes would do that. There would just be a good pedestrian right of way connection between the rail and bus stop, with clear signage and wayfinding and lighting, etc.

[cqholt]

MARTA should create rapid, crosstown bus routes on major roads (Ponce, Moreland, Memorial, MLK, Peachtree, Cascade, Campbellton, Marietta, Northside/Metropolitan, LaVista, Clairemont, Candler, Bouelvard/Monroe, Piedmont, Roswell, etc.) with fewer, upgraded stops with off-board fare collection and arrival screens at higher ridership stops.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by cqholt

MARTA should create rapid, crosstown bus routes on major roads (Ponce, Moreland, Memorial, MLK, Peachtree, Cascade, Campbellton, Marietta, Northside/Metropolitan, LaVista, Clairemont, Candler, Bouelvard/Monroe, Piedmont, Roswell, etc.) with fewer, upgraded stops with off-board fare collection and arrival screens at higher ridership stops.

Sooooo... ART routes, like what is already being done?

[primaltech]

Just make everything 'ART'. Every bus route in the whole system. Yes, you'll have to reduce the number of routes (until more funding is raised), but surely you'll get more total ridership than the current system model.

Like, for example have an ART line on LaVista, from Lindbergh Station to Downtown Tucker, that just stays on Lindbergh/LaVista the whole time, except the short loops at the ends:

1. Have the stops only every 1500 ft on average. Try to put most of the stops at commercial shopping centers along the route, and near major road intersections. And a few in-between collector stops for residential areas.

2. Each stop gets a shelter/bench/light/trash, a basic sign with a unique 'station' name ('LaVista at Briarcliff', etc), and a next bus arrival display. And good sidewalk/crosswalk integration. Ease of access. Sense of permanence. Etc.

3. The next bus always arrives within 15 minutes at the very most, no matter what time of day, or what day it is. The bus always stops at every stop. And it's just a tap of Breeze card (or smart phone) for everyone to board the bus. You have to purchase fare off-board. Can't do it on the bus itself.

4. Very important: the line is shown on the main rail map, the one on the train. With its own unique color. Obviously it's a thin line as opposed to the thick rail lines, and maybe the stops on it all have a tiny font, but they are still shown. The important thing is that it looks like the bus line is part of the main rapid/mass transit system, not just some local bus. And the various destinations served on the line are visible to people on the train, looking at the map. The overall system itself looks robust, like it goes all kinds of places and has all kinds of connections, etc.

5. Has an automated voice system on the bus, just like the train's and the streetcar's. Also, there are clear signs when you exit the train, showing where the platform is to board this particular bus (again, as much as possible, like a train line.)

Then just repeat that exact philosophy for every other line, in the whole system. And make sure they're all similarly very straight, direct, corridor routes. Think lines, not routes.

Let people walk to the corridor, if they're a couple blocks away from the main road or whatever. Rather than divert the bus off its straight course.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Just make everything 'ART'. Every bus route in the whole system. Yes, you'll have to reduce the number of routes (until more funding is raised), but surely you'll get more total ridership than the current system model.

Like, for example have an ART line on LaVista, from Lindbergh Station to Downtown Tucker, that just stays on Lindbergh/LaVista the whole time, except the short loops at the ends:

1. Have the stops only every 1500 ft on average. Try to put most of the stops at commercial shopping centers along the route, and near major road intersections. And a few in-between collector stops for residential areas.

2. Each stop gets a shelter/bench/light/trash, a basic sign with a unique 'station' name ('LaVista at Briarcliff', etc), and a next bus arrival display. And good sidewalk/crosswalk integration. Ease of access. Sense of permanence. Etc.

3. The next bus always arrives within 15 minutes at the very most, no matter what time of day, or what day it is. The bus always stops at every stop. And it's just a tap of Breeze card (or smart phone) for everyone to board the bus. You have to purchase fare off-board. Can't do it on the bus itself.

4. Very important: the line is shown on the main rail map, the one on the train. With its own unique color. Obviously it's a thin line as opposed to the thick rail lines, and maybe the stops on it all have a tiny font, but they are still shown. The important thing is that it looks like the bus line is part of the main rapid/mass transit system, not just some local bus. And the various destinations served on the line are visible to people on the train, looking at the map. The overall system itself looks robust, like it goes all kinds of places and has all kinds of connections, etc.

5. Has an automated voice system on the bus, just like the train's and the streetcar's. Also, there are clear signs when you exit the train, showing where the platform is to board this particular bus (again, as much as possible, like a train line.)

Then just repeat that exact philosophy for every other line, in the whole system. And make sure they're all similarly very straight, direct, corridor routes. Think lines, not routes.

Let people walk to the corridor, if they're a couple blocks away from the main road or whatever. Rather than divert the bus off its straight course.

IMO, we need different levels of bus service. Rapid, local, and neighborhood circulator. You are fixated too much on having lines on maps, but the maps on the rail cars specifically say Rail Map. Crowded maps can confuse riders.