MARTA CEO calls for $100 billion transit ‘moonshot’ (Atlanta, Clayton: tax, cost of)

[Airforceguy]

Parker said the region’s population is expected to grow by 50 percent over the next 30 years. At the annual “State of MARTA” breakfast, he said a major investment in transit is needed to keep pace with that growth and to ensure Atlanta keeps up with economic rivals like Los Angeles and Seattle, which have made big investments in public transportation in recent years.

“We have to make bold decisions now that include a landmark investment in our transit network to fund innovative solutions for our traffic woes and renew our commitment to future generations,” Parker told more than 500 political and business leaders gathered in Atlanta.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...U1shBLbjx5y9J/

[markjames68]

Moonshot is right, that’s about 2/3 the cost of the entire Apollo program in today’s money.

[Street Advocate]

For comparison's sake, Seattle's transit tax approved $54bln over 25 years, meanwhile L.A. approved ~$120bln over 40 years.

I think we should make this a friendly collaborative project where a handful of us generate $100bln moonshot transit expansion maps. Could make for a fun topic at Generator City/Aftercar meetups, too.

[arjay57]

Doable if the business and institutional communities get involved.

However, that's a mighty heavy lift for the Little Man, who's already shelling out 1.5% of every dollar he spends for mass transit, whether he's able to use it or not.

[LTCM]

Ridership peaked what, 15 years ago? Has funding, service area, and region population not increased since that time?

Why throw more good money at something that has no metric which shows improvement?

[SAAN]

So does this include a Maglev train to the suburbs too

[ATLTJL]

I would say he is right. Except for one thing: it's MARTA. So even if they got $100 billion, I'm sure they'd figure out a way to spend it all expanding bus service in Clayton county.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I would say he is right. Except for one thing: it's MARTA. So even if they got $100 billion, I'm sure they'd figure out a way to spend it all expanding bus service in Clayton county.

Nah...it'll all go towards studies, reports, meetings, about what they would do if they had $200 billion.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by LTCM

Ridership peaked what, 15 years ago? Has funding, service area, and region population not increased since that time?

Why throw more good money at something that has no metric which shows improvement?

Why do we keep building more freeway lanes? We spend hundreds of millions on expansion that just fill back up again.

[ATLTJL]

Exactly. They fill up. Which means people are actually using them. Unlike all those empty MARTA buses.