Alright, I'll tentatively support the Northern Arc. (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: transfer, living)

[cqholt]

Which is why T-SPLOST was passed overwhelmingly...oh wait. A lot of people I know insist upon driving rather than take public transit. And I even know people who used to take public transit and now insist on only driving.

I know a hand full of people that refuse to drive and only walk and take MARTA, so what's your point?

<sigh>As much as people hate to hear it or consider it, MARTA rail expansion would give the most bang for our buck in terms of solving our current traffic problems.

That's best for North Fulton because it does not have existing railroads, but Gwinnett and Cobb have cities where the historic core is focused around railroads, eg: Norcross, Marietta, Lawrenceville, Lilburn, Tucker, Kennesaw.

[GeorgiatoChina]

Atlanta's suburbs aren't sense enough for Marta. Once you get to a location you wouldn't be able to get around.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by MattCW

It's not so much having outlying suburbs that anti-sprawlers criticize, it's the lack of dense development along traffic corridors that irritates us. Take a look at Google Maps in Dekalb County, East of I-285, South of Memorial Drive, North of I-20, and West of the railroad. It is a homogeneous mixture of single-family houses on large lots with no serious traffic corridors. The traffic in the area is uniformly bad during the rush hours with no clear lines of where to make the traffic improvements. There are a couple of clusters of commercial developments which attract a lot of the traffic, but the traffic approaches from all directions. If the suburbs had densified, not only would it be easier to maintain major roads through an area, but .

Matt, I hear that but it seems to me the solution would be to encourage development along the traffic corridors rather than trying to limit expansion. Some corridors have densified heavily -- for example, GA400, I-85 north, I-75 north, etc.

The area you describe could stand more commercial development but for whatever reason it has tended toward residential. However, I would assume that's just market factors at work.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by Tarzanman

<sigh>As much as people hate to hear it or consider it, MARTA rail expansion would give the most bang for our buck in terms of solving our current traffic problems.

The ability to get from Lawrenceville to Woodstock without a car in 45 min or less would open up some interesting commute options.

A MARTA station around Old Milton or Windward (although politically impossible, IMO) would give convenient access from North Fulton and much of South Forsyth. Truth be told, that entire area could really use 2 MARTA stations. Windward and Mansell or Old Milton and Holcomb Br

Why would it be politically impossible? I think that North Fulton is the one suburban area that wouldn't mind seeing MARTA rail expansion, simply because they're paying the sales tax already.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by GeorgiatoChina

Atlanta's suburbs aren't sense enough for Marta. Once you get to a location you wouldn't be able to get around.

Exactly. What are you going to do in Alpharetta when you get there with no car?

But I think the discussion is mainly focused around commuting from the burbs to downtown for work and back, rather than taking MARTA from downtown to Alpharetta to hit up Northpoint Mall.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

Exactly. What are you going to do in Alpharetta when you get there with no car?

But I think the discussion is mainly focused around commuting from the burbs to downtown for work and back, rather than taking MARTA from downtown to Alpharetta to hit up Northpoint Mall.

no. north fulton is a major jobs center. have you seen all of the office parks? ups, verizon, ADP, and several other companies have massive sites there. check out windward parkway in 5 o'clock traffic— it's as bad as buckhead.

[joey86]

Alpharetta's population doubles each day from workers.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

no. north fulton is a major jobs center. have you seen all of the office parks? ups, verizon, ADP, and several other companies have massive sites there. check out windward parkway in 5 o'clock traffic— it's as bad as buckhead.

But it's still spread out. Not walkable. That area is Car Country. Atlanta's job center is moving northward. I think the time is right to reconsider the Northern Arc.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

But it's still spread out. Not walkable. That area is Car Country. Atlanta's job center is moving northward. I think the time is right to reconsider the Northern Arc.

there are some walkable urban nodes— check out downtown roswell for one. the 400 corridor needs a mixture of commuter rail for the spread out office parts, and walkable stations for the urban nodes that are already there. the northern arc won't do anything to ease commuter woes. everyone on 400 during rush hour is there to commute, i doubt there are any 'passing through' that would be aided by the northern arc.

what we really need is rail along the north side of the perimeter— from smyrna to doraville, and incorporating major nodes such as cumberland, sandy springs, perimeter centre, dunwoody, etc.

[cqholt]

Exactly. What are you going to do in Alpharetta when you get there with no car?

Office parks have shuttles to bring worker to and from the MARTA stations. Just like at Dunwoody and Sandy Springs.

what we really need is rail along the north side of the perimeter— from smyrna to doraville, and incorporating major nodes such as cumberland, sandy springs, perimeter centre, dunwoody, etc

That won't get built until the leg from Midtown to Cumberland. Can't have a cross-Perimeter line without it connecting to anything at Cumberland, plus FTA will give it a negative endorsement and it may not be eligible for fast start program.