MARTA and public transportation (Atlanta: apartment, versus, moving)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bfarley30

MARTA will never be the great area it can be without acceptance from the surrounding region, especially the other "Big 3" counties. I know Clayton would participate but what's taking so long to get on the ballot? Look at this article comparing Houston to Atlanta.

SLIDESHOW: Greater Houston bigger than metro Atlanta, but is it better? - Atlanta Business Chronicle

"Now METRORail is building a 22-mile extension along three different corridors — projects that are expected to be completed in 2014 and 2015. The federal government now has approved $900 million for the expansion of Houston’s light rail system.
At the same time, most of Harris County — Houston’s home county — has a one-cent sales tax that supports METRORail. Harris County, with about four million residents, is able to generate about $600 million in revenues each year for its bus and rail transit system.
By comparison, MARTA’s sales tax generates significantly less than that, yet it has to serve almost twice as many transit riders..

Good article. I'm so tired of hearing people bellyache about MARTA "not getting support from the state" but I'm not going to rehash all that again. MARTA's problem is not that it doesn't get more grants from the state of Georgia, but that the sales tax base isn't big enough. At the very least the core metro counties of (Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton) need to be included, and probably some of the other large and fast growing counties such as Henry and Forsyth.

If we're serious about regional transit you've simply got to have greater participation. Frankly, MARTA has generated so much negativity and become so bloated that it ought to be dissolved and folded into a new transit authority with true metro wide capacity.

[cqholt]

LRT and HRT are not comparable.
Yes, MARTA has an image problem and it seems Kieth Parker is attempting to fix it. The agency has release 2 new apps that users can discreetly report all types of issues to MARTA PD and an app that shows schedules of trains and buses and a live real-time position of buses.
Clayton County's council is holding back that county from approving a binding agreement to approve the MARTA sales tax.
GRTA is a joke and has no power, if all county-wide transit agencies and MARTA would dissolve and fall under 1 REAL metro wide agency where all counties pay 1% sales tax, then I am all for it. But the state does not have the balls to do it.

[Ant131531]

Sad thing is, I thought about it and Atlanta's HRT is actually better than SF's in the city. SF's runs on literally one line. Atlanta runs on several even if you just include the central 49 square miles of ATL, it still beats out on SF. Just food for thought.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Sad thing is, I thought about it and Atlanta's HRT is actually better than SF's in the city. SF's runs on literally one line. Atlanta runs on several even if you just include the central 49 square miles of ATL, it still beats out on SF. Just food for thought.

Exactly, everyone seems to pay attention to the total mileage, but never look at how its laid out. MARTA forms a great HRT backbone for LRT, streetcars, and BRT to be built as feeder systems. It makes a cross in all cardinal directions and is very fast for HRT.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Sad thing is, I thought about it and Atlanta's HRT is actually better than SF's in the city. SF's runs on literally one line. Atlanta runs on several even if you just include the central 49 square miles of ATL, it still beats out on SF. Just food for thought.

This is something that is rarely ever mentioned.

The total number of BART stations in San Francisco proper = 8 station on a single line that branches off outside the city proper.

The total number of MARTA stations in the city of Atlanta proper = 23 stations on four lines.

[MattCW]

Don't forget that Atlanta and San Francisco are laid out very differently. SF is constrained by the peninsula it's on while Atlanta is spread out in all directions. SF's core BART system is supplemented on the peninsula by a fairly extensive light rail system, with buses filling in the gaps. In terms of serving areas outside SF proper, BART is far better than MARTA with lines going in all directions, even across suburbs.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Don't forget that Atlanta and San Francisco are laid out very differently. SF is constrained by the peninsula it's on while Atlanta is spread out in all directions. SF's core BART system is supplemented on the peninsula by a fairly extensive light rail system, with buses filling in the gaps. In terms of serving areas outside SF proper, BART is far better than MARTA with lines going in all directions, even across suburbs.

I wouldn't say all directions. There is no line to the north of SF.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Don't forget that Atlanta and San Francisco are laid out very differently. SF is constrained by the peninsula it's on while Atlanta is spread out in all directions. SF's core BART system is supplemented on the peninsula by a fairly extensive light rail system, with buses filling in the gaps. In terms of serving areas outside SF proper, BART is far better than MARTA with lines going in all directions, even across suburbs.

Granted, the layout is different, and there really isn't space for several lines in San Francisco. I would imagine though a cross town route (while short) or a parallel north south route on the west side would serve the city better. Let's not forget that despite their population density advantage, BART only marginally has more passengers than MARTA rail each day. It's layout and lack of stations in the city play right in to this.

We should however mold our transportation in the same vein as San Francisco by using streetcars for the last mile connection like we're starting to do now. That's their real advantage over us in transit.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

We should however mold our transportation in the same vein as San Francisco by using streetcars for the last mile connection like we're starting to do now. That's their real advantage over us in transit.

Agreed. Was in Dallas last week and rode the streetcar several times. They use refurbished cars from early last century. It's pretty neat! Tourists use it a lot, but the conductor told us that many business folks use it as well. Dallas is also expanding its rail out to DFW which will be terrific. They are also building a crazy amount of new highways. So, it looks like they are using many approaches to solve their congestion problem.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Agreed. Was in Dallas last week and rode the streetcar several times. They use refurbished cars from early last century. It's pretty neat! Tourists use it a lot, but the conductor told us that many business folks use it as well. Dallas is also expanding its rail out to DFW which will be terrific. They are also building a crazy amount of new highways. So, it looks like they are using many approaches to solve their congestion problem.

Building more highways and lanes is not a solution to congestion.