FREE Concert this weekend— Sting, Dave Matthews Band, Muse, Ludacris, My Morning Jacket (Atlanta: taxi, floor)

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Staysean23

Alot of those folks were staying in buckhead and perimeter area. They pass a lot of shopping before they get to downtown.

But what about those who weren't .

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Staysean23

Thats because majority of the people took marta. The trains were packed everyday and lenox was extra busy on Saturday. I really didnt see many people complaining. A lot of people came from cities that dont have downtown shopping anyways there use to traveling to malls to shop

MARTA moved at least 1.14 million people on MARTA rail between Friday and Monday. MARTA - Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. 80% increase in ridership.

[noah]

Once again an example of how important Marta is to Atlanta despite its definite issues and reputation. Without Marta I think its a good bet that Atlanta wouldn't be a top 5 convention destination among other things.

Originally Posted by cqholt

MARTA moved at least 1.14 million people on MARTA rail between Friday and Monday. MARTA - Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. 80% increase in ridership.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by noah

Once again an example of how important Marta is to Atlanta despite its definite issues and reputation. Without Marta I think its a good bet that Atlanta wouldn't be a top 5 convention destination among other things.

Without it, Atlanta would have a harder time attracting such marquee events.

[Atlanta_BD]

So then should the city just focus on MARTA being a great benefit to tourists who come here as with the street car? What does it matter that over a million people rode MARTA for one weekend? The fact that people who came to town for an event over one weekend used MARTA means nothing. The failure of TSPLOST is more than indicative that MARTA is never going to improve. The residents don’t want it to--except it seems to only impress tourists and not alleviate the major traffic problems we have here.

Could MARTA support this level of ridership on a daily basis?

[noah]

It sounds like somewhere around 160k people rider the Marta Train each weekday so its hardly only tourists who benefit.

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

So then should the city just focus on MARTA being a great benefit to tourists who come here as with the street car? What does it matter that over a million people rode MARTA for one weekend? The fact that people who came to town for an event over one weekend used MARTA means nothing. The failure of TSPLOST is more than indicative that MARTA is never going to improve. The residents don’t want it to--except it seems to only impress tourists and not alleviate the major traffic problems we have here.

Could MARTA support this level of ridership on a daily basis?

[Freeminds]

A lot of small town thinking in this thread. Stuff like this weekend should be a monthly or weekly thing.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

So then should the city just focus on MARTA being a great benefit to tourists who come here as with the street car? What does it matter that over a million people rode MARTA for one weekend? The fact that people who came to town for an event over one weekend used MARTA means nothing. The failure of TSPLOST is more than indicative that MARTA is never going to improve. The residents don’t want it to--except it seems to only impress tourists and not alleviate the major traffic problems we have here.

Could MARTA support this level of ridership on a daily basis?

MARTA has the infrastructure to run 60 second headways, but if the ridership isn't there to support it then there is no reason to run it. The TSPLOST has nothing to do with MARTA and yes MARTA is improving with the hiring of Keith Parker.

[tonygeorgia]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

A lot of small town thinking in this thread. Stuff like this weekend should be a monthly or weekly thing.

You have to overlook about half of the people in this thread

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by cqholt

MARTA has the infrastructure to run 60 second headways, but if the ridership isn't there to support it then there is no reason to run it. The TSPLOST has nothing to do with MARTA and yes MARTA is improving with the hiring of Keith Parker.

The ridership isn't there because it's too inconvenient to use and the people in this region are anti-transit, which again, is why TSPLOST failed. Does his hiring mean that MARTA is going to be expanded and cover more areas?