Metro Public Transit Trip Reveals Rider Woes (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: condo, transfer)

[LynnHarris]

The video in this story gives an interesting perspective about riding public transit in metro-Atlanta.


East-west transit trip reveals riders

[waronxmas]

Who is this reporter? She speaks as if Gwinnett, Cobb and the City of Atlanta have the same transit system. God, I hate what has happened to journalism.

[ElleKaye]

I personally went on a "go green" thing and used CCT Park & Ride to get to Centennial Park. Did not like! Almost had to break my neck getting back in time to connect MARTA with anything smoking from CCT that would get me back to my car. I would strongly suggest using a Park & Ride in Fulton County but that kind of defeats the purpose of my "go green" mission if I have to drive that far.

I'm planning to move out of Kennesaw and was looking at some places in Sandy Springs. Refusing to be assuaged from my intended purpose, I parked at one said condo and caught the bus. Up Roswell Road I go for all of three country blocks before I had to get off to transfer at Hammond and wait a flippin hour for the connecting bus just to get going back up Roswell.

In short, I get the point of the woman in the video.

[cqholt]

AJC is the worst. Gwinnett and Cobb counties are not known for their transit. How is this a surprise?

[PKCorey]

She got her story from this video:


Senate Study Committee on Metro-Atlanta Transit - YouTube

[ElleKaye]

PKCorey, although I did not re-watch her video, I remember seeing a brief shot of him in her clip and heard some type of acknowledgement about him having done something similar.

Thanks for posting it though because I was curious about what exactly happened on his trip.

If we cannot afford to keep all the transit systems running 24/7 then there needs to be better coordination of the timing of what connects where between the different counties' systems and even within a singular county. I realize that it may not appear fiscally feasible to keep things going during the "off hours", but they'd get a lot more money during the peak hours if it the system just ran more smoothly.

I know bringing up another city never ends well, but I remember staying at a B&B in Baltimore and being able to ride into DC in half an hour. (That may not have been the exact length of time but at least I was able to plop my butt down quickly between transfers.)

[arjay57]

One of the reasons transit takes forever in Atlanta is that we're stuck with a system that tries to shoehorn everybody through downtown. That might have made sense 50 years ago but that's now how the city has developed.

[PKCorey]

I just read the article in the paper. Pretty much, her trip was similar to the Senator but in reverse.

Went from Gwinnett Transit Center to Doraville to Arts Center to Marietta Transfer Center.

Took her 2 hrs and 30 mins.

Took her editor: 1 hr and 1 minute to make the same trip by car.
Main issues:

Having to use Stored Value on your card to pay for CCT or GCT instead of just using the MARTA value but you aren't able to load stored value on CCT or GCT system (not 100% certain on that point)

Other issues with GCT is the 1 hr headway on the buses which is a pain, if you miss your connecting bus.

Overall, Senator Brandon Beach has a committee that suppose to have recommendations by Dec for all 4 systems. Agrees that the 4 agencies need to have 1 unified website for information, 1 payment system and the ability to cross jurisdictions boundaries.

I know bringing up another city never ends well, but I remember staying at a B&B in Baltimore and being able to ride into DC in half an hour. (That may not have been the exact length of time but at least I was able to plop my butt down quickly between transfers.)

I'm assuming that you took MARC into DC? With new funding, they have more trains on the weekend as well now.

I do wish that MARTA would run nightowl service on their primary lines. I don't see the point of taking the buses off the road for 3 hours. May as well run them for the whole night at that point.

[Born 2 Roll]

A North Fulton/Cherokee politician being caught giving a damn and saying positive things about transit on camera?

...Will wonders ever cease to amaze?

By taking trips on the region's disparate transit network to see what improvements need to be made, new State Senator Brandon Beach is already a vast improvement over his staunchly anti-transit predecessor, former State Senator Chip "Agenda 21" Rogers who would not have been caught even saying anything even remotely positive about public transportation much less riding it in view of cameras.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

One of the reasons transit takes forever in Atlanta is that we're stuck with a system that tries to shoehorn everybody through downtown. That might have made sense 50 years ago but that's now how the city has developed.

All transit systems in america are that way. Look at the crosstown proposals in DC and NYC to connect the outer suburbs/boroughs. Building transit along the top-end is not feasible until there is fixed transit along the 75 & 85 corridors. And that would take coordination with Cobb and Gwinnett counties and MARTA. I could see Gwinnett coordinating sooner.