Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I really think that Bus Rapid Transit might have more of a future out here than rail will have. It is cheaper to build, can be rolled out faster and, if done right, will be a boon for Cobb. I was impressed by the one in Kansas City and apparently it has been very successful and they are building another and planning more routes. BRT is bus service but unlike regular bus service, it has its own right of way or a dedicated lane and the traffic lights automatically turn green for approaching buses. http://www.kcata.org/documents/uploa...Fact_Sheet.pdf
More than likely the already skeletal CCT will be cut down even farther while the anti-everythings don't allow any transit expansion for the next two decades.
Well the problem with BRT is the main reason it is so much cheaper is it is really easy to cut corners... big corners.
Take that document for example... There are only 3.75 miles of exclusive transit lanes for the whole project.
I'm also afraid they will try to only use HOT/HOV lanes. A guarantee of mostly/usually running 45mph, but not always isn't great.
It also makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better off strengthening and upgrading the commuter bus system to run more efficiently and to more places than BRT with limited investment.
Now if we make long corridors of completely grade separated BRT lanes it would be great, but because of the need for bridges and right of way the costs will fly up.
At that point LRT starts to become more appealing, because while it it still more expensive... it won't be much more expensive and generally attracts a much higher ridership and local real estate investment.
I think in most cases BRT will become upgraded bus lines with jump lanes and traffic light priority, like they did on Memorial Drive. That is a cheap way to do it, but MARTA didn't get much traction out of it. They're looking at scaling it back
BRT costs about as much as light rail, with half the ridership. i think the only reason cobb would choose it is out of contrariness, as it carries fewer riders.
unless cobb county's government drastically changes in the next few years, i wouldn't expect transit to ever happen.
The Next Phases For COBB Transit?
I really think that Bus Rapid Transit might have more of a future out here than rail will have. It is cheaper to build, can be rolled out faster and, if done right, will be a boon for Cobb. I was impressed by the one in Kansas City and apparently it has been very successful and they are building another and planning more routes. BRT is bus service but unlike regular bus service, it has its own right of way or a dedicated lane and the traffic lights automatically turn green for approaching buses. http://www.kcata.org/documents/uploa...Fact_Sheet.pdf
The issue with the US 41 Cobb Parkway Bus Rapid Transit line that has been proposed as a way to upgrade public transportation in Cobb County is that the BRT proposal as it currently stands is as a result of the opposition to (and anger over) the roughly just under $900 million Midtown-Cumberland Mall first phase of the $1 billion-plus Light Rail Transit line between Midtown Atlanta and Kennesaw that was proposed to be funded with the proceeds from last year's failed regional T-SPLOST referendum.
...The current Bus Rapid Transit proposal is just a backdoor way for the rail transit-hungry Cobb business community (who is bringing the Atlanta Braves to Cobb County) to get Light Rail Transit into Cobb County past a rapidly-shrinking but still very politically-dominant and extremely-strong anti-rail contingent who in the past have wanted as few direct links as possible between a traditionally-ultraconservative predominantly-white suburban Cobb County and a traditionally ultra-liberal very high-crime predominantly-black urban City of Atlanta.
Basically it doesn't matter whether Bus Rapid Transit or Light Rail Transit service is implemented on US 41 Cobb Parkway because at this point there is approximately ZERO funding for BRT or LRT.
Cobb County business interests (represented by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce and Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee) are not serious and have never been serious about implementing Bus Rapid Transit in Cobb County.
Cobb business interests are just using BRT as a ruse in place of all of the rail transit links (Light Rail Transit AND Heavy Rail Transit and commuter rail transit) that they would REALLY like to bring to Cobb County as a means of urbanizing the Cumberland Mall area (to the point that it is competitive with or exceeds Buckhead and Perimeter/Dunwoody) and other key corridors in Cobb County.
The currently-proposed BRT line (formerly-proposed LRT line) on US 41 Cobb Parkway has never truly just been about upgrading Cobb County's currently bare-bones public transportation system, but has always been about sparking a high-level of real estate investment along US 41 Cobb Pkwy as a means of turning the busy arterial road into a highly-desired European-style urban boulevard.
If and/or whenever Cobb County gets the money to implement high-capacity transit along the US 41 Cobb Parkway corridor, one can best believe that, unless the Tea Party manages to take control of the Commission Chairman seat that Tim Lee currently holds, the county has every intent of implementing Light Rail Transit service along the US 41 Cobb Pkwy corridor, because it will be Light Rail Transit that will bring the high-level of real estate investment, speculation and high-density development that the Cobb business community desires.
Sparking vastly-increased levels of real estate development in the Cumberland/Galleria area and along the US 41 Cobb Parkway corridor is what the Braves' Stadium deal is about.
Cobb business interests actually want traffic to worsen in the short run after the new Braves' Stadium (and the surrounding commercial development) opens in 2017 at the already often heavily-congested I-75/I-285 Cobb Cloverleaf because the Cobb business community figures that the worsened traffic in such a politically-crucial area (the I-285 Top End and the I-75 NW corridor) will force the transit investment-averse State of Georgia to in the intermediate and long-run invest in expanding the rail transit that Cobb business interests so desire into the Cumberland/Galleria area and beyond.
The issue with the US 41 Cobb Parkway Bus Rapid Transit line that has been proposed as a way to upgrade public transportation in Cobb County is that the BRT proposal as it currently stands is as a result of the opposition to (and anger over) the roughly just under $900 million Midtown-Cumberland Mall first phase of the $1 billion-plus Light Rail Transit line between Midtown Atlanta and Kennesaw that was proposed to be funded with the proceeds from last year's failed regional T-SPLOST referendum.
...The current Bus Rapid Transit proposal is just a backdoor way for the rail transit-hungry Cobb business community (who is bringing the Atlanta Braves to Cobb County) to get Light Rail Transit into Cobb County past a rapidly-shrinking but still very politically-dominant and extremely-strong anti-rail contingent who in the past have wanted as few direct links as possible between a traditionally-ultraconservative predominantly-white suburban Cobb County and a traditionally ultra-liberal very high-crime predominantly-black urban City of Atlanta.
Basically it doesn't matter whether Bus Rapid Transit or Light Rail Transit service is implemented on US 41 Cobb Parkway because at this point there is approximately ZERO funding for BRT or LRT.
Cobb County business interests (represented by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce and Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee) are not serious and have never been serious about implementing Bus Rapid Transit in Cobb County.
Cobb business interests are just using BRT as a ruse in place of all of the rail transit links (Light Rail Transit AND Heavy Rail Transit and commuter rail transit) that they would REALLY like to bring to Cobb County as a means of urbanizing the Cumberland Mall area (to the point that it is competitive with or exceeds Buckhead and Perimeter/Dunwoody) and other key corridors in Cobb County.
The currently-proposed BRT line (formerly-proposed LRT line) on US 41 Cobb Parkway has never truly just been about upgrading Cobb County's currently bare-bones public transportation system, but has always been about sparking a high-level of real estate investment along US 41 Cobb Pkwy as a means of turning the busy arterial road into a highly-desired European-style urban boulevard.
If and/or whenever Cobb County gets the money to implement high-capacity transit along the US 41 Cobb Parkway corridor, one can best believe that, unless the Tea Party manages to take control of the Commission Chairman seat that Tim Lee currently holds, the county has every intent of implementing Light Rail Transit service along the US 41 Cobb Pkwy corridor, because it will be Light Rail Transit that will bring the high-level of real estate investment, speculation and high-density development that the Cobb business community desires.
Sparking vastly-increased levels of real estate development in the Cumberland/Galleria area and along the US 41 Cobb Parkway corridor is what the Braves' Stadium deal is about.
Cobb business interests actually want traffic to worsen in the short run after the new Braves' Stadium (and the surrounding commercial development) opens in 2017 at the already often heavily-congested I-75/I-285 Cobb Cloverleaf because the Cobb business community figures that the worsened traffic in such a politically-crucial area (the I-285 Top End and the I-75 NW corridor) will force the transit investment-averse State of Georgia to in the intermediate and long-run invest in expanding the rail transit that Cobb business interests so desire into the Cumberland/Galleria area and beyond.
Interesting stuff again Born. Goes against the simple white/hick/racially tinged anti-Cobb statements you find here. Seems the business community knows joining MARTA will never get the rail that is needed and need to go their own way. Thanks for enlightening us.
BRT costs about as much as light rail, with half the ridership. i think the only reason cobb would choose it is out of contrariness, as it carries fewer riders.
unless cobb county's government drastically changes in the next few years, i wouldn't expect transit to ever happen.
Oh, it'll happen as the business community in Cobb County so intensely and desperately wants high-capacity passenger rail transit to happen in the form of Light Rail Transit service up US 41 Cobb Parkway (they have this obsession with an LRT line that was recently implemented along South Boulevard in Charlotte that they kept incessantly talking about early-on in the lead-up to the 2012 T-SPLOST failure) and direct Heavy Rail Transit links between Cobb County (by way of the Cumberland/Galleria business district, of course) and Midtown Atlanta, Downtown Atlanta (most-particularly the Georgia World Congress Center/Centennial Park area) and the world-leading Atlanta Airport.
Rail transit holds the key to all of the sky-high real estate development dreams and aspirations of the Cobb County business community, which is why it will happen eventually.
It likely won't happen tomorrow, but rail transit service will be implemented in Cobb County probably within the next 2 decades or so, especially with Cobb County having a population (of over 700,000 people) that is larger than many major American cities, and especially with Cobb County having a population that is moving closer to becoming 'majority-minority' due to rapidly-changing demographics in which 45% of Cobb County's population consists of racial and ethnic minorities (...a number that is up over seven-fold from 1980 when racial and ethnic minorities only made up about 6% of Cobb County's population).
With a severely-limited road network which was only designed for when the county had less than half of the population that it has today, and with traffic congestion and population growth showing no signs of letting up anytime soon, and with a profit-hungry real estate development and land speculation-driven business community (that seemingly desires to put Gwinnett County's notorious land speculation community to shame) it is not a matter of if, but when Cobb County will get rail transit service.
...That's because there is simply too much money in the land speculation and real estate development that rail transit will bring for the Cobb business community for an increasingly highly-populated Cobb County not to get rail transit in the future.
Goes against the simple white/hick/racially tinged anti-Cobb statements you find here.
Well, Cobb County is not necessarily the same far-flung homogeneous outer-suburban community (that sort of resembled what outer-suburban Paulding or Cherokee counties are like today) that it was decades ago when the Atlanta metro region only had less than half of the population that it has today.
Cobb County is actually an increasingly very-diverse community to the point that the county is on the verge of being a 'majority-minority' county where racial and ethnic minorities will make up a growing majority of the population within the next decade or so (likely sometime within the middle of the decade of the 2020's, if not before, at the current rate).
Cobb County is also an increasingly highly-populated county with a population (of over 700,000 residents) that is larger than many major American cities.
Do stubborn, regressive and isolationist elements still play a key role in Cobb County's existence? Of course they do, but those stubborn, regressive and isolationist elements are rapidly-shrinking in proportion to the county's continued fast-growing population which now stands at about 708,000 people, a population that is larger than a surprisingly-lengthy list of many major American cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saintmarks
Seems the business community knows joining MARTA will never get the rail that is needed and need to go their own way. Thanks for enlightening us.
This is a good point and an interesting point, particularly because North Fulton County Republicans (with very-strong and visible support from the North Fulton business community and quiet, but strong, support from Republican-led transit-hungry business communities in Cobb and Gwinnett counties) have been increasingly indicating that they would like to push the state to takeover part or all of MARTA and privatize it (by leasing rail transit-anchored corridors out to private investors/operators) as a means of expanding heavy rail service outside of Fulton and DeKalb counties and establishing much-desired and highly-valuable direct rail transit links between the world-leading Atlanta Airport and fast-growing and increasingly transit-hungry (and increasingly transit-needy) areas in increasingly highly-populated Cobb (population 708,000) and Gwinnett (population 843,000) counties.
In other words, North Metro business interests in Cobb, North Fulton, North DeKalb and Gwinnett counties do not just not want to join MARTA, but they want to takeover, overhaul, upgrade and expand MARTA by privatizing it.
if it doesnt involve heavy rail, there is NO Next Phase, its just more of the same.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
