MARTA to make an $8 billion pitch to change the face of Atlanta (White: suburb, stations)

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by cqholt

We are not behind Portland. Portland has MAX, but it is LRT and does not have the coverage MARTA offers. LRT cannot compare to the speed or capacity of HRT.

Portland has us well beat on coverage, as for your other outlandish claims, post some numbers ss I have before!

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Portland has us well beat on coverage, as for your other outlandish claims, post some numbers ss I have before!

MAX LRT 59.7 miles vs MARTA's 48 miles or HRT.
2013 unlinked passenger trips (Thousands)
MAX's 2013 rail ridership: 39,174.4
MARTA's 2013 rail ridership: 59,629.9

MAX's 2013 bus ridership: 58,662
MARTA's 2013 bus ridership: 59,689.8

The data does not lie.
Public Transportation Fact Book

[primaltech]

I would have to say Portland smashes Atlanta to bits on public transit, to the point of embarrassment. Part of it is just a better city design.

There are transit only lanes everywhere, transit oriented development everywhere, good system planning, you can actually get around everywhere. Lots of people walking and cycling.

They only have 12% daily transit commuters, but that's something like 4 times greater than metro Atlanta, and that's without having any heavy rail.

MARTA's heavy rail is practically useless for our region, because it doesn't have stations where most people live, and where most people want and need to go. It only connects a few things.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by cqholt

MAX LRT 59.7 miles vs MARTA's 48 miles or HRT.
2013 unlinked passenger trips (Thousands)
MAX's 2013 rail ridership: 39,174.4
MARTA's 2013 rail ridership: 59,629.9

MAX's 2013 bus ridership: 58,662
MARTA's 2013 bus ridership: 59,689.8

The data does not lie.
Public Transportation Fact Book

That's raw numbers, which is a hugely skewed stat since metro Atlanta has way more people.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by primaltech

MARTA's heavy rail is practically useless for our region, because it doesn't have stations where most people live, and where most people want and need to go. It only connects a few things.

Yet people blame MARTA for that as opposed to the millions of metro Atlantans that settled far away from the MARTA service area.

[UrbanConquistador]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Yet people blame MARTA for that as opposed to the millions of metro Atlantans that settled far away from the MARTA service area.

You're making entirely way too much sense, Gulch.

[primaltech]

I don't blame MARTA as an organization at all, I blame the ever-backwards, head in the sand nature of our state, for never embracing MARTA. OTP sprawl is just an excuse, it could still be well covered by park ride stations, and buses. They'd just have to, you know, have MARTA.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I would have to say Portland smashes Atlanta to bits on public transit, to the point of embarrassment. Part of it is just a better city design.

There are transit only lanes everywhere, transit oriented development everywhere, good system planning, you can actually get around everywhere. Lots of people walking and cycling.

They only have 12% daily transit commuters, but that's something like 4 times greater than metro Atlanta, and that's without having any heavy rail.

MARTA's heavy rail is practically useless for our region, because it doesn't have stations where most people live, and where most people want and need to go. It only connects a few things.

CoA matches Portland on it's daily transit commuters, but most of the city is well covered by rail and bus. Portland enacted it's urban growth boundary to preserve it's rural land, but Portland also has natural boundaries.

[primaltech]

They also have far more of their metropolitan population inside the main city's limits, both raw and %.

All in all, Portland is a real city, and 'Atlanta' is a traffic jam. But we can change it all if we have the social and political will.

MARTA is just one piece of it. The other pieces are having complete streets and roads, and a movement towards density and using the transit we do have as best we can, and a reverse population flight away from OTP, towards ITP.

[arjay57]

It's not fair to compare the ATL with Portland. While they are the same physical size as the COA, they have nearly 50% more people living there. They've also had steady population growth and did not experience decades of population loss and disinvestment like we did.

Portland has other issues as well.