MARTA to make an $8 billion pitch to change the face of Atlanta (Roswell: garages, office)

[ccdscott]

Everybody wants a piece of the rail/transit cake and all of the sugar highs it brings but no one wants to go to the "store" and get the ingredients to bake it. SMH

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Just build a wall around 285, and let the outside be its own state, where they can have bare minimum taxes, zero transit, tons of lanes, tons of parking lots, and they can have their own jobs and economy. They can build their own airport out in some rural county.

Then on the inside, the city-state of Atlanta could thrive and urbanize like it never imagined, with everything human-scale.

Win-Win.

The airport's barely ITP and you forget all of the businesses located OTP. All of our counties are important and we need to think that way to see any progress get done.

[cqholt]

MARTA Expansion Plans Hinge on Sales Tax Revenue - Transit Talk - Curbed Atlanta

[bu2]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Personally I think a new station or two in north Fulton would attract a number of riders. North springs gets considerably more boardings than stations such as Decatur, Lenox or Inman Park.

However, that's unlikely to significantly improve traffic. People will still have to drive to the station and that may actually increase traffic in the areas nearby.

So is it worth it for the residents up there to peel off another .5% for MARTA out of every dollar they spend, in addition to the 1% they are already giving to MARTA? I can definitely see more than one side to this argument.

Interesting chart.

Points out that you really don't want to build a rail line to serve a bunch of single family homes. East Lake and Edgewood are at the very bottom.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by ccdscott

Everybody wants a piece of the rail/transit cake and all of the sugar highs it brings but no one wants to go to the "store" and get the ingredients to bake it. SMH

They will approve it. They just did it wrong before. There is a process that has to be done.

Before they were like "trust the Ga gov, vote on this and half your money will go to roads and the other half to possible rail" It's like proposing to a woman and saying "marry me and I might help pay for the wedding, I might get a better job, I might do better but believe in me" instead he should say "I'm a great guy, I will help out family do this, that, etc. Here is my track record" blah blah blah.

They should say "here is the transit map. You see those heavy rail lines to Alpharetta, CC and I-20 well if you vote and it passes all those lines will be operating by Jan 1, 2020."

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

So an elected representative is supposed to support MARTA expansion and higher MARTA taxes even if his constituents are telling him they don't want it?

I'm a MARTA supporter myself but there isn't universal agreement on these subjects.

For example, instead of trying to force higher MARTA taxes on suburban communities who don't want it, why not focus on improving the system within its existing parameters?

And why increase the burden on individual taxpayers rather than exploring some of the other funding options that have been suggested?

It appears Alber's did not talk to ALL of his constituents.
LETTER: Resident responds to Albers' MARTA letter | Appen Media Group

I read with interest, the article written by State Sen. John Albers concerning the extension of MARTA north toward Alpharetta and beyond (Jan. 15 issue). This article displays a common tactic among advocates for or against a particular issue: Take an opposing opinion, call it a "red herring," thereby making it so and then, with this pejorative label, dismiss it.

I have never read anything that indicates that members of the millennial generation will never own a car. I have read that a large number of people in this generation are seeking places to live where they have easy access to public transportation, thus minimizing the need to have cars to go everywhere. The figure that they account for 27 percent of all new car sales doesn't indicate what percentage of the millennials that move to North Fulton are buying cars compared to those of other generations.

I was not aware that Mercedes-Benz supplies cars to all employees. That is generous indeed. I suspect that many of their workers and those that work for suppliers are not given new cars and many do depend upon the MARTA to get around. I have never heard or read anything that claims that businesses need to have heavy rail transit in order to survive. Perhaps the senator could provide some evidence for this dubious claim.

I also wish that the senator could indicate where he read the article that compared quality of life to the number of miles of heavy rail. That would also be news to me and many others.

His ultimate red herring was the Twitter poll. It beats me why he would be riled up about such silly "journalism" — but remember that it is easy to build this up and then knock it down.

Sen. Albers ends his piece by stating, "Expanding a heavy rail line is not operationally, financially or logistically feasible." He cites no figures that would prove this and there are apparently a number of legislators that would take issue with this. Instead, we are supposed to add additional lanes to Ga. 400 and then add express bus service. I drive Ga. 400 often in and out of peak times. What happens when construction crews rip up the highway to add more lanes? What "fraction of the cost" of heavy rail is this this going to be? Of course, the senator doesn't say and perhaps he doesn't know. The widening of Ga. 400 would take years, be extremely costly and have great impact on the traffic that uses the road. The senator apparently isn't concerned about the increasing pollution, the increasing accidents and increasing insurance rates that come with more roads. Also, make no mistake — you cannot just devote an existing lane to express buses because of the havoc it would cause in the other lanes. That is just common sense. That red herring isn't going to go away so easily.

I read in the AJC that one legislator reacted to the reluctance to consider more public transportation by saying that you cannot just pave your way out of traffic problems. Try Los Angeles or Chicago or New York, for example.

One thing that expanding MARTA north would do is to increase traffic around the new stations. That problem can be solved a lot more cheaply than building 15 miles of express bus lanes.

Oh, by the way, Sen. Albers never indicated whether he drives or is driven on Ga. 400 during peak hours. I drive it regularly and would love to be able to take MARTA toward downtown from a station near Johns Creek, where I live. As it is, I fight the traffic on Ga. 400 to get to the MARTA station at North Springs, then hop on the train and I am soon downtown.

Jay Siegel,

Johns Creek

[ccdscott]

As it is, I fight the traffic on Ga. 400 to get to the MARTA station at North Springs, then hop on the train and I am soon downtown.

That is why it is mind boggling to NOT keep pushing that thing north. This guy, and many others, are in traffic even before they get to the train. Just crazy.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by ccdscott

That is why it is mind boggling to NOT keep pushing that thing north. This guy, and many others, are in traffic even before they get to the train. Just crazy.

I know many folks out my way who would drive to an Alpharetta station to get into town and beyond. As it is now, driving to Doraville to catch a train to Midtown just isn't worth it.

[sumitsu]

Originally Posted by cqholt

It appears Alber's did not talk to ALL of his constituents.
LETTER: Resident responds to Albers' MARTA letter | Appen Media Group

There's also the fact that MARTA commissioned Kennesaw State to conduct a statistically-valid opinion survey of what North Fulton residents think of MARTA expansion, and the results strongly favor expansion: http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedFile...ntation(1).pdf

Among the results: 76% favor expansion. 77% favor rail expansion, with a plurality in favor of HRT.

(Full results, if you're interested: http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedFile...arta-Final.pdf)

There are any number of reasons that any one particular poll might not accurately reflect public opinion, but all that Senator Albers offers as refutation are vague anecdotes and unsupported innuendos. I've yet to see any representation of public opinion with the statistical rigour of MARTA's survey which refutes MARTA's finding that North Fulton residents overall support MARTA expansion.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

I know many folks out my way who would drive to an Alpharetta station to get into town and beyond. As it is now, driving to Doraville to catch a train to Midtown just isn't worth it.

The arrangement of the Doraville station makes it far less convenient as a park-and-ride station than North Springs. You have to take back roads just to get to the Doraville station, then the parking deck is more than a football field away from the station entrance, which still leaves a bit of a hike to the platform. And don't even get me started on that flimsy elevator in the parking deck...

By contrast, North Springs gives very easy access in and out of 400, the parking deck is right next to the station, and the two counterweighted elevators can handle even rush hour traffic, now that they're both working consistently.

BTW, Doraville's odd location would not be as big of a problem if they ever built that development at the old GM plant site and extended Park Ave. under the tracks. All of a sudden it could be a pretty convenient drive from Peachtree Industrial.