What projects should Fulton County prioritize in TSPLOST? (Kennesaw, Woodstock: 2013, credit)

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Could have something to do with GDOT not preferring aerial structures thru existing interchanges.

That matters for full interchanges such as 285/400. Not for freeway-to-surface-street interchanges such as 400 and Lenox, through which MARTA rail runs.

[primaltech]

GDOT doesn't mind MARTA rail running in the median of GA-400 (heck, they helped design it), because it will never interfere with their ability to reconfigure any of those interchanges.

They DO mind an aerial structure alongside the freeway going through an already existing interchange like Holcomb Bridge, because it potentially DOES limit their ability to change configuration or widen or redesign or whatever.

That's why they're fine with the Connect 400 plan to run along the outside of the freeway, but at the exits they want the train to tunnel thru the area.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

GDOT doesn't mind MARTA rail running in the median of GA-400 (heck, they helped design it), because it will never interfere with their ability to reconfigure any of those interchanges.

They DO mind an aerial structure alongside the freeway going through an already existing interchange like Holcomb Bridge, because it potentially DOES limit their ability to change configuration or widen or redesign or whatever.

That's why they're fine with the Connect 400 plan to run along the outside of the freeway, but at the exits they want the train to tunnel thru the area.

Correct, HRT alignment: http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedfile...rridor/hrt.pdf You can even see GDOT's HOT plan for 400 on this document.
BRT in managed lanes (http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedfile...idor/BRTML.pdf) would exit the managed lanes, merge with general lanes to access the existing North Springs Station ramp. Can you say bottleneck? The stations would be in freeway median, similar to LACMTA's Silver Line. No opportunity for P&R with TOD.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by bu2

Its that link cqholt included earlier in the thread. Its a roughly 20 minute video with Fulton County's presentation and they have a number of slides. (I mostly fast forwarded through it to their slides).

Ah, yes. I thought you meant from MARTA. Which is an important point: this study wasn't done by MARTA. I would follow MARTA's own documents for now, unless we have something that explicitly says that MARTA is expecting the project to be more expensive than they originally worked out.

If you have such a source, I would love to see it. It's not that those aren't good ball-park numbers (they are), but that if MARTA, having actually done design work, thinks it is less, then I think we should consider that to be the actual baseline.

Originally Posted by cqholt

Correct, HRT alignment: http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedfile...rridor/hrt.pdf You can even see GDOT's HOT plan for 400 on this document.
BRT in managed lanes (http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedfile...idor/BRTML.pdf) would exit the managed lanes, merge with general lanes to access the existing North Springs Station ramp. Can you say bottleneck? The stations would be in freeway median, similar to LACMTA's Silver Line. No opportunity for P&R with TOD.

As a side note, this is one of the reasons I keep pushing for a median-running I-75 heavy rail line.

[bu2]

Maybe they should prioritize better bus:

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/02/...-bus-networks/

New traffic and transit data is out for 2016, and the news is not good.
Driving mileage increased for the fifth straight year, the Federal Highway Administration reports in a statement that celebrates record traffic levels as a boon for the nation. Americans logged 3.2 trillion miles last year. Traffic in December 2016 increased 0.5 percent compared to the previous December.
Meanwhile, transit ridership decreased in almost every major city. But there were two cities that bucked the trend — Seattle and Houston, which posted 4.1 and 2.3 percent increases, respectively.
Those two outliers share one thing in common: In addition to expanding light rail, they’re both redesigning their bus networks.

Atlanta was -5.8% which was 19th among the 30 cities listed.

One interesting thing. Quickly adding up all the numbers comes to about 8.9 billion trips. NYC was 4.24 billion of that. SF, LA, Chicago, Boston, Philly and DC were about 2.8 billion. The other 23 totaled less than 2 billion.

[primaltech]

Sounds like they decided on the 1/2 cent, no rail option.

Fulton County agrees on transit plan - now comes the hard part

Lol. Fulton gonna Fulton.

[MattCW]

Idiots through and through. Can Fulton citizens sue them?

[primaltech]

Such a shame to put all those new jobs connected to Dunwoody station, and then not extend the train north a few miles to where people live.

Potential is always so wasted in this metro.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Sounds like they decided on the 1/2 cent, no rail option.

Fulton County agrees on transit plan - now comes the hard part

Lol. Fulton gonna Fulton.

Well, that's some ripe bull crud.

Originally Posted by MattCW

Idiots through and through. Can Fulton citizens sue them?

MARTA still has to approve / adopt the decision in its own project list before pushing for the legislation. I dunno if they'd push back against Fulton's conclusions, but I would kind of like to see them try.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Well, that's some ripe bull crud.

Funny how 2 years ago, the .5 extra cent for MARTA in Fulton would have given them 5 new stations of heavy rail all the way up to Windward, plus most of these ART bus enhancements. Like I distinctly remember the Roswell Rd and Holcomb Bridge ART were in there, in MARTA's documents when they were trying to sell it. And actually I think extending the Blue line at least 1 station to the west was in there.

Now, for some reason, the same amount of money (actually, more, since the county and region has grown in 2 years), only gets the bus enhancements, with none of the rail?

Something is just weird, there. Doesn't add up.