MARTA unveils its dream project list for November Referendum (Atlanta: living in, suburbs)

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Once you get to where the MLK station would be, you would be less than a few minutes to the current terminus, with no bottlenecks in-between. Just because it sounds nice to have a station at or outside of 285 does not justify the over 500 million in cost (per martamenu.com). This brings criminally little to the table compared to other projects around the same cost.

BTW, per martamenu, this is the single most expensive project currently being considered. wow

I think that if there is a West Line HRT extension, it should go to Fulton Industrial, with a MLK/285 station built as part of that. I also think that they're vastly overstating the cost of the current proposed HRT extension. $500 M for that short of a distance seems a bit excessive.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Once you get to where the MLK station would be, you would be less than a few minutes to the current terminus, with no bottlenecks in-between. Just because it sounds nice to have a station at or outside of 285 does not justify the over 500 million in cost (per martamenu.com). This brings criminally little to the table compared to other projects around the same cost.

BTW, per martamenu, this is the single most expensive project currently being considered. wow

This may be a pet project to get the support of that council rep. and the citizens that live, similar to the Green Line being an agreement between MARTA and the black leaders to support the referendum in the 70's.

[bu2]

[quote=tikigod311;44513368]Once you get to where the MLK station would be, you would be less than a few minutes to the current terminus, with no bottlenecks in-between. Just because it sounds nice to have a station at or outside of 285 does not justify the over 500 million in cost (per martamenu.com). This brings criminally little to the table compared to other projects around the same cost.

BTW, per martamenu, this is the single most expensive project currently being considered. wow[/QUOTE

Getting off the freeway in a rough neighborhood when you are only a few miles from town means almost nobody outside 285 will use it at its current location. This makes it usable for a much larger population. Fulton Industrial or 6 flags would be better.

And the 285/20 intersection IS a bottleneck, probably the biggest on I-20 West.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

Getting off the freeway in a rough neighborhood when you are only a few miles from town means almost nobody outside 285 will use it at its current location. This makes it usable for a much larger population. Fulton Industrial or 6 flags would be better.

The people that are scared to drive down the street in a "rough neighborhood" probably are going to apply similar stereotypes to transit regardless of it has direct highway access. Sure, it would be nice to extend the HRT further west, but it doesn't makes sense until Cobb is onboard to extend it more than just the one stop.

[primaltech]

Blue Line to Six Flags would just make too much damn sense. It would catch all the daily commuters from Douglas County and South Cobb, and everybody else to the east could (and many would) take the MARTA train to go to Six Flags.

But no, can't do that, because it's a thousand feet inside Cobb County. Utterly ridiculous regional planning system we have.

Just like Cumberland and SunTrust Park being a mere mile inside Cobb and outside of MARTA territory, it's just an unfortunate shame. Would be another ideal heavy rail station, both for commuters (in both directions) and for people going to the games.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Blue Line to Six Flags would just make too much damn sense. It would catch all the daily commuters from Douglas County and South Cobb, and everybody else to the east could (and many would) take the MARTA train to go to Six Flags.

But no, can't do that, because it's a thousand feet inside Cobb County. Utterly ridiculous regional planning system we have.

Just like Cumberland and SunTrust Park being a mere mile inside Cobb and outside of MARTA territory, it's just an unfortunate shame. Would be another ideal heavy rail station, both for commuters (in both directions) and for people going to the games.

It's not the system, but the result of your idiot county government spending the last 50 years taking a dump on the idea of MARTA crossing the Chattahoochee.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Gulch

It's not the system, but the result of your idiot county government spending the last 50 years taking a dump on the idea of MARTA crossing the Chattahoochee.

This again.

If the Atlanta metro area actually had a strong centralized transportation authority, the Cobb county government might be induced to play along with a regional transportation plan. Some cities have such a thing. Atlanta does not because regional cooperation is seen by some as "socialst". Like that is a bad thing.

Please keep in mind that MARTA really made NO SENSE to Cobb County in the 1970's when it was a few small towns separated by farmland. The term "idiocy" does not apply.

I might also point out that the 1970's is also the last time the Cobb County residents had any sort of direct say (vote) in the matter, so it's not like the residents have been continuously rejecting the idea (although I admit that they still might).

The situation today is very different. Can we stop the childish name calling and try to think of a viable solution?

[primaltech]

The issue started when they made MARTA a county-by-county opt-out in the designated MARTA area. The MARTA Act in the 1960's should have been something like, "If the majority of voters in this designated 5-county Atlanta metropolitan area approve by referendum, then MARTA will collect a 1% tax in those 5 counties and will operate transit in those 5 counties".

That would have passed back then, even without majority votes in Cobb/Gwinnett/Clayton, because those counties were far less populous than Fulton and DeKalb. And such an overall vote would easily pass now, because Gwinnett probably has a pro-MARTA majority, and Cobb might be at least at 40% in favor or more.

All of it comes down to the Atlanta region being able to think and act and plan as a unified region, instead of balkanized. It's especially an issue when right now MARTA can't even operate in areas that are ITP. And it can't operate at all whatsoever in the second most populous county of the 5-county metro region.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

This again.

If the Atlanta metro area actually had a strong centralized transportation authority, the Cobb county government might be induced to play along with a regional transportation plan. Some cities have such a thing. Atlanta does not because regional cooperation is seen by some as "socialst". Like that is a bad thing.

Please keep in mind that MARTA really made NO SENSE to Cobb County in the 1970's when it was a few small towns separated by farmland. The term "idiocy" does not apply.

I might also point out that the 1970's is also the last time the Cobb County residents had any sort of direct say (vote) in the matter, so it's not like the residents have been continuously rejecting the idea (although I admit that they still might).

The situation today is very different. Can we stop the childish name calling and try to think of a viable solution?

I mean, Cobb citizens do have power over it, in that they elect the people who's job it would be to hold the referendum and make the plans as to how the money would be spent.

Yeah Cobb hasn't had a popular vote on MARTA for 40ish years, but they have had popular votes for their leadership, who have routinely put the idea down. Even as recent as talking about Suntrust park, the leadership has made it clear that MARTA high-capacity transit is not part of the plan.

There are some in positions of power within the county who want to change all that, sure, but they're few compared to those who are entrenched in the idea that MARTA should not be let into their county, but apparently that their traffic aught to be born by others, so...

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by primaltech

All of it comes down to the Atlanta region being able to think and act and plan as a unified region, instead of balkanized. It's especially an issue when right now MARTA can't even operate in areas that are ITP. And it can't operate at all whatsoever in the second most populous county of the 5-county metro region.

Absolutely. The level of political balkanization in this metro area drives me CRAZY at times. Are you people idiots?? What is the opposite of cooperation? Guess what ... that's precisely what you get when you don't have some level of cooperation that is formally codified in some manner.

*shakes head*

Sometimes it comes down to "individual rights" versus "getting something done".

Which is more important?