Sandy Springs proposes Monorail Plan (Dunwoody, Kennesaw: 2015, mover, construction)

[cqholt]

This plan is even more delusional than their city center plan. Why reinvent the wheel, when MARTA is already the regional transit agency and serves the area with HRT and buses? This just shows that middle class and above have a stigma against buses. SS would rather build a hundreds million dollar monorail, than improve bus service.
Disney Springs? Planning chair wants a Sandy Springs monorail - Reporter Newspapers

A monorail is a solution to Sandy Springs’ traffic woes, the city’s Planning Commission chair said at a recent meeting—and a city official replied that the idea is now under review.

“If Disney can move a hundred thousand people a day, we can do it, and compared to MARTA, the costs are marginal,” said commission chair Lee Duncan at the group’s Nov. 19 meeting, during a wide-ranging discussion about urban planning.

Duncan was referring to a famed elevated monorail built as a futuristic mass transit at California’s Disneyland in the 1950s. His Sandy Springs version would run from the forthcoming City Springs redevelopment to MARTA stations and loop through Perimeter Center.

“I know you guys look at me and say, ‘Duncan, you’re crazy,’” Duncan said, but insisted that “implementation of a monorail” deserves a thorough study to “kill it or provide some context to move forward.”

Assistant City Manager Jim Tolbert indicated that Duncan previously raised the idea in internal meetings with staff. And in fact, Tolbert said, he gave the monorail idea to a consultant team developing the city’s new land-use plan to “seriously review it.”

However, Tolbert gave hints that the monorail will prove infeasible—such as suggesting that Duncan pay for half its cost.

“We’ll name it after him if it works,” Tolbert said.

Monorails—trains that run on a single, usually elevated, track—are now a popular feature at Disney theme parks and are used as public transit in several global cities. However, they also have become a symbol of government boondoggles through a famed episode of the TV comedy “The Simpsons,” where a con man sells a used monorail to an attention-hungry city.

The Georgia Department of Transportation’s “revive285” program to improve transit along the top end Perimeter briefly considered a monorail among many other alternatives several years ago. That slow-moving planning process is now focused on buses and ground-level light rail as possibilities.

[glovenyc]

Originally Posted by cqholt

This plan is even more delusional than their city center plan. Why reinvent the wheel, when MARTA is already the regional transit agency and serves the area with HRT and buses? This just shows that middle class and above have a stigma against buses. SS would rather build a hundreds million dollar monorail, than improve bus service.
Disney Springs? Planning chair wants a Sandy Springs monorail - Reporter Newspapers

Maybe you can ease up off of Cobb County, and redirect your hatred towards Sandy Springs for a change?

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by glovenyc

Maybe you can ease up off of Cobb County, and redirect your hatred towards Sandy Springs for a change?

Cobb County keeps making stupid moves; using $400M of public money for a Braves Stadium with no traffic plan, more public money for an MLS practice facility, etc. and I feel the need to call them out on the moves.

[glovenyc]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Cobb County keeps making stupid moves; using $400M of public money for a Braves Stadium with no traffic plan, more public money for an MLS practice facility, etc. and I feel the need to call them out on the moves.

...and you have exceeded all expectations. But now it's may be Sandy Springs turn, por favor. Listen Cobb shunning transit and being taken over by MARTA is asinine to me. I live exactly where I live due solely to my everyday convenience, especially the proximity to the CoA. With regard to the Cobb yahoos up in Kennesaw and Acworth calling the shots on these type issues, disturbs me as well, and could never live that far away from the city. But at times it seems like you are beating a dead horse.

[Gulch]

I read this as being a people-mover type setup that could connect to the MARTA stations in the area. Sounds like it would be beneficial.

[ATLTJL]

I don't know when you will realize that nobody likes buses.

They don't get you out of traffic, they are much slower than cars, and there is a stigma against them because for the longest time they really did suck.

Just forget your bus idea and move on. It's never going to reach critical mass among middle class and above whites. Sorry to be so blunt, but there it is, that's the truth.

[flyonpa]

I just checked with Mayor Quimby, Springfield's is available for purchase...

[jsvh]

glovenyc - Just because Cobb has been taking the crown for bone-headed moves recently, doesn't mean other places including Sandy Springs and CoA, don't have their own f-ups.


As for this monorail, I worry about it's feasibility. But I am glad to see they are interested in a local transit circulator. I don't think MARTA has to be the (or even should be) the only entity in the transit game. The more the merrier in my book.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I don't know when you will realize that nobody likes buses.

They don't get you out of traffic, they are much slower than cars, and there is a stigma against them because for the longest time they really did suck.

Just forget your bus idea and move on. It's never going to reach critical mass among middle class and above whites. Sorry to be so blunt, but there it is, that's the truth.

You are correct and this is why cities choose to invest in LRT and streetcars over buses, but if buses are cone right, high frequency, dedicated lane, etc. then it can match the speed and sexiness of rail. Odd, when I see old pictures of MARTA from the 70's there is a good mix of race and socioeconiomic classes in the photos.

[primaltech]

Actually I've always thought a rail based people mover makes the most sense to me, for Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and the Perimeter area. Maybe even for connecting downtown Sandy Springs with its MARTA station, but that could arguably be bus.

Something sort of like the Skytrain people mover at the airport. An aerial loop system with a handful of key stops on it. Namely, of course the MARTA stations, plus stations at the Ravinia towers, Concourse towers, all the various Cox towers, IBM and all the offices on Barfield, and finally Glenlake with the UPS HQ, Newell Rubbermaid HQ, and soon to be Mercedes HQ there as well. Then it could nicely loop back over to the North Springs station which is right there just across the highway.

For linking the under construction Sandy Springs city center area with the Sandy Springs MARTA station, I would recommend widening Mt Vernon by one lane each side, and making that a bus only lane, which does a constant, free shuttle loop service, like Atlantic Station.