All aboard MARTA’s busiest bus line (Atlanta, Roswell: employment, neighborhood)

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Agreed. The Peachtree Streetcar should’ve been planned from just Arts Center to Brookhaven.

Would’ve brought great transit and connectivity to Peachtree Road South/South Buckhead and Buckhead Village.

Sadly, too many people were pushing the "tourist" aspect of a Peachtree Streetcar and wanted it on the Midtown/Downtown segments which already are next to existing MARTA rail.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

The Memorial Drive corridor is (probably) much higher income than Buford Highway. More of those people will be driving to their destinations. Buford Highway is pretty highly-populated, and with lower-income people. They would be more likely to use the bus to commute. This does not surprise me at all. In fact, if someone asked me where I thought bus usage was the highest, Buford Highway would be my first guess.

Yes, and I did admit that I haven't utilized the bus system in a long time and so much has probably changed. I remember riding the 39 before and I don't remember it being packed in particular but again, this was YEARS ago. The 121...I'm not sure which part of Memorial Drive you're talking about because the part I used to ride the bus on was pretty poor. I would describe it as from the 285 part of Memorial (near Kensington Station) all the way down to North Hairston where the bus used to turn left to go further down. I think the biggest employer in this area was probably that jail. Anyway, the 121 was a very popular route. It was the only route I knew of that had bus frequency the way it did during rush hour. I mean it wasn't even a ten minute wait. There would be times buses were back to back and so they were very much in use. I don't even remember single-family homes really on this route...it was mostly apartments and a ton of fast-food joints, there were churches, and liquor stores, you know the tell-tale signs of a poor area.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by Atlanta Scientist

I think specifically White Atlantans won't ride buses. But that goes for the south in general. I'm seeing greater diversity on the bus lines running from North Avenue to PCM though.

Just came from Hapeville on the Virginia Ave bus and it had a good amount of white people though the bus definitely wasn’t full (it’s only 2 PM though). Hapeville is actually more diverse than I thought but separate topic.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by MattCW

The 221 Express is aimed at P&R commuters from Gwinnett more than it's aimed at local service.

Really? At that point, they may as well drive to Kensington.

I figured, they would ride the Gwinnett transit buses.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Agreed. The Peachtree Streetcar should’ve been planned from just Arts Center to Brookhaven.

Would’ve brought great transit and connectivity to Peachtree Road South/South Buckhead and Buckhead Village.

Don't agree. Unless it was fully grade separated it would have been a waste of money. It would strangle an already congested area and not generate that much additional ridership.

I think there should be a serious look at a subway west from Lindberg. Maybe that's not justified with the cost, but it is a dense area in employment, population and shopping that is not served by the current rail system.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Atlanta Scientist

I think specifically White Atlantans won't ride buses. But that goes for the south in general. I'm seeing greater diversity on the bus lines running from North Avenue to PCM though.

That's a function of poor service and the limited number of poor white people ITP. Only the people without a choice will ride ultra slow transit. That means poor people.

In Houston plenty of white people rode the short distance local bus routes inside the Loop. Plenty of people of all ethnicities ride the park n rides. They have 33,000 people a day doing park-n-rides on 26 routes. That is triple the ridership on their two newest rail lines. They have several local routes that generate better ridership than either of their two new rail lines (and one that beats both of them combined with 12,600 daily).

Its a function of service, not whether it has metal or rubber wheels.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by bu2

I think there should be a serious look at a subway west from Lindberg. Maybe that's not justified with the cost, but it is a dense area in employment, population and shopping that is not served by the current rail system.

Most of the area west of Lindbergh is low-denisty residential.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Most of the area west of Lindbergh is low-denisty residential.

We're talking about the same Buckhead/Peachtree corridor you were pushing for light rail yesterday, from Lindberg to West Paces.

And if you did it from an Armour Yard infill station, you could go over to Piedmont Hospital.

Much beyond Peachtree is SFH to I-75, but then so is the North line between Lennox and 285.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by bu2

We're talking about the same Buckhead/Peachtree corridor you were pushing for light rail yesterday, from Lindberg to West Paces.

You're talking about tunneling from Lindbergh without a viable western terminus (unless you're proposing that that line would go to Cumberland, in which case you'd be better off running it from the tunnel stub north of Arts Center).

And if you did it from an Armour Yard infill station, you could go over to Piedmont Hospital.

LRT along Peachtree (and the future Beltline) would intersect next to Piedmont.

Much beyond Peachtree is SFH to I-75, but then so is the North line between Lennox and 285.

The Buckhead-to-Medical Center stretch of the North Line only exists because the ROW was built with the 400 tollway and it helped to have a very viable terminus in Perimeter Center (and could've been extended to Windward before GDOT decided to screw that up with the express lane project). It would not have been built if 400 ITP never was.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Gulch

You're talking about tunneling from Lindbergh without a viable western terminus (unless you're proposing that that line would go to Cumberland, in which case you'd be better off running it from the tunnel stub north of Arts Center).



LRT along Peachtree (and the future Beltline) would intersect next to Piedmont.



The Buckhead-to-Medical Center stretch of the North Line only exists because the ROW was built with the 400 tollway and it helped to have a very viable terminus in Perimeter Center (and could've been extended to Windward before GDOT decided to screw that up with the express lane project). It would not have been built if 400 ITP never was.

That tunnel stub was designed before Buckhead really exploded. The center of Atlanta has shifted north. A Cobb County line would be better if it connected further north rather than going all the way to midtown.

MARTA and GDOT keep designing based on the Atlanta employment concentrations of 1970.