MARTA looking at light rail, bus line options to expand the Clifton corridor (Atlanta: transfer, to buy)

[JulianMabowski]

Imagine in 20 years all you accomplished is replaced rail cars and work on a highway expansion that isn't gonna be completed anytime soon, and people think this is okay lmao. Like I said, we need to start holding GDOT/MARTA accountable or they're going to just keep on f*cking us over. Atlanta will soon have 7-8 million people in its metro and it has none of the infrastructure to handle it.


I generally hate sprawly cities, but Dallas has impressed me. They're arguably more spread out than Atlanta yet has been FAR more focused on expanding transit than Atlanta. They're currently building a whole new light rail line and are going to start on a new subway connection downtown soon. In 20 years, they have opened MULTIPLE lines, very impressive. Meanwhile in Atlanta...

[JMatl]

Wow, bu2. How convenient that you ignore what's happening on the Top End with 285 & 400. This also includes the beginnings of the collector/distributer system, which will exponentially increase safety.

Nobody here wishes to emulate anything about Houston, including their sprawl enabling multiple Beltways. Perhaps if we lived in that sort of unattractive environment, but we don't.

DART is a joke, and is practically useless with a few exceptions. With exactly half the track milage, pre-COVID MARTA's ridership literally crushed DART. Their DFW station is particularly embarrassing for our 4th largest Metro, it's literally a covered shed open to the elements and a hike to the terminals.

Again, you seem to have been negative re: literally everything related to life here since you arrived. It's beyond obvious that Atlanta is a very bad match for you.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

Imagine in 20 years all you accomplished is replaced rail cars and work on a highway expansion that isn't gonna be completed anytime soon, and people think this is okay lmao. Like I said, we need to start holding GDOT/MARTA accountable or they're going to just keep on f*cking us over. Atlanta will soon have 7-8 million people in its metro and it has none of the infrastructure to handle it.

I generally hate sprawly cities, but Dallas has impressed me. They're arguably more spread out than Atlanta yet has been FAR more focused on expanding transit than Atlanta. They're currently building a whole new light rail line and are going to start on a new subway connection downtown soon. In 20 years, they have opened MULTIPLE lines, very impressive. Meanwhile in Atlanta...

You aren't qualified to even discuss any of this. You don't even live here, so you can drop the collective 'we' and 'us.' Stick to what you know kid, and worry about Chicago.

He's gone (yet again) folks, but he'll be back...

[bu2]

Originally Posted by JMatl

Wow, bu2. How convenient that you ignore what's happening on the Top End with 285 & 400. This also includes the beginnings of the collector/distributer system, which will exponentially increase safety.

Nobody here wishes to emulate anything about Houston, including their sprawl enabling multiple Beltways. Perhaps if we lived in that sort of unattractive environment, but we don't.

DART is a joke, and is practically useless with a few exceptions. With exactly half the track milage, pre-COVID MARTA's ridership literally crushed DART. Their DFW station is particularly embarrassing for our 4th largest Metro, it's literally a covered shed open to the elements and a hike to the terminals.

Again, you seem to have been negative re: literally everything related to life here since you arrived. It's beyond obvious that Atlanta is a very bad match for you.

And everybody else has done that times 10. Its next to nothing. And they should have done it 15 years ago.

You seem hung up on Houston. As I mentioned, I could come up with a similar list from Charlotte, Dallas, Austin and Phoenix.

Heavy rail is nice, but Atlanta has done almost no improvements. And Cumberland, Emory, Alpharetta and much of Buckhead are not served. There is very poor service to the south with rail ending at the airport. Atlanta's arterial network is horrible which means its really difficult to have a decent bus system. Its HOV system inside 285 is just a striped line which limits usefulness. The Gwinnett and Cobb lines should have been built 2 way so they aren't as good as they could be. Actually in Cobb, whenever there is really bad traffic, the HOT lanes are stopped also.

One of the problems with Atlanta is that people keep trying to re-invent the wheel. You hear people in the Georgia legislature talking about things as if they had no idea other places had dealt with the same issues (i'm not just talking about transportation). There is just a parochialism that impedes improvements.

[wasel]

Originally Posted by bu2

Atlanta has done next to nothing compared to Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Austin or Phoenix. And nothing on transit compared to LA, NY, SF, Seattle or DC (or really pretty much any major city who have almost all had projects).

These cities have had a dozen or two billion dollar efforts. Dallas has built a whole light rail system, the longest in the country during a time when Atlanta added one or two stops and did routine maintenance and replaced rail cars and built a useless street trolley

Some of you seem to have almost no knowledge outside Atlanta. Atlanta has been negligent on transportation over the last 30 years and the quality of life has declined. Its infrastructure was good for the 2.184 million in 1990 but now there are over 6 million people. It is starting to hurt on relocations.

Have these efforts done that much to reduce traffic in Dallas, Houston, LA, SF?

[bu2]

Originally Posted by wasel

Have these efforts done that much to reduce traffic in Dallas, Houston, LA, SF?

Well the much criticized Katy Freeway project in Houston (expanding from 6-8 lanes, 4 frontage lanes and an HOV to 24 lanes total) decreased the pre-construction commute time something like 30 minutes from Katy one way and 15 minutes the opposite direction. Now with Houston growing even faster than Atlanta and especially in the Katy corridor, traffic has climbed back to old levels or higher during rush hour.

The answer is clearly yes compared to doing nothing.

[bu2]

But in any project now (transit or road), planners need to take a hard look at what remote working is going to do to traffic patterns. Atlanta is not back to pre-pandemic traffic. Over the next year companies will start to get back to their long term remote/on site work plans. It will be interesting to see.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by bu2

Well the much criticized Katy Freeway project in Houston (expanding from 6-8 lanes, 4 frontage lanes and an HOV to 24 lanes total) decreased the pre-construction commute time something like 30 minutes from Katy one way and 15 minutes the opposite direction. Now with Houston growing even faster than Atlanta and especially in the Katy corridor, traffic has climbed back to old levels or higher during rush hour.

The answer is clearly yes compared to doing nothing.

Guess the Katy Freeway needs to be doubled to 48 lanes then.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by bu2

But in any project now (transit or road), planners need to take a hard look at what remote working is going to do to traffic patterns. Atlanta is not back to pre-pandemic traffic. Over the next year companies will start to get back to their long term remote/on site work plans. It will be interesting to see.

Atlanta traffic is pretty much back to normal following pandemic, GDOT says

ATLANTA — If you are heading back to work or school on Monday after spring break, make sure you give yourself enough time to deal with traffic on the roads.

Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic kept people home instead of out working, shopping and socializing, the Georgia Department of Transportation says traffic on our highways and interstates is now mostly back to normal.

Natalie Dale with the Georgia Department of Transportation watches patterns on Georgia interstates and highways very closely and has been zeroing in on traffic volume since the pandemic began.

“What our data shows is that freight was for the most part, largely unaffected. There may have been a small blip there, but commuter traffic was,” Dale said. “It felt like traffic shut down.”

Commuter traffic, or the number of cars going back and forth from home to work, significantly dropped at the start of the pandemic.

Dale said that two years in, the number of people on the road is normal. What’s different is when people are on the road.

“In the mornings, we have a longer a.m. commute time,” Dale said.

She said that is because companies who were forced to work remotely for so long now know that employees will still be productive when they are allowed to determine their own start times.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by wasel

Have these efforts done that much to reduce traffic in Dallas, Houston, LA, SF?

Yes, and not only reduce traffic but reduce crime as well. It's because less traffic = less feelings of anger and unhappiness. Meanwhile in Atlanta that's why everyone is always angry and unhappy.