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I don’t think I’ve ever rode on MARTA before despite numerous visits to ATL.
Question. MARTA looks solid. Outside the few largest metro systems, it looks to be the best. Buttt, how useful is it, honestly?
Is this a system that people want to use for convenience to get them around the city, etc? I guess a better way to ask is, how is the pedestrian experience around most MARTA stations when you get off the train? Looking at google maps, it seems like outside of a few downtown stations, it looks like not the best pedestrian environments and too car oriented. Even buckhead station.
I hate transit systems that you get off the bus into a stomped down area of grass and a system in general where you feel like a schmendrick for not driving.
The Tyson’s stations in DC suck hardcore in that department. They have great connectivity to buses and circulators etc but just having to walk from the stations, it’s just too auto-oriented. Not enough pedestrian protections.and just overall feels like unless your a homeless person, why are you walking around.
MARTA was decent at one time (5+ years ago), but no more. The crime is so bad at the stations, they had to close the restrooms. Crime on station property is scary high. There used to be MARTA police everywhere, on the trains, and in and around the stations, but when MARTA started running massive deficits, they started cutting back the MARTA police. It went downhill from there.
Also, the busses that feed the trains are totally unreliable, so you cannot rely upon them to get you to the train station on time to get to work. MARTA fired the last bus manager and hired a new guy to try to "transform bus service":
It's not hard to understand to me. Nearly everyone drives and as drivers they would rather see money spent to improve the way that they commute. Widen roads, new freeways, etc.
It's the American way. Sit in your cars and get road rage, and then fight for parking. Yet you never in your life think about taking public transit since that is beneath you and your social/economic status.
It's the American way. Sit in your cars and get road rage, and then fight for parking. Yet you never in your life think about taking public transit since that is beneath you and your social/economic status.
Meanwhile, the train speeds by next to you as you sit stalled in traffic on the highway, because again, the train is beneath you and full of undesirables.
Meanwhile, the train speeds by next to you as you sit stalled in traffic on the highway, because again, the train is beneath you and full of undesirables.
....and at the end of a long, hard day, when you meet up with friends and co-workers at that Dave & Busters in the faux "urban village" outside of town, because they are also above using mass transit you can all mock the local metro system as "that thing no one rides."
MARTA was decent at one time (5+ years ago), but no more. The crime is so bad at the stations, they had to close the restrooms. Crime on station property is scary high. There used to be MARTA police everywhere, on the trains, and in and around the stations, but when MARTA started running massive deficits, they started cutting back the MARTA police. It went downhill from there.
Also, the busses that feed the trains are totally unreliable, so you cannot rely upon them to get you to the train station on time to get to work. MARTA fired the last bus manager and hired a new guy to try to "transform bus service":
I don’t think I’ve ever rode on MARTA before despite numerous visits to ATL.
Question. MARTA looks solid. Outside the few largest metro systems, it looks to be the best. Buttt, how useful is it, honestly?
Is this a system that people want to use for convenience to get them around the city, etc? I guess a better way to ask is, how is the pedestrian experience around most MARTA stations when you get off the train? Looking at google maps, it seems like outside of a few downtown stations, it looks like not the best pedestrian environments and too car oriented. Even buckhead station.
I hate transit systems that you get off the bus into a stomped down area of grass and a system in general where you feel like a schmendrick for not driving.
The Tyson’s stations in DC suck hardcore in that department. They have great connectivity to buses and circulators etc but just having to walk from the stations, it’s just too auto-oriented. Not enough pedestrian protections.and just overall feels like unless your a homeless person, why are you walking around.
MARTA is great compared to other southern systems and is lacking when compared to the northeast. Buckhead station opens up to Peachtree Road in the heart of Buckhead with wide manicured sidewalks. I'm not sure it could get more pedestrian friendly. Most transit systems outside of downtowns are gonna be more car oriented because they are usually park-and-rides.
Meanwhile, the train speeds by next to you as you sit stalled in traffic on the highway, because again, the train is beneath you and full of undesirables.
People say in Atlanta that if you take public transportation you're still later/takes longer to get to your destination than driving in the worst traffic, because the public transit is unreliable. Hence why people say Georgia is like Italy, lol.
I don’t think I’ve ever rode on MARTA before despite numerous visits to ATL.
Question. MARTA looks solid. Outside the few largest metro systems, it looks to be the best. Buttt, how useful is it, honestly?
Is this a system that people want to use for convenience to get them around the city, etc? I guess a better way to ask is, how is the pedestrian experience around most MARTA stations when you get off the train? Looking at google maps, it seems like outside of a few downtown stations, it looks like not the best pedestrian environments and too car oriented. Even buckhead station.
I hate transit systems that you get off the bus into a stomped down area of grass and a system in general where you feel like a schmendrick for not driving.
The Tyson’s stations in DC suck hardcore in that department. They have great connectivity to buses and circulators etc but just having to walk from the stations, it’s just too auto-oriented. Not enough pedestrian protections.and just overall feels like unless your a homeless person, why are you walking around.
The Marta train is great, and better than what other cities in the south offer. There are a few ghetto stations near the airport, but i don't have to get off on them. I also think that Marta goes to several of the areas that are useful in Atlanta (sports stadiums, midtown, dt, buckhead, perimeter).
The problem with MARTA is:
1) it's made little improvements/extensions in 40 years
2) there are so many corporate CBD's that it's hard for MARTA to hit them all
3) Much of the action in ATL has shifted north of the city, where MARTA doesn't go.
It's not all MARTA's fault, as I kid you not people keep voting down extensions because they don't want the crime to come to them. At first I thought "you have to be joking, are people really worried about that!?!?!" But sure enough, it keeps getting voted down in my county. Once again, not on the basis of cost, but on the basis of bringing crime to the burbs.
MARTA is great compared to other southern systems and is lacking when compared to the northeast. Buckhead station opens up to Peachtree Road in the heart of Buckhead with wide manicured sidewalks. I'm not sure it could get more pedestrian friendly. Most transit systems outside of downtowns are gonna be more car oriented because they are usually park-and-rides.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Citykid3785
The Marta train is great, and better than what other cities in the south offer. There are a few ghetto stations near the airport, but i don't have to get off on them. I also think that Marta goes to several of the areas that are useful in Atlanta (sports stadiums, midtown, dt, buckhead, perimeter).
The problem with MARTA is:
1) it's made little improvements/extensions in 40 years
2) there are so many corporate CBD's that it's hard for MARTA to hit them all
3) Much of the action in ATL has shifted north of the city, where MARTA doesn't go.
It's not all MARTA's fault, as I kid you not people keep voting down extensions because they don't want the crime to come to them. At first I thought "you have to be joking, are people really worried about that!?!?!" But sure enough, it keeps getting voted down in my county. Once again, not on the basis of cost, but on the basis of bringing crime to the burbs.
That's not what I was wondering at all. It's not about being better than other systems, it's about being better than a car in Atlanta. If it takes more hassle, more time, etc. on MARTA than by vehicle to get to destinations you need to get to in Atlanta, then it doesn't really matter if it's better than mass transit in Austin or anywhere else.
Of course, I'm sure for commuting to work in downtown or certain employment centers at a MARTA stop by parking your vehicle at a park-and-ride, it must beat driving. But I'm still curious about it being a system useful to an average Atlantan who has a choice between a car or to take mass transit (outside of using it for a concert or special event).
Just looking at the system, it looks like there's not enough pedestrian infrastructure, pedestrian calming, etc. around most of the MARTA stations, including it looks like buckhead. I haven't even been on the MARTA, so I could be wrong (hence my asking questions! I'm not asserting these things).
Like I said. Stations that are off of busy intersections and roads with poor pedestrian signals or just places that aren't comfortable to be a pedestrian, etc. It really hampers mobility for mass transit IMO. Something MARTA can't overcome (unless it's a land owner in some areas, it might have a little more control) but something the city has to change. Taking out a lane of traffic and adding in parallel parking, more visible cross walks, better zoning, focus on those areas and density, etc.
(that's not to say MARTA isn't better than what other cities have. I'm just wondering in relation to other forms of transit IN Atlanta.)
And FYI, I think ATL has the best system in the south. I think it could be way better too because it can build off of whats existing and its a large and major Metropolitan area. It's much better than having a system of light rail lines. Really wish ATL would build more heavy rail.
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