Tag Archives: MARTA

MARTA News: Buses and Bridges

17 Jan

Bus stop sign

If you’re already bored with last September’s set of bus route modifications, another round is being proposed to take effect in April. MARTA will hold public meetings Tuesday, Jan. 24 and Thursday, Jan. 26 for input on the proposed changes, which will affect five routes:

  • Route 1 – Centennial Olympic Park /Coronet Way
  • Route 12 – Howell Mill Road / Cumberland
  • Route 32 – Bouldercrest / Georgia Aquarium
  • Route 86 – Fairington Road / McAfee Road
  • Route 115 – Covington Highway / South Hairston Road

Preliminary work is scheduled to get underway today on the new entrance and pedestrian bridges that will link the north end of Buckhead Station with Tower Place. MARTA awarded the contract (PDF) for construction of the project to Archer Western Contractors last October and expects construction to be completed in November 2013.

Edit: See Atlanta Business Chronicle for more, bigger and better renderings of the project. H/T to AtlUrbanist

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What “It doesn’t go anywhere” really means

10 Jan

In an outtake from his recently published book, Human Transit’s Jarrett Walker discusses a list of seven criteria that he says transit has to address to effectively compete with driving:

1.    “It takes me where I want to go.”

2.    “It takes me when I want to go.”

3.    “It’s a good use of my time.”

4.    “It’s a good use of my money.”

5.    “It respects me.”

6.    “I can trust it.”

7.    “It gives me freedom to change my plans.”

While no mode of transportation meets all seven demands perfectly, Walker says, “[t]he dominant mode in a community is the one that best addresses the seven demands, compared to the available alternatives, in the perception of the majority of people.”

That observation goes a long way toward explaining why so many people who live well within MARTA’s service area still drive most of the time if they have that choice. Walker’s list unpacks what they mean when they say MARTA “doesn’t go anywhere.” It’s not that people are looking for reasons not to use transit, but rather that they so often have more reasons to drive. In relatively low density areas, he says, “the automobile meets all seven demands handsomely.”

He also pulls apart the multiple meanings tangled up in the word “convenient” here.

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Weekend Workarounds: MARTA on NYE

28 Dec
Fireworks

Photo by jeff_golden on Flickr

If your Saturday afternoon plans involve a trip on the route 1, 16, 32, 110 or 186 bus, check out the re-routes (PDF) that are planned for 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. that day. The Chic-Fil-A Bowl parade will be borrowing parts of Peachtree Street, Andrew Young International Boulevard and Marietta Street during those times.

Street closures for the Peach Drop at Underground start at 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon. That means service on routes 1, 3, 13, 16, 32, 42, 49, 51, 55, 74, 110, 155 and 186 will be diverted (PDF) from downtown to other stations from 4:00 p.m. until the end of service that night.

The good news is that if you somehow manage to get where you’re going despite all the celebratory circumventions, rail service will be extended that night, with the last trains in all directions departing Five Points Station at 2:00 a.m. Sunday.

More info at MARTA’s site.

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Scott on cuts and capacity, Flowers leaves TIA campaign, and TIGGER funds power Laredo

4 Dec

It’s difficult to remember the last time MARTA was adding rather than subtracting service. For years now, bus coverage has been attenuated and train headways have crept into the double digits, all in an effort to address budget shortfalls. But in an interview concerning the agency’s ongoing three-phase audit, MARTA’s general manager Beverly Scott described just how badly attempts at “cutting our way” back into the black have undermined the system’s functionality:

“We are operating at less than 30 percent of our capacity,” she said. “We have the ability to run our trains every 90 seconds (at peak times, MARTA trains run about every eight minutes). We need to have travel times that are competitive.”

  • Also from The Saporta Report:

Another member of the regional team charged with generating voter support for next summer’s transportation sales tax referendum has disembarked. Communications Manager Liz Flowers resigned in mid-November. Glenn Totten, former lead consultant for the campaign, resigned in August.

  • Another MARTA tidbit:

MARTA’s Laredo bus maintenance facility is now the site of what the agency says is “is the largest solar canopy in Georgia and the second largest structure of its kind at a United States transit system.”  The structure was built with $10.8 million in federal TIGGER grant funding awarded in 2009.  It provides cover for 220 bus parking stalls, which are lit by solar-powered LEDs. Laredo operates 24 hours a day and the new canopy’s photovoltaic cells are producing “enough electricity to offset a significant portion of this facility’s annual electricity consumption,” MARTA said in a press release.

Officials at Laredo bus facility ribbon cutting

Officials and technology company representatives attend the Laredo facility's solar canopy ribbon-cutting. Photo courtesy of MARTA

In addition to reducing electricity consumption and producing light for nighttime work,  the canopy will provide shade during the day. It’s expected to reduce the temperature underneath it by “between 20 and 30 degrees” during the summer, decreasing the need for air conditioning and fuel use by idling buses.

See the photo at Metro Magazine for a better idea of the canopy’s size.

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A reminder:

3 Nov

Sign posted on a bus running the 110 route Tuesday night

Especially if you’re refilling your coffee cup at the same time.

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The Price of Progress: Buses to be rerouted for streetcar construction

6 Oct

Love it or hate it, the first stage of construction of the Atlanta Streetcar will soon be underway. To make room for the construction, parts of bus routes that pass through the streetcar’s route are being shifted out of the way, beginning this Saturday, Oct. 8. The reroutes are scheduled to be in effect until at least mid-2013.

MARTA bus reroute notice sign

This bus stop at the intersection of Peachtree and Marietta Streets, currently served by routes 3, 16 and 110, will be out of service when construction on the streetcar project begins

Affected routes are:

  • 1 – Centennial Olympic Park / Coronet Way
  • 3 – Martin Luther King, Jr Drive / Auburn Avenue
  • 16 – Noble
  • 99 – Boulevard / Monroe Drive
  • 110 – Peachtree Street “The Peach”
  • 155 – Windsor Street / Lakewood Avenue
  • 186 – Rainbow Drive / South DeKalb

The reroutes will leave some stretches of downtown streets – Peachtree Street between Ellis Street and Five Points Station,  Auburn Avenue between Courtland and Peachtree Streets, and Edgewood Avenue between Courtland and Peachtree Streets, for example – without bus service for the better part of two years.

It will be interesting to see how the new detours, combined with last year’s service reductions, last month’s alignment and schedule changes, and last week’s fare increase go over with riders.

New maps, schedules and other details on the route modifications are at MARTA’s site.

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Bus service changes and the last week of $2 fares

25 Sep

Civic center sign

Alignment and schedule changes for 27 MARTA bus routes went into effect Saturday, with the long-dreaded, much-maligned fare increase to follow a week from today, on Oct. 2.

Beginning next Sunday the price of a regular one-way fare will increase by 25 percent, to $2.50. The price of a weekly pass will go from $17 to $23.75, and a 30-day pass will cost nearly 40 percent more, jumping from $68 to $95. Details on MARTA Mobility and reduced fare prices are here.

Here’s a list of the affected bus routes. Links to the updated maps and schedules are at MARTA’s site.

3 – Martin Luther King Jr.Drive / Auburn Avenue

6 –  Emory

9 –  Toney Valley / Peachcrest Road

12 – Howell Mill / Cumberland

25 – Peachtree Industrial

30 – Lavista Road

37 – DeFoors Ferry Road /Atlantic Station

50 – Donald L. Hollowell Parkway

51 – Joseph E. BooneBoulevard / Dixie Hills

55 – Jonesboro Road / Hutchens Road

60 – Hightower / Moores Mill Road

74  –  Flat Shoals

75 – Tucker

82 – Camp Creek / Welcome All

85 – Roswell Road / Mansell Road

99 – Boulevard / MonroeDrive

110 – Peachtree Street “The Peach”

116 – Redan Road / Stonecrest

140 – North Point / Mansell Road

143 – Windward Park &Ride

148 – Medical Center / Riveredge Parkway

155 – Windsor Street / Lakewood Avenue

165 – Fairburn Road / BargeRoad Park & Ride

178 – Empire Boulevard / Southside Industrial Park

181 – Buffington Road / South Fulton Park & Ride

185 – Alpharetta / Holcomb Bridge Road

186 -Rainbow Drive / South DeKalb

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Think of it this way…

19 Sep

Long headways at night means more time to take pictures before the train comes.

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Downtown skyline from King Memorial Station

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Light Up Atlanta: Five Points

1 Jul

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Somehow, June is already over, so these are the last two photos from the Light Up Atlanta exhibition.

The two shown above are Shelly-Anne Tulia Scott’s “Pealing Back the Heart” and Ted Freeman’s “Hot-lanta Fan,” both at Five Points Station.

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Light Up Atlanta: Lindbergh

19 Jun

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Another piece from the “Light Up Atlanta” sculpture exhibition that’s on display at seven MARTA rail stations.

The artwork was produced by local architects and designers, and will remain through June 30.

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