Tag Archives: MARTA

New bus service changes go into effect next Saturday

7 Jun

Ready the recycling bins, MARTA will implement coverage and/or schedule changes on 13 bus routes beginning June 18.

Affected routes are:

2 Ponce de Leon Avenue/Moreland Avenue (Yes, again.)

8 North Druid Hills Road

49 McDonough Boulevard

56 Adamsville/Collier Heights

75 Tucker (This is only a chage to the location of the bus bay at Avondale station that the bus will service.)

86 Fairington Road/McAfee Road

87 Roswell Road/Morgan Falls

93 East Poin/Delowe Drive

95 Metropolitan Parkway / Hapeville

99 Boulevard/Monroe

117 Rockbridge Road/Panola Road

124 Pleasantdale Road

181 Buffington Road/South Fulton Park & Ride

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Heard at the Hearing

23 May

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Given the reactions to MARTA’s proposed fare increase and bus service changes for this fall, I expected that at last Monday night’s 7 p.m. hearing I’d barely be able to wedge myself into a room packed with riders in various states of outrage. But not only was there a conspicuous absence of torches and pitchforks, but those in attendance filled only about one-third of the Fulton County Commission’s public meeting room.

The low turnout – I counted about 75 people – might indicate that the agency’s public outreach needs some work. It could also suggest that many of MARTA’s customers believe the proposed changes are pretty much a done deal, with only the matter of “when” left to be settled.

I was only able to stay for about an hour and 15 minutes of the hearing, so I didn’t hear everyone who came forward to offer comment, but the comments of the approximately 20 speakers I did hear were pretty evenly divided between complaints and suggestions.

Among the most often heard suggestions:

  • Raise revenue by re-negotiating reimbursement rates for transfers from other counties’ transit agencies
  • Sell more ad space on the bus and train exteriors
  • Have MARTA police officers spend more time riding the trains and buses and less time driving the their police cruisers – more security, less gas
  • Don’t leave buses idling if they’ll be sitting in a bay at a station for 10 or 15 minutes and don’t run the buses’ air conditioning on the “blast freezer” setting during the summer
  • Pursue state funding more aggressively

The most frequently heard complaints:

  • Late and overcrowded buses and surly drivers
  • Drivers who, when running far behind schedule, drive so fast to catch up that they blow past riders waiting at bus stops
  • Dark, unsheltered bus stops
  • Closed or out-of-order restrooms at stations

Although the hearing started out with a pretty formal air, by 8:15 it had taken on the feeling of a transit riders’ pep rally, with some audience members applauding and cheering when they found a speaker’s remarks particularly clever or insightful.

The loudest cheers came when a woman prefaced her remarks about the long-standing nature of some of the system’s problems by saying “It’s obvious that no one on this board rides MARTA.”

Although many of those who spoke were adamantly against the fare increase, many others said that the fare increase itself was less the issue than steadily decreasing service and reliability. The cost of most other commodities is rising, so it’s only fair that the same should be true for transit service, they said. But so many years of paying more and continuing to get less, they said, is unacceptable.

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MARTA Meetings: Today and tomorrow

16 May

Yikes, almost forgot: MARTA is holding public hearings at 7 p.m. today and Tuesday.

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

  • MARTA board members will outline the agency’s budget for the 2012 fiscal year
  • Proposed service changes to bus routes 3, 25, 50, 51, 99, and 181 proposed for September
  • Fare increases proposed for October
  • Security improvements 

Today’s meetings are at the South Fulton Service Center in College Park, which is served by the route 180 bus, and at the Fulton County Government Center downtown, which is served by the route 49 bus. There’s also free shuttle service to the downtown meeting.

Tuesday’s meetings are at the DeKalb Maloof Auditorium in Decatur, which is one block west of Decatur Station, and at the North Fulton Service Center in Sandy Springs. Take route 87 bus from Dunwoody or North Springs Station to the North Fulton Service Center.

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Old film, new bus schedules

28 Apr

From Pattern Cities, a 1908 film shot from a Barcelona streetcar. Either Barcelona’s pedestrians and bicyclists were utterly fearless in their zeal to be in a movie, or the camera was mounted waaay out in the front of the streetcar.

Also, changes to routes and/or schedules for 25 MARTA bus routes went into effect Saturday. Toss out those old schedules. Again.

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Braves Shuttle back from the not-quite dead? Plus, more bus route changes

3 Mar

In a move that’s likely to surprise about six people, MARTA is considering reviving the Braves shuttle. The free shuttle, which runs from Five Points Station to Turner Field on Braves game days, was a casualty of service reductions the agency undertook last fall to address a large and long-running budget gap.

“Putting the money into the shuttle instead of some other service can seem unfair to some…” Citizens for Progressive Transit’s president Ashley Robins told the AJC. “This is not life line service” that would provide needed access to employment or healthcare-related destinations.

MARTA will solicit riders’ input on the shuttle’s fate as well as service changes on bus routes 2, 87, 99 and 181 at hearings on March 21 and 24. (MARTA’s notice says “Monday, March 21” and “Monday, March 24,” but March 24 is a Thursday.) The proposed bus route changes would go into effect June 18.

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Quick review: Legislators in first gear and an escalator in reverse

29 Jan

Is it Saturday already? How did that happen?

Well, while I was away:

  • The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) wrote model legislation for the structure of a regional transit authority to be delivered to the House Transportation Committee. But rather than having a turn on the legislative runway, this model looks to be destined to spend the season backstage.

“This is a major investment in the community and so we need to take our time and be careful,” Rep. Donna Sheldon, R-Dacula, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, told the AJC.

Transit advocates wanted to see a regional transit system formally established this year so that voters would have plenty of time to become familiar with what it is and how it will work before voting on whether to fund it with a transportation tax in 2012.

Legislators don’t appear to be inclined to move that quickly, though. “On the Senate side, Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, said this week that there is no groundswell for major transit legislation this year,” the AJC reported.

Weeks’ leg was broken when the elevator suddenly ran in reverse, throwing riders to floor at the bottom.  About a dozen other riders sustained less severe injuries.

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MARTA refunds, MMPT shortlist, and weekend reading

22 Jan

A little local news:

From around the Web:

  • From the New York Times, some explanation of the three new aisles of groceries that suddenly sprouted at the front section of the Target in Buckhead a couple of years ago: “Big retailers fill more aisles with groceries.”

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Closing the Borders – and the chocolate boutique

19 Jan

Bad news: The Borders in Brookwood is closing. The loss of a bookstore is always unfortunate, especially when its one of a development’s anchor tenants. But it’s just a bit worse in this case because of a novel feature that the store has: A street-facing door that’s kept unlocked so that people can use it. Brookwood borders "Store closing" sign

It sounds like a small thing, but locked, blocked and otherwise inaccessible street-level doors in ostensibly “urban” developments are epidemic in Atlanta. (The Kroger just a couple of doors down comes to mind.) It’s a shame to lose places with thoughtfully executed pedestrian access.

Good news: They’re having a BIG sale. Signs indicating 30, 50 and 75 percent markdowns were visible through the windows Monday. So, now’s the time to buy that grotesquely expensive coffee table book you’ve been flipping through and reluctantly leaving behind over and over again.

The Lindt store in Lenox Square is also in its last days. Mall store closings aren’t normally within this blog’s purview but I probably spend about half the price of a used hatchback on Lindt chocolate every year. Also, the cashier working there Monday night said the Lenox location is the last Lindt store in Georgia, so we’re all officially cut off when they close on Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Everything in the store is 70 percent off and the stock is getting sparse. The normally tidy product placement was much less so and even some of the fixtures had notes attached indicating that they’ve been sold. The area behind the counter was a welter of cases of chocolate in various stages of unpacked-ness and customers were weaving between the tables, gathering up armfuls of cheap sweets.

Yes, you can buy Lindt chocolate in Walgreens and Target, but only a few varieties. For example, you won’t find these in either of those stores, nor in World Market:

These were the last 23 Sorbetto truffles in the store Monday night. I’ll be back Wednesday to check for more.

The escalator problems at Lenox Station are still unresolved, by the way. The down escalators on both ends of the platform are still shut down and barricaded. It could be worse. A lot more people are able and willing to walk down two long sets of stairs than up.

Even though last year’s five-month, system-wide escalator inspection process was completed, at least two dozen remained closed due to a lack of parts to service them. Several more have repeatedly been in and out of service after being repaired.

 

 

 

A few more MARTA notes:

  • There was no elevator access on the Southbound platform at Five Points Station Tuesday morning. The train operator announced that anyone needing elevator access would have to remain on the train, get off at Garnett Station ride back to Five Points and use the elevator on the northbound platform.
  • MARTA will hold public hearings Jan. 24 for input on proposed changes to bus routes 42, 56, 120, 121, 125 and 126. The proposed changes would go into effect April 23, 2011.
  • The agency will also make a decision Jan. 19 regarding giving refunds to weekly farecard holders who lost several days of bus service last week. Check the site for more information.

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Transit dependency’s Catch-22, or Why my rent’s so high

15 Jan

Waiting about 25 minutes for a train at Lindbergh when it was 20 degrees was decidedly un-fun. Walking down and back up the icy hill to Publix has been more excitement than I really require. I could have done without three days of having to choose between scooting along the edge of the street and gambling on the hazardously glazed sidewalks between my building and Civic Center Station as well.

But because I live and work close to rail stations, and I’m in good enough health to walk any distance I might need to, I can do those things. And because I can do those things being transit-dependent isn’t the sort of hardship for me that it is for many other people in the city.

From Thursday’s AJC:

“For many MARTA riders, its historic decision to shut down bus service completely this week might as well have shut down the food supply or access to the hospital.” Continue reading →

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Snow days, pedestrianism and prime real estate

12 Jan

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It’s now been so long since I’ve gone to work that it’s going to take me the two remaining work days in this week just to remember how to do my job. Then Monday is a holiday, so I’ll be off for another three days, during which I’ll forget again.

Since I’ve been home so much I’ve noticed at least twice as many people walking by my building the last few days than I normally do. I can even hear someone crunching by right outside my window right now. A lot of homeless people live in the area, so pedestrian traffic is pretty high around here by Atlanta standards, but the last few days it’s practically been a parade.

I guess it’s not just me.

Many of the people picking their way along the the sidewalk or occupying the far right lane appear to be students from the Georgia State dorms just down Piedmont going to Publix and Walgreens. Being cooped up in a house or apartment is one thing. Three days trapped in 120 square feet of dorm room – probably with another person? Yikes.

MARTA is slowly coming back on line. I heard the #16 bus sliding and sloshing up and down the hill today and a few other routes were also back in action.

Finally, in case you missed it, Busnow reported that Avanti Properties Group, which is based in Orlando, purchased the lot at the southeast corner of 14th and West Peachtree – the one where the Einstein Brothers is. EB has gotten a little grubby over the years and I noticed some…inhabitants in the ladies room on my last visit there. It would be really nice to see them as a ground floor tenant in a brand new building.

The story says the parcel that Avanti purchased is 1.5 acres. That’s not quite enough to encompass those two long-vacant residential buildings at West Peachtree and 13th, is it? I hope so. Somebody, anybody, do something with those.

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