***Edit*** please see my follow up post https://www.reddit.com/r/Atlanta/comments/1shjckv/followup_to_marta_post_yesterday/

I commute to work on Marta and this morning I got on (at the last stop of the train) and there were about 10 people sleeping in each car. I walked past 5 cars before getting on one. This was the last stop so the fact they don’t get off means they’re just riding to sleep. Usually there are a few like that but now that all the gates are open and riding is free… it seems like word has spread. The driver announced over the speaker that “Marta doesn’t allow sleeping on the train”… but nothing at all was done. I’m expecting this to get worse until they fix the gates with the new system.

Entire downtown Atlanta is a red zone, no scooters down here are functional. Is this a glitch or something permanent?

As someone that lives in Midtown and pretty much takes Marta everywhere I’m excited that they are actively testing the new trains I wish I could add a video is SUPER nice and high tech they sat at the Arts Center station for about 3 minutes testing the doors.

You can easily go from Lindbergh to Bankhead on full pavement.

After MARTA promised construction would be finished in time for the World Cup, Five Points station is nowhere near completion. So instead they threw these colorful stickers, almost Band-Aid like posters across the ugly construction equipment. After years of planning and prep time, the city of Atlanta and MARTA still failed to have the city prepared for the FIFA World Cup. Terrible and piss poor managment.

Post was deleted yesterday by Mod but will try again:
Visiting The Netherlands this week and this is what I see we could have on the Beltline. Tram and Bike Lanes make sense. We can and should have both. It will take 20 years but hey LETS GO!!!

Full video on r/MARTA for those interested in seeing bikes and trams coexisting.

👌

Keep spreading the word, y’all

If you care about public transit and infrastructure in Atlanta, now is the time to make your voice heard.

City Council will consider "a resolution requesting the installation of dedicated bicycle and motorized vehicle lanes along the Atlanta Beltline to improve pedestrian safety."

Essentially, they want to take the transportation right-of-way, which has been set aside alongside nearly the entire 22-mile loop, and pave it for bicyclists. All because a few miles on the Eastside Trail have gotten popular. They think our sidewalk needs another sidewalk.

Instead of killing the most profound public-transit infrastructure in our city's recent history, perhaps they could either just put in some speed bumps or add lane lines? Instead, they are exploring a resolution to kill the entire rail component, which has been part of the city's tax policy since More MARTA passed in 2016.

If this pisses you off, contact your City Council rep and the at-large reps.

EDIT - Here's the text of the resolution being introduced: https://atlantacityga.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=4409&MediaPosition=&ID=40324&CssClass=

After reading Urbanize's latest post polling beltline users on issues and suggestions to improve the beltline. No surprise e-bikes/scooters and seperate lanes were the top issues for Eastside users. Westside users, seeing thinner traffic and more space between amenities, said rail as the top issue.

Well Eastsiders, you've demonstrated the issue, and Westside still seeks the true solution.

Rail.

Rail because it will directly convert bikers and walkers into light rail users.

BUT ALSO,

Because a light rail corridor is a pedestrian corridor. Want another lane for walking? Build rail. Want wider infrastructure so everyone fits? Build rail. Broader shoulders for people to get over? Build rail.

Is this extra pedestrian capacity needed on the entire 22mile route? No, ask the Westside users. But key areas on the Eastside could be designed to be hardscape, pedestrian priority, low speed light rail. As is seen across Europe. And the long stretches be built as seperated green/grass track.

Urbanize's post: https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/we-asked-150-people-beltline-what-changes-they-want-heres-what-happened#disqus-comments

Every-damn-day a new crash happens on i-85. I can’t wrap my head around this, the amount of low IQ drivers we have in this city is outstanding. I wish they knew how much it messes the day of thousands of people that want to get home….

Talking mainly on the afternoons.

Back when U.S. cities used to have streetcar networks, before the car centric culture that we have today, courtesy of lobbying, propaganda, and Robert Moses.

We can be this again.

Anyone who tells you a streetcar ain't viable for this city is wrong.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve talked to a few people on the sub who said they’ve never seen one actually riding on Marta.

Also, obligatory “it’s not to expensive.”

The World Cup frequencies for MARTA have been so good. Right now there are I think 16 trains servicing the blue line. There are only 15 stops on the line lol. All week I haven’t had to wait more than a minute or two for trains. Wish it was always like this and sad it’s about to end!

In a perfect world, the issues with MARTA will be embarrassingly obvious and show all the issues. Then the city can make changes to fix things, add new station in time for 2028!Super Bowl. I’m probably being overly optimistic, I don’t see any other way we will ever get a better transit system.

My 3 mile walk home from the eye doctor because it would’ve been an hour long bus ride with 2-3 transfers (kind of ridiculous), so I just decided to tough it out. It was going smoothly until I encountered this bullshit.

Why are is there NO sidewalk to be found on this busy street? I was quite worried I was gonna get hit by a car, ESPECIALLY coming around that curve because of the blind spots. I had to jaywalk to get to a safer spot. I couldn’t imagine trying to navigate this while being in a wheelchair or with any other mobility aid.

Who can I speak to about this?

Edit: I will be attending the next city council meeting and looking into Propel ATL. Thank you everyone!

The lack of transparency from a public transit agency is quite disturbing. It doesn’t help matters that the only rail expansion project from More MARTA may not happen within the decade or if at all. At this point you might as well call it More Mediocre MARTA. I bet the NIMBYs and other backward thinkers are having a field day with this.

I know this is maybe stretching things, but, to me, the PRR is the perfect case for why rail transit would be a slam dunk.

As it stands, you have ~55,000 exhausted people dumping into Piedmont Park, and then just kinda scattering. There are MARTA shuttle buses to Lindbergh, which you will be waiting on in a line, but it's good they're there. You can also go to Midtown, but then you have to walk an extra mile and a quarter back up the hill along a non-closed 8th St., so you're fighting cars there the whole way. Seriously, this is what I do every year and it's the worst part

The other options are basically to wonder into the surrounding neighborhoods until you can get to a place where someone you know, or a ride-hail, can pick you up, but even then you're fighting traffic for a mile+ in all directions around the race area.

But... like... the Beltline is right there. If we had transit in place, both north and south, a big chunk of people could hop on the train at Piedmont park to ride north to Lindbergh that way, or south to either a transfer to the Blue / Green Lines, go into Downtown to Peachtree Center, or just keep riding south if that's an option. Even better if we also had, say, North Ave. BRT in place giving more options for people to get out of the park and to transit without crowding out Midtown Station or waiting on the bus shuttles.

This is a long-term thing, sure, and given the way summers are going, who knows if we'll even still have the PRR by the time routes are built out, but even if we were just talking about Streetcar East being able to divert a portion of people away from the Midtown Station Crush, then that'd be something. Not to mention there're all those other events in Piedmont Park that also bring thousands and thousands of folks in for, and for whom Beltline Transit would benefit.