Design Your Own MARTA Expansion (Atlanta, Roswell: legal, club, shopping mall)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by NuclearDensity

Here are a couple of my passionate opinions first, then my list of four highest priority MARTA expansions:

1) For greatest overall transportation efficiency, Mass Transit should not impede other types of transit such as vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. For that reason, I support heavy rail implementations over light rail/street car because heavy rail goes under, over, or through obstacles without interfering with other transportation modes - If a train stops/blocks vehicle traffic, you are defeating the purpose. I also support buses using express lanes and building priority bus pullovers at stop lights so the bus does not block traffic and gets a slight jump - there is nothing worse than a bus holding up thirty cars behind them to pick up one passenger.

2) Mass Transit should connect to high volume destinations for everyone and should not be presented/interpreted as the traffic mode for the poor. MARTA needs to connect the Atlanta region's high volume destinations - Period. There are several very high volume locations that are not connected to MARTA rail within current MARTA jurisdiction and several huge ridership potential locations situated a few hundred feet outside of Fulton/Dekalb county that MARTA just ignores because the county in question does not participate in the MARTA tax. It is in MARTA's best interest to identify rail routes and destinations that would increase ridership and build heavy rail to those destinations.

Now my list of four highest priority MARTA extensions:

#1 - Stone Mountain Park - Build a Heavy Rail extension down Memorial Drive corridor to Stone Mountain Park. Stone Mountain Park boasts that it has 4 Million+ annual visitors - it would be great to provide Georgia's most popular attraction with a heavy rail station to attract both downtown convention visitors as well as the rest of us who would enjoy the convenience of a Heavy Rail Link to Stone Mountain.

#2 - Cumberland Vinings - Build a Heavy Rail extension from Dunwoody Station with stations near Roswell Road, Northside Drive, Wildwood, and with major station near Cumberland Mall. This route/destination would provide direct rail access to a huge number of business offices and corporate headquarters (65,000+ jobs as well as Cumberland Mall, Cobb Galleria Convention Center, Cobb Energy Center, Hotels, etc. This is a situation where MARTA should consider buying land and right-of-ways even though it falls slightly outside Fulton County but the win for MARTA would be dramatic increase in ridership because a direct rail footprint in the Cumberland Vinings area.

#3 - Six Flags - Build a Heavy Rail extension to Six Flag main entrance. Six Flags has millions of annual visitors. A direct rail link to this major Atlanta themepark would increase Atlanta's overall attractiveness as an easy family vacation destination (Air Travelers would not necessarily need a car). A fill-in MARTA station near Fulton Industrial Blvd would serve the 10,000+ warehouse jobs in the area. This extension would be a win/win to increase visitors for Six Flags as well as ridership for MARTA. This is another situation where MARTA is not accurately considering because Six Flags is a few hundred feet inside Cobb County.

#4 - Peachtree Road to Westside of Connector - Build a Heavy Rail Subway beneath Peachtree Road from Buckhead Station to Dome/GWCC Station with fill-in stations at Buckhead Village, Peachtree & Wesley Rd (lots of high rises in this area), Piedmont Hospital, then follow existing rail line to west side of connector stations at Atlantic Station, Georgia Tech, Georgia Aquarium/Centenial Park, then connect to Dome/GWCC station. This route would provide direct rail access for one of the most densely populated corridors in Atlanta and promote the building of more high rises and more density on Peachtree Road and on the west side of the connector. This route should be a subway at least from Buckhead to the Brookwood split, the traffic limit of Peachtree Road has been reached and a surface Streetcar solution would only create more traffic congestion creating a disincentive for greater population density. Definitely expensive, but correct implementation for future growth is essential.

I haven't heard much discussion on any of these destinations ... let's hear some feedback!

I definitely agree on Cumberland Vinings. That would be 1st or 2nd on my list along with the proposed Emory line.

Six Flags makes sense if they are interested. It would also serve an industrial park. MARTA is trying to extend the East/West line to MLK.

I think the lack of density and the distances both to Stone Mtn and once you get there make that one questionable.

Your #4 is creative. But if we were to spend that much, I think an east/west line through the area would be a better investment. East/West transportation of any type across North Atlanta is very difficult. Between I-20 and I-285N there isn't any road or transit connecting 285E and 285W. Not sure there is any road covering even half the distance.

[RandyWatson13]

#4 might not be too expensive considering there is an Indian Trail line.....

[testa50]

Originally Posted by bu2

I think the lack of density and the distances both to Stone Mtn and once you get there make that one questionable.

Huh?

Where exactly the line goes is important, but if a Stone Mountain line went via Clarkston (which I believe is most feasible, and as I suggest in the OP), you'd be hitting one of the metro's densest areas. Clarkston has three census tracts around 8,000 ppsm, which puts it ahead of places like Decatur and Cabbagetown in terms of density, and on par with places like Virginia Highland and Old Fourth Ward.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by testa50

Huh?

Where exactly the line goes is important, but if a Stone Mountain line went via Clarkston (which I believe is most feasible, and as I suggest in the OP), you'd be hitting one of the metro's densest areas. Clarkston has three census tracts around 8,000 ppsm, which puts it ahead of places like Decatur and Cabbagetown in terms of density, and on par with places like Virginia Highland and Old Fourth Ward.

Beyond Clarkston is where there is little density. Its a long way from 285 to Stone Mtn.

[NuclearDensity]

Originally Posted by bu2

Beyond Clarkston is where there is little density. Its a long way from 285 to Stone Mtn.

In my opinion, Stone Mountain Park should be the focus not because of the surrounding residential population density but because Stone Mountain Park has 4.1 Million annual visitors. Stone Mountain Park is Georgia's largest attraction and people need to get there. Stone Mountain Park is entirely within Dekalb county so it presents no jurisdiction or MARTA tax issues and a MARTA link from downtown would increase both Stone Mountain Park attendance and MARTA ridership because of the increased accessibility for convention attendees, tourists, and locals.

For comparison sake, Stone Mountain Park has almost twice as many annual visitors as the Georgia Dome and the Georgia World Congress Center combined (Refence: http://www.gwcc.com/about/docs/2010%...l%20Report.pdf).

Sometimes MARTA must jump larger distances to get to the locations that riders need to go. A good example is the 4.5 mile distance between Buckhead and Medical Center Station on its way to Perimeter Center (Perimeter Center is Atlanta's largest employment node and also contains Perimeter Mall which is located adjacent to the Dunwoody MARTA station). Stone Mountain is approximately the same 4.5 mile distance from the Indian Creek MARTA station. If a Memorial Drive or Clarkston fill-in station makes sense on the way to Stone Mountain Park then build those stations, otherwise it may be a jump directly to the high volume destination that is Stone Mountain Park.

What are your thoughts on other high volume destinations that MARTA does not currently serve?

[testa50]

As I've also argued in my OP, Stone Mountain is strategic in another way: the road access from Lilburn into Atlanta on 78 is abysmal. It takes forever--the fastest way is to go down to I-20, which is way out of the way. This is probably the only corridor where there would be about an equal time to park the car, get on MARTA, and ride to Five Points that it would be to drive the entire distance--even without traffic. So it has excellent potential as a park and ride. Heck, Kensington Station is pretty busy with Park and Ride from the 78 corridor and it's an extra 8 miles of driving to get to the station that Stone Mountain would be!

And it's about 5 miles from Clarkston to downtown Stone Mountain, along a wide, existing railroad right of way.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by NuclearDensity

In my opinion, Stone Mountain Park should be the focus not because of the surrounding residential population density but because Stone Mountain Park has 4.1 Million annual visitors. Stone Mountain Park is Georgia's largest attraction and people need to get there. Stone Mountain Park is entirely within Dekalb county so it presents no jurisdiction or MARTA tax issues and a MARTA link from downtown would increase both Stone Mountain Park attendance and MARTA ridership because of the increased accessibility for convention attendees, tourists, and locals.

For comparison sake, Stone Mountain Park has almost twice as many annual visitors as the Georgia Dome and the Georgia World Congress Center combined (Refence: http://www.gwcc.com/about/docs/2010%...l%20Report.pdf).

Sometimes MARTA must jump larger distances to get to the locations that riders need to go. A good example is the 4.5 mile distance between Buckhead and Medical Center Station on its way to Perimeter Center (Perimeter Center is Atlanta's largest employment node and also contains Perimeter Mall which is located adjacent to the Dunwoody MARTA station). Stone Mountain is approximately the same 4.5 mile distance from the Indian Creek MARTA station. If a Memorial Drive or Clarkston fill-in station makes sense on the way to Stone Mountain Park then build those stations, otherwise it may be a jump directly to the high volume destination that is Stone Mountain Park.

What are your thoughts on other high volume destinations that MARTA does not currently serve?

I love the idea of having a commuter rail line pass through Stone Mountain. The park entrance is less than a mile away, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have some kind of shuttle service linking the station to the park. Plus, this could open the gateway to a longer line reaching out toward Lithonia, which could serve as the eastern terminus of the proposed I-20 BRT line, since at that point the rail line passes within a mile of the interstate. Now, no doubt this line would only serve 5-10% of the park's visitors. But remember, economies of scale: Every positive addition to the transit system slightly increases the ridership from each point.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by bu2

Beyond Clarkston is where there is little density. Its a long way from 285 to Stone Mtn.

Clarkston is not just inside 285. Clarkston extends well outside of the perimeter. There's fairly high density almost all the way to Mountain Industrial, at which point it becomes an office/industrial park, which, IMO, is a great place to have transit access. From Mountain Industrial to Stone Mountain is not far. Only a couple miles, at the most.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

I love the idea of having a commuter rail line pass through Stone Mountain. The park entrance is less than a mile away, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have some kind of shuttle service linking the station to the park.

Stone Mountain used to have its own internal bus system called SMARTA. If rail transit ever came through there, it'd be nice for them to bring that back.

[SaintTaris]

I would consider expanding the west line past Six flags all the way to Arbor Place Mall, with a stop on Thronton Road.