Why does it seem like Atlanta’s transit agencies continually aim lower and lower when it comes to planning?
I was this many years old when I was told it was going to be an extension of the Red Line rail service from North Springs Station, about 5 miles away. Now all we get is a noisy, smoggy bus island in between 8 lanes of speeding traffic.
Nah, this ain’t it chief.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
We have a ready-made 150-year-old vacant right of way around central Atlanta begging for rail-based transit… And the mayor is considering “slow moving people movers” and “pods” instead of connecting the downtown circulating streetcar to it (which it was why it was built) youtu.be/ViXU2ULsP… Please watch this video and feel my frustration and rage right now. 😡
Monday, January 8, 2024
Last month I talked about how with Georgia's new federal funding for rail corridors, we could imagine a regional rail system that would make moving through the area so much better? Turns out, I'm not the only one, and our new favorite ATL urbanist Youtuber Nathan Davenport is back with another video detailing a bit about Atlanta rebuilding its rails would also be recapturing its true identity. This could be us, but y'all too busy getting stuck on I-285!
Saturday, December 9, 2023
In combination with some great news about funding a lot of sorely needed railroad projects and studies at the federal level, Georgia's U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock announced new grants to explore three new Georgia passenger rail corridors made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The new rail routes would connect major economic centers in Georgia and neighboring states, providing additional public transit options, increased mobility, and a sustainable, clean-energy future.
Friday, December 1, 2023
Over the past few days, the “Father of the Beltline” himself, Ryan Gravel, created a massive 70-something-odd long FAQ in response to the NIMBYist action group that popped up opposing the transit portion of the Atlanta Beltline. His post is massively detailed and as pointed as one would expect of having to literally defend their graduate thesis even after half of it has been edified. It’s also a masterclass in how to keep fighting tooth-and-nail without resorting to name-calling and pettiness which seems to be the norm these days.
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Last time in this series, I talked about an organization called Better Atlanta Transit that counter to its name, wants to end all talk of having light rail alongside the Beltline Trail, the very popular, used-to-be-murder-tracks encircling central Atlanta that’s now a multipurpose trail, linear park, and real estate gentrification money printing machine. Of course in a way only Upside/DownLand Atlanta could do, we somehow got the multipurpose trail part built first, and are behind in the light rail installation.
Microtransit: what happens when you add ride hailing to regular city transit bus service.
In parts of Gwinnett, there’s no waiting for a bus at a predetermined stop or route and the fare is just a flat $3 to go within the zone.
(BTW @gwinnettgov, any ETA there?)
…and it works like 🧈.
Can’t wait until we get it in our part of the county
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Yesterday was NYCMTA’s Subway Day– On October 27, 1904 the New York City Subway started running it’s then total length between City Hall downtown and 145th Street uptown past Harlem (which was literally countryside back in those days) Here’s a video they posted on their Threads/Instagram account showing all the different trains they’ve run throughout their 119 years. My personal fav, the R33 Redbird is shown with the ⑦ train mark, just as I used to ride it 35 years ago when I was a kid heading to Corona and Shea Stadium with my dad.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
www.youtube.com/watch The whole reason the Beltline even exists is because it was meant to be a transit corridor. A multiuse trail was also part of the design, so both need to be constructed. But also, since the land developers jumped into the fray and built their car-oriented buildings off the trail, OF COURSE they want to keep it this way. I’m sick and tired of the false notion that transit BRINGS IN undesirable effects when the exact opposite has always been true.