Racial reasoning on MARTA is off-track

Nicely written sir. I’m guessing the comments to be approved pool is enormous because I don’t see any comments posted yet.

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Having lived in Europe and going everywhere on PT I ventured out to MARTA a few years back and noticed
1. No employees in sight anywhere
2. No schedules posted in stations
3. No clocks to even know what time it was if you happened to find anyone that knew when the next train came
4. Dirty smelly trains
5. Took me 30 minutes longer to get downtown than if I had driven
6. Saving of $1 for roundtrip figuring in gas and parking for totalbof hour and 5 minute longer trip
7.incoherent communication over the speakers in train
8. no route maps inside train
Now why is MARTA smarter?

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Racial reasoning is not MARTAs problem. It like many agencies has either forgotten who its users are or, perhaps, feels it can’t serve them.

People will ride mass transit if it delivers them close to their jobs. Many people will drive to the nearest rail station, and take the mass transit to their jobs, but few will leave a car parked overnight at a rail station so they can drive the last few miles to their job. This point was driven home to me years ago when I lived in the city and worked in the suburbs. I had to walk about 2.5 miles from the bus line to the job. It got old very quickly.

In my travels, most of the examples I have seen with private mass transit, has been getting employees from the nearest mass transit station to the workplace. Private carriers understand this problem well. They know when the shift change occurs and adjust their schedule accordingly.

One question is whether the job market has changed so that this is no longer practical. Most suburban jobs are in small office parks without a concentration of hourly workers with shift changes. Many of these jobs have move overseas to places that have, ironically enough good mass transit. Take a look at the products you see in stores and ask yourself did the worker who made this drive to work.

The effective boundary of the perimeter however, is the design of the rail system itself. The choice of continuously powered third rail limits the system to dedicated rail lines without grade crossing. It makes sense only on heavily traveled rail lines, that are likely to only exist inside the perimeter. Most Asian cities, and some American cities, such as Salt Lake use overhead wire (or overhead rail for tunnels) and lines that can be shared with freight.

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All Statewide Public Mass Transit should be put under the GDOT where connections can be made throughout Georgia. We could start by having rail lines placed in the middle median of all expressways. If the GDOT Boys aren’t up for the task then explore privitization.

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Well-run rail systems are worth their weight in gold. Chicago, New York, London, Paris, and heck, even Salt Lake City and Phoenix have good rail systems. Rail is on its way in Houston and Dallas.

But here, MARTA is a cesspool of bloated and overpaid management. The current CEO has added a bunch of administrators, with no return on investment. Staff wanted to expand west to Fulton Industrial in the 90’s, with a lot of hard data that MARTA have good rider numbers serving the business up and down Ful Indust. But the know-nothing board shot it down. Instead, they saw big dollar signs with the whole station/retail/residential development angle, which has been a major disappointment. Harold Buckley, a realtor, has represented DeKalb County on the MARTA Bd. for 20 years. And he was set to make some big bucks if a CID was passed for the Kensington MARTA station. Term limits, please??

The saddest part is that most MARTA administrators and managers don’t even ride their own trains and buses on a regular basis. Stations are filthy, the bus drivers aren’t just rude,they speed, run red lights, and park where ever the heck they’d like on a break, and who knows what in the heck the MARTA police department does. With competent management, their would be much more public support for MARTA. MARTA and its board likes to blame everyone else but themselves, but almost all of their problems are self-inflicted.

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I rode MARTA on time. Never again. I will sit in traffic and listen to my radio.

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Perhaps the bus and train operators need to start asking for a potential rider’s passport before accepting their fare, in order to keep those “illegals” out of the public transportation system.

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I think you are wrong about this, though the word racism itself may be outdated. Looking beyond race is not so easy to do. The last two posts are not racial in my opinion, but the fact that most the MARTA employees we see are black is an element of the problem. This might be because those of us who want a better system are afraid to complain…for fear of looking racist (and we would). The number of black employees needs to be explained to people at a basic level; it does not speak of hiring the best person for the job, for example. Further, you ignore the fact that MARTA in Atlanta treated like a Superfund site. You cannot walk into the Candler Park Station like a person. You cannot walk through a public park (Iverson) because the route is blocked by a fence, and you cannot stroll down a public street (Candler Park Drive) to enjoy the benefits of the public transit we support. Organizations like the Candler Park Neighborhood Association and ParkPride are spending tens of thousands of donated dollars to make Iverson Park especially fine…and nobody seems to notice the fence blocking the tax paying public from walking through a public park to use public transit. These are not people I would describe as racist, but where else do you go to explain that behavior? Earlier discussions about station access (15 years back) were like a law and order episode–crime, crime, crime. You do not need to go back that far to find the Candler Park rabid dog attacks on MARTA buses–danger, danger, danger. This problem is strewn with racial artifacts of some kind. This paper itself will not make an issue of MARTA functionality issues. If you fenced in some place white people wanted to go, you would have a front-page story. Looking beyond race involves more white people deciding to take a nice evening stroll downtown…and take the train to get there…and demand to be treated like a human being along the way…and to stop saying these problems are not about race, because they are in some more complicated way.

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I think it’s a shame that MARTA cannot branch out and include, for example, a lottery ticket with each fare. In no time at all, MARTA could then be transformed into a profit-center that would make any good capitalist — no, dare I say, Libertarian — blush with pride. Who knows. The keepers of the purse strings might even be forced to give such ingenious executives huge bonuses to show their appreciation for a job well done. And any less-than-positive thoughts about implementing a system designed to thrive off of the ignorance of those that can least afford it will be buried under visions of mounds of dollar bills in no time. No time at all. Then again, whats the odds of something like that ever happening.

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Kyle, you’ve had your head stuck in the sand waaaaaay tooooo long. MARTA is definitely about race…..ask the folks at Lenox Square how they like MARTA…..I’ll bet you’d get your ears full. The people who are presently running (I use that work loosely) MARTA have had long enough to show Atlanta and DeKalb County that they are not capable of such a task. If Cobb and Gwinnett are smart (and up to now they’ve done good) they will give MARTA a resounding NONONONONONONO…..never, never, never. Begone MARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Kyle, my heart would like to believe what you write but my head knows that it isn’t so. Much of MARTA is about race and jobs. Look at the MARTA employees, management and board members through the filter of “diversity”, that term so revered in “progressive” thought. There is little diversity in MARTA and, certainly, much less than in metro Atlanta. When I look at MARTA I am reminded of another failed institution – the US Postal Service. Both have the same look, the same attitude, and the same inability to react to change. Both are bound by intractable unions.
By the way, I regularly ride the MARTA rail system, mostly to/from the airport. My life would be more difficult without MARTA. I want it to reform and prosper.

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MARTA “Moving African Americans Rapidly Through Atlanta’s” chocolate inner city but not the vanilla suburbs. Keep many blacks from having transportation to the suburbs because we all know that you can’t have law and order and black people too.

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One poster comments: The saddest part is that most MARTA administrators and managers don’t even ride their own trains and buses on a regular basis. Stations are filthy, the bus drivers aren’t just rude,they speed, run red lights, and park where ever the heck they’d like on a break, . . .
____
I ride MARTA almost EVERY day (Blue Line from Avondale to Five Points). The buses don’t smell (some of the riders may), the drivers are good and the stations ARE NOT filthy. This is just propaganda from someone who probably just wants to make MARTA look bad.

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speaking as a ex-atlanta resident living for 30 years in new york city, i know that nyc had its problems also 100 years ago with the expansion of the nyc subway through parts of brooklyn and other areas.it was ,back then about class not so much race,atlanta will get there with there transportation system look at ny it took 100 and sum odd years to get to what people see today.

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Kyle, mixing rascism, party politics, and urban infrastructure on one page makes a rambling, inconclusive article. But you don’t shilly-shally around the “race” factor; that’s good.

I hope that in the wrap-up of this series you’ll frame MARTA in the context of the past, present, and future of Atlanta and Georgia. The Atlanta region has 50% of the population of Georgia and produces 70% of the state GDP. Without Atlanta, Georgia would be as poor and backward as the neighboring states of Alabama and South Carolina.

MARTA and Atlanta Airport are the backbone of the Atlanta region. The world’s busiest airport, connected to a modern heavy-rail metro, makes Atlanta commercially competitive with other sunbelt conglomerations like Dallas, Miami, and Phoenix. The creation of this marvelous infrastructure in the face of the rabid anti-spending, anti-investment, race-baiting politicians who have always held public office in Georgia is a miracle in state history.

Don’t confuse value with cost! No metropolitan transport system in the world derives sufficient operating revenue from passenger fares, but the economic and social benefits to the community far exceed the operating cost. Good transport reduces the traffic load on streets and highways in the central region, attracts businesses and jobs, and enables growth and beneficial change. The MARTA rail system has changed the face of Atlanta. Just look down at the city from the window of an airplane to see how development clusters around MARTA stations. Go along Peachtree from downtown to Buckhead in the evening, and notice that many affluent people are moving into townhouses and condos from suburban homes, to take advantage of the easy accessibility of the city venues and the airport.

Success builds on success; extending the train lines to suburban areas will bring more businesses and jobs to Georgia.

One of the readers, “Diogenes”, expresses disgust with MARTA train service. My experience is far different: I find the trains clean and usually on schedule, there are rail maps posted in every car, stations are announced in advance by recorded voices speaking clearly in common American English, often supplemented by the train driver speaking in local dialect. There is, however, one displeasing aspect of travel on MARTA: rude and boisterous young people, usually African American. However, I don’t find any better company on the subways of other large American cities. We must take people as they are since we are not willing to provide the education and social support needed to offset bad heritage and stupid TV shows.

Though I admire what MARTA has done for Atlanta, I recognize that MARTA train service falls far short of world-class urban transport. The London Underground and the Paris Metro provide frequent, fast service from stations located within a short walk of anywhere in the city. Like Atlanta, the rail passengers are of many ethnicities. Unlike Atlanta, they are generally healthy, fit, good-looking, neatly dressed, and well-behaved. Why is that?

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Curiously, in a supposed anti-incumbent year, most of the departing are not retiring but seeking higher office. We may recycle more than we replace. The bad news is that a frustrating 114 seats still have but one contestant. Two of them aren’t even incumbents, meaning they will affect state policy without being vetted by voters. And I have to think that we’d be better off if many had run instead for the Legislature — and cut down on the number running unopposed. Georgia’s problems are numerous. They aren’t going away. There’s too much stale thinking at the Capitol, on both sides of the aisle. New voices would be welcome.

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MARTA has been far too willing to attack others in the state, participating with the local legislators who would rather play politics at the capitol than build coalitions and have real accomplishments. Withough Mayor Reed this attitude would have kept the local legislators from supporting the help MARTA got in the last session. They would have rather stayed victims than actually help. MARTA needs a secretarty of state like position for it to assume a real leadership positon in the region rather than its current position as aggrieved victim.

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I know it’s touchy to point out race, Kyle, but when there are more young African-American men in jail than in college, people are going to avoid young black men, and anything perceived associated with them.

When you add people like Bill @ 1:54 Saturday, MARTA will literally go nowhere. Plenty of suburban/exurban people expect a paved road from their front door to wherever they’re going. They expect taxpayer-subsidized living but won’t pay a penny for anyone else. Newsflash: roads are not naturally occurring features, and if you think your gas tax pays for them, you’re severely underestimating the cost of building and maintaining roads. Why should I pay money for Bill’s roads, sewer line (or river pollution if he uses septic) power lines, etc.? I don’t use them. He’s living off of my dime, just as much as any inner-city welfare/food stamp recipient.

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Here we go again, another op-ed piece that echoes Justice John Roberts misguided reasoning: since racial discrimination is illegal, we must presume it does not exist.

I live ITP and ride MARTA daily, my wife’s family lives in Forsyth, Gwinnett and Hall Counties. My brother used to live in Kennesaw — when the subject of MARTA came up, the uniform response was they did not want any (insert the usual derogatory term for blacks) up here. However, get them in a situation where blacks and whites intermingle (Falcons games, etc.) and they were all peace and love and brotherhood.

Maybe racial tension has lessened, but pretending it no longer exists is pretty naive. That the legislature would put a restriction on funding for MARTA in the new transportation bill — but not putting the same restriction on Gwinnett or Cobb Transit is an issue you conveniently omit.

Why is that Kyle?

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Kyle, two questions

1) If MARTA is so terrible, why it is year after year the absolute best in the country in terms of cost per passenger mile for heavy rail? Better than NYC, better than Chicago, better than LA, etc. As a journalist, you’d think you’d know this. It’s very easy information to obtain. Go to the website for the Federal Transit Administration and download the spreadsheets. It’ll take you a couple of hours to find that MARTA is the best in the nation year after year in terms of heavy rail efficiency (The buses are in the middle of the pack nationally). Kind of goes against everything you’ve posted for the past week or so which appears to be based on “well everyone knows MARTA is corrupt” and tons of anecdotes that sound exactly the same. Are you too lazy to do an ounce of research or do you only do “research” when it is handed to you by some industry funded think tank?

2) Are you a Christian? Do you believe that it is wrong to bear false witness? Do you think a bit of political glory here in the world of man is a good trade off for an eternity of burning in the fires of hell?

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Kyle, you are one the biggest racists and hypocrites at the AJC, and that is quite an accomplishment.

Some people just happen to like their mass transit and their elected President to be like their favorite sandwich cheese at Subway.

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As soon as the racial card gets played or the race-baiters make a scene my mind is immediately made up on ANY issue; i.e., whatever side they’re on is inherently morally repugnantly wrong-headed. So, if politicians want my suburban tax dollars for MARTA they need to either make a compelling argument for their case based on sound LOGIC or otherwise point a gun at my head. The fact that the racial card is defacto played in the case of MARTA is an out-of-the-gate show-stopper. If you want to capture the suburbanites tax dollars my suggestion is to REPUDIATE the race-baiters; stop promoting the self-serving dividers and people will naturally come together. Of course, that appears to be diametrically opposed to the AJC editorial platform.

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Newsflash 2: Roads are commonly subsidized for every acceptable motorized means of transport a state allows to travel on its’ government proprietary infrastructure, which includes all forms of government subsidize motorized vehicles. Cars are not naturally occurring. Neither do other privately owned motorized vehicles naturally occur and none of these private modes of transport receive taxpayers assistance. Government subsidizing road infrastructure is not comparable with Government subsidizing the entire total sum for a means of transportation.

Public transportation excluding commonly provided government owned proprietary infrastructure and the woefully insufficient fares paid to cover costs is “providing welfare”, period – Call this serving the greater good of only a few.

Public roads are established at taxpayer expense to fulfill government’s constitutional obligatory duties in “promoting the general welfare” of the United States. – Et al the commerce section of article one. – Call this serving the greater good of all.

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User supported? How do you think that the roads get paid for??? The roads are subsidized, aren’t they? Why shouldn’t the mass transit be?
And, well, if you don’t want mass transit, look for traffic to be twice as bad.
You WANT AND NEED mass transit, EVEN IF you don’t take it.
That’s what’s so awful about what we have here. If it were managed better, we would have more and more stations would open, which would mean more people would take it, etc.
**(why do you want there to be mass transit? Otherwise, there will be more traffic. Otherwise, EVERYONE needs a car, so the prices of everything you pay for goes up. how? well, if one must have a car to get to work – then they must be paid enough to be able to afford a car. Which means you pay for more stuff.
And there are many more benefits – people are walking more – less obesity – people are out and about – less crime…I could go on and on…).

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“And, well, if you don’t want mass transit, look for traffic to be twice as bad.
You WANT AND NEED mass transit, EVEN IF you don’t take it.”

There may be more traffic, but Marta doesn’t even dent the traffic flows up and down I-75. So, no, I do NOT need mass transit. I’d like to have it, if it made economic sense etc., but by no means do I NEED it (nor do most folks in the Atlanta metro area). That does NOT mean I don’t support the concept, but don’t expect blank-check support or expect me to favor throwing good money after bad.

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“Government subsidizing road infrastructure is not comparable with Government subsidizing the entire total sum for a means of transportation.”

Because, y’know, Michael said so.

Seriously— Mass transit is welfare, while subsidizing roads is Constitutionally demanded? Roads are “for the greater good?” Get over your cul-de-sac entitlement mentality. More people use roads because we’ve subsidized more roads. Hey, let’s do away with all rail, airplanes, Greyhound, taxis, and the horse-drawn carriages used by tourists downtown. If you can’t pilot your own conveyance, for some odd reason you’re a grubby socialist. Real ‘Mericans drive CARS! Or better yet, big, fat, gas-guzzling SUV’S!

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@ DawgDad Thank you for your well thoughtout comments. With regards to “Am I concerned about criminals using the system? Sure, that’s a concern that proponents need to address”

These is evidence that mass transit reduces violent crime http://blog.aia.org/aiarchitect/2009/09/crime_and_mass_transit.html …but there is also anecdotal evidence that it increases petty crime at nearby large-scale retail sites like malls, see http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/could-a-public-transit-boom-result-in-a-crime-boom/

So, mixed bag I guess. Still when I drive up to Cobb Co from Fulton for work every morning I cannot help but think that everyone of those people suck waiting in traffic going south are suckers for not supporting Mass Trans

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i live in alpharetta, and wish Marta was more accessible. Its decent to take it to the airport and the falcons games but other than that…it’s 20 years behind its time and with the rapid expansion of metro ATL- it’s an absolute waste unless someone steps in and fixes the issues. Sorry Cobb, Clayton, Gwinnett- you want to make things easier, allow the trains to hit your county and we’ll hire extra security for the “shady” people.

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I don’t like those Breeze cards riders must purchase, so we don’t use it very often when we visit. We are white and don’t mind riding at all. We see all sorts of people on our MARTA trips. As far as the rail goes, well, it goes no where. Atlanta is so spread out that is does not cover enough ground. Now, for all the people in Cobb and Gwinnett who are worried about crime coming in via MARTA — guess what! You have already the inner city crime sans the inner city.

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I live in Cobb County, and I have to gas-fume my way south, east or west to get to a MARTA train station. My primary destinations (since flying is too much a hassle anymore) would be Turner Field and the Georgia Dome. Both require a change at 5 Points. That is the last place in Atlanta that I want to visit. A walk through Underground Atlanta? Forget it. I’d rather be in Mogadishu, Tehran or BumF*** West Virginny. . Changing to the West line puts me at an escalator to Phillips Arena. Not a destination of choice. Way over in the distance I can see the Dome. Too bad I can’t take a bicycle in there.

So, basically, I’ve forgotten Atlanta. Driving to Chattanooga would be as convenient.

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Marta is being cut because of money. But all the blacks automatically think its a racial issue.

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I worked in public transit in CA for 17 years and the transit funding here is disgraceful. These suburban counties should be forced to help fund MARTA since a great many of the suburbanites ride it also MARTA should have zone pricing so those in outlying counties pay more to help fund it. I’m caucasian and I do believe that a form of racism does play a part in where MARTA goes. sonny boy really doesn’t give a rat’s !@# about MARTA or Clayton County transit.

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So you want the respect of a real city, but you don’t want public transit to succeed region-wide? Welcome to Atlanta, the largest country-town of all!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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“They stood to pay for years, maybe decades, before the rails crossed I-285 to reach them. Why say yes to that?”

A portion of the money I pay in property taxes goes to the school system in my county. However, I have no kids and it may be decades before I have kids. Why say yes to being taxed that way?

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I grew up in Ansley Park and spent much of my adult life living in the Decatur/Avondale Estates area (I have since moved to Montana and have been living there the last 10 years). I used Marta many times to get to the airport, go to Braves games, visit intown festivals (Inman Park), and for the annual Peachtree Road Race. I do not see the issue of its demise and red ink having anything much to do with race. I see the issue mainly as 2 things: 1) Very poor management (money wasted) from the beginning and 2) the line doesn’t go most places people want to go. The reality of using Marta is unless it’s truly convenient and goes where I need to go then it’s not used. Unless you live inside the perimeter and also live along or near the Marta line then most people don’t use it. It runs north-south and east-west. I used it for certain things, but in general it’s not something that is part of most people’s daily lives. We don’t HAVE to use it, and as I’ve said it just doesn’t take me where I want to go most times.

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Boy,you are just flat out of your clueless mind. I was born at Crawford Long, and grew up around Emory and I’m 20 years older than you. This. is. about. ONE. thing. ONLY!!!
POOR PEOPLE

PERIOD. FULL STOP!! END OF STORY!!!

The affluent people in the suburbs, who drive BMWs and Lexus, live in beautiful homes, wear nice, new, clean clothes do not want to spend time crammed into a train or bus, on a hard plastic seat, or worse yet, standing for hours, surrounded by poor people who don’t wash, have filthy torn tattered clothes and don’t behave like they and their friends do.

I’ve seen more barely concealed breasts, and flaunted erections on the MARTA train than I have ever seen anywhere else. It is disgusting. And the putrid body odor/cologne/hair junk stench is nauseating.

Take a weekend or after business hours walk in downtown:Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, and on and on and on OUTSIDE of the south and you will find a vibrant active community filled with people enjoying themselves. They will have taken the train then walked to meet their friends and they will be loving life in the city. All with people who are like them.
Now do the same thing in downtown Atlanta. You will find an abandoned city, no where to go and no reason to be there. Aside from the panhandlers and the stray conventioneers the streets will be deserted.

The suburbs on the other hand will be packed with people, kids playing, shopping etc.

You don’t think socioeconomic status is the reason OTP communities don’t want MARTA bringing that blight to them…Then you are a fool,plain and simple.

My first draft of this note said that this is about race and black people, but I realized that affluent AAs don’t use or want MARTA either…..It really is about social standing.

This note will never see the light of day because it says things that are not accepted in polite company, but every word is true and it’s time that kids like you grow up and see what’s happening.

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Recently, my wife was forced to take a temp assignment job in D.C. While at the job conversing with a white co-worker who was from Maryland the co-worker recalled what his old roommates from Atlanta called MARTA(Moving africans rapidly through atlanta)!! In fact, if you google Marta with the word moving omg, guess what you will see?
The author of this article seems to be saying that there isn’t any substantial evidence that race is the cause of the anti-Marta and transportation hate in Atlanta and its suburbs. I used to ask co-workers from Atlanta about why they didn’t have a functional transportation system and most whites said it was due to crime being transported to suburban areas. White co-workers also exclaimed that taking public transportation would be embarrassing and they would rather move out of state if they had to. Blacks just said that whites voted against transit years ago and that the only time they see white people on Marta is when there is an event downtown. Based on that, I will agree with the author that you can’t really say that transportation woes are due to racial tension,lol. However, he should at least admit that racial tension makes what would seem like intelligent individuals apper STUPID.
You see, Georgia has 158 counties!!! That’s more counties than New York and California combined!!! For some racial ahem, idiotic reasons individuals were and are allowed to vote on the establishment of a true transit system because of the 1 cents tax, right? Soooo, how do you think New York got their transit system(MTA) established way back in the day? Another question, are you allowed to vote on what you pay in county taxes for your home?? Lastly, when a street light is broken or there is a pothole, do people in GA vote before getting it fixed? Of course not!! Because those are things that must be done and are not up for discussion.
I say all of that because Georgia is under governed and allows to many racists ooops, factors affect its progression. New York noticed its population was increasing and formed the MTA because it was necessary!! Suburban Westchester county had commuter rail lines going into NYC back in the 1800’s. New York didn’t ask for a vote, they just formed it because they had to. Just like when a traffic light goes down or a pothole is fixed. You can’t vote on your county and state taxes because $ is necessary to fund any county and state operations. There are just things you HAVE to get done and they are not up for discussion or votes!! If Georgia’s transportation woes were not racially charged then there wouldn’t be a need to vote on it!! The legislature would have taken care of the missing transit link back when the state started to grow, just like New York!!
The fake establishment hasn’t all of sudden come to its senses and buried their racial hate. They are just feeling embarrassed about Charlotte’s transit progression and lawmakers bang their heads each time they miss out on Obama infrastructure money!!!
If Atlanta’s lack of a real tranist system wasn’t based on race I could have ditched my car a long time ago!!

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Reading these comments-its amusing at the assumtions people make about the makeup of the workforce at Marta.The jobs are open to all who apply-there have only been 2 black GM’s compared to many white ones. The system ran no better under those many white GM’s than it has under the 2 Black ones. That’s how racism comes into the picture.When the white GM’s were in control,the OTP’s talked about not wanting Marta because of the element it attracted. Now with the Black GM’s it’s the incompetant management. Interesting.
Kyle-about the outsourcing,you’re dead wrong. Ask Clayton County how a for profit company(First Transit)
screwed them on their bus maintenance and forced them to void their contract by demanding more money. This is another way to line someone’s pockets with public money.Probably your republican friends.

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Let me point out that the county Mr. Ralston is from, Gilmer, did not have any nonwhite families, save one (the black man who cleaned the bank) until 1986, except that Monica Kaufman bought a weekend house there at one point. In 1986, the first Latino family came to Gilmer County. Oh, yes, and the Cherokee that were not caught in the Removal, who intermarried but whose descendants are still there today.

I doubt any changes to Marta ever have much effect on Mr. Ralston or his family. He can spend his political capital any way he wishes.

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Dawgdad,

Marta doesn’t run up/down I-75 so I don’t see how it would affect traffic except on the Connector when 85/400 has merged in. If anything the exurb counties like Cherokee do more damage to your commute and having Marta/some train system up the 75 corridor would likely help things. Go stop by the North Springs Marta station or try to make a commute down GA400 and imagine all those cars in the decks in stations on the northern route loaded onto 400 and how much worse the already terrible commute would be. Having lived off exit 267 on 75, I can say I would have loved to see a Marta station run up to Barrett. Given the current demographics of Cobb and Gwinnett, I would say to those that objected to Marta on racist grounds that they failed to stop the diversity and honestly it’d just make their area more livable given current traffic nightmares.

Personally, I live in town and ride Marta about once a month but that’s b/c most places I go around my home are within walking distance. I do have to drive out to Vinings for work daily now after changing jobs but I only have to look at the nightmare the rest of you face up 75 to be content w/ living in Midtown. Even my mom, who is as conservative/anti-tax/(and bigoted) as anyone I know loves to ride Marta to her job in downtown from Snellville (after a 20 min drive to the closest station). It lets her read a book and avoid paying $10/day parking while her job pays for passes.

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I no longer live in the Atlanta area, THANK GOD! I lived there for about 11 years from ‘83 to ‘94. I would ride the system only for the PTRR or to go to the OMNI or Phillips on occasion. Pitifull system, service, workers! Yes, fear of crime is a factor when so called urbanites can ride from the inner city to Buckhead, Lennox, Phipps and other areas for practically nothing! Several times I rode from the Chamblee area to the Ga. dome! When the train stopped at Lennox, hordes of young blacks got on! They obviously had not been to Lennox or Phipps to shop! Guess they were just cruising around, or, MAYBE CASEING SHOPS AND HOMES IN THE AREA! There is already enough crime in Cobb, Gwinnett, Forsyth, WHY THE HELL WOULD WE WANT TO GIVE THESE TYPE THUGS ACCESS TO OUR HOMES AND BUSINESSES????

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“If the standard is whether MARTA gets singled out for restrictions among the state’s other 100-plus transit agencies, then we have to ask whether Republicans have been fooled into thinking that wealthy whites fill most of the bus seats in Augusta or Savannah.”

Republicans don’t have to be fooled into thinking that wealthy whites fill most of the bus seats in Augusta. Remember, Masters Shuttle from hotel to Augusta National. DUH!!!

As a matter of fact, Kyle, you’ve given me a great idea…forget the chauffeur and the sports car. I’m leaving the Bentley (Monday), the Benz (Tuesday), the Beamer (Wednesday), the Rolls Royce (Thursday), the other Benz (Friday), the stretch Excursion limo (Saturday and Sunday) and the stretch Hummer limo (Saturday, too) all at home and taking MARTA all week long!!!! Who needs beyond-comfortable personal chauffeured-driven luxury transportation when one partake in the finest public transportation that America has to offer (laughs, hysterical laughs)? Thanks for the inspiration, Kyle! Because everyone knows that chicks don’t dig hot wheels…chicks dig monthly bus passes at deeply discounted rates that only get you to within half-a-mile’s walking distance of the shopping mall.

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Are you kidding me?? RACE is always a reason! especially in these southern states like Georgia. I think if they could bring slavery, lynching back they would. Any major metropolitan city has a transit system like New York, Chicago, etc. Japan has one of the best systems in the world Hello and everybody uses it. We worry about high gas prices, pollution, etc. Public Transit can dramatically reduce that. I am just tired of these republicans, they are completely out of control. We are going so backwards and we wonder why our country is going into shambles. I guess the bullies now don’t want to play fair because somebody shook up their strong hold.

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Unlike some of these posters I’m a native born 1964 in what was Dekalb General then. MARTA has always been contentious and a political tool for the city. Look at the rail routes and overlay them with where the (now mostly removed) large public housing projects use to be its not coincidence that its like a game of connect the dots… Eastlake Meadows, Clark Howell, Bowen Homes, Carver, Techwood… never an idea other than social welfare came into play when they designed the routes. Now that they’ve almost eliminated all of those projects and replaced them with section 8 vouchers, those same people now move to the ‘burbs and look for transportation… observe Clayton county.

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“Changing to the West line puts me at an escalator to Phillips Arena. Not a destination of choice. Way over in the distance I can see the Dome. Too bad I can’t take a bicycle in there.”

You’re kidding, right? That’s a ten minute walk, tops, to the Dome, along a paved avenue across the GWCC campus. That little exercise won’t kill you.

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Mr. Wingfield, I was around at the “creation”. There were three political entities involved. Atlanta, Fulton county and Dekalb.
Fulton was not yet majority black (in political representation) and Dekalb was still a “white” county. I don’t think it was racism, but lack of vision that kept other counties out.
I believe they still considered themselves rural and couldn’t see the need to join. As years went on. MARTA implied that Gwinnett and Cobb would need to pay in Billions to join….

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Absolutely brilliant piece. But Cynthia Tucker and her 1960’s thinkers will barbeque this guy. No room at AJC for a non race-baiter.

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Last, every person that says buses are never full…they aren’t going to be packed every trip! Also depending where you are along the route makes a difference too. Go to NY in times square and you’ll see empty buses or a few people on the buses too…the M42 bus. Now not everytime but on some trips yes. That is the same with MARTA. The state isn’t going to every REALLY help MARTA because it’s a red state outside of Atlanta. They don’t care about anything that benefits Atlanta. So when you can’t get your hamburger, or get into a hotel, or can’t get to a Hawks game, or if your job leaves…please believe it’s cause you didn’t support MARTA! Might not be the only reason but it is a major one. Don’t hope on either when gas is $4 and $5 bucks either and you see that MARTA is a cheaper option like people did in 2008.

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The last time joining MARTA was put on the ballot in Gwinnett County the reason it was defeated for a third time had more to do with money than “ethnocentric” fears and animosities. Many people, at least more so than in past years, said they wanted MARTA but when asked would they be willing to pay the added tax, then they said they didn’t want MARTA.

So if you want to define this argument in terms of color you’d best think – and speak – in shade$ of green.

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Michael Smith @ 9:24 am-

It’s not that people in Gwinnett don’t want to pay the added tax for MARTA service…it’s that people in Gwinnett don’t want to pay the added tax for MARTA and wait for 10-15 years or more before receiving and service from MARTA as they’ve been repeatedly told would happen by MARTA officials themselves if Gwinnett residents decided to pay taxes to bring MARTA to the county.

Let’s see. Pay for a service now and not see any results for the actual service for 10 years or more and even then maybe still continue to not see any results or tangible benefit for that service that you started paying millions, even billions for years earlier? Yeah, that’s the type of customer service that’s sure to be a big hit with taxpayers and consumers. Where can I sign up for that “sweet” deal where I start paying through the wazoo now and most likely get little to nothing years and years later? Further proof that MARTA has no leadership, vision or even a simple plan for its own survival other than to beg a hapless lost and clueless state government and understandably hesitant and skeptical taxpayers in surrounding counties for money with no promise of service in return for that money anytime soon. Yeah, stick a fork in ‘em, this sick puppy (MARTA) is, for all its intents and purposes, done!

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You are too young to remember what a wonderful mall Lenox was in the 1970’s . Then Marta came ,shoplifting increased due to easy access to trains back to downtown , Car break ins and thefts increased due to the type of individual who now had access to the north side of Atlanta .
A public transit system is needed that is efficient , clean ,safe ,but more importantly goes where people want to go . I have ridden it to the airport twice and both times felt like I was in a third world country . Whenever I ride the subway in Boston, NYC and or DC I feel safe and I know I will get to my destination safely and on time.
MARTA is a typical government agency ,in Atlanta, bloated , wasteful and ignorant of the needs of the citizens and tax payers . I cringe every time I see requests for more tax payer assistance .Ask Marta management about the warehouse full of IT equipment that sat unused , the software they buy and don’t implement and the bloated payroll of do nothing Marta Police . If they can respond and show us where the extra dollars go ,then maybe I will listen. You are right you were born too late to understand the issues surrounding Marta ,it was a great idea that has not lived up to it’s promises .

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Dear Kyle,

I have enjoyed your articles on MARTA and public transportation this week. Most conservative arguments I read these days are unreasonable. You offer an exception to this and I appreciate your columns. Having said that I would like to address a few of your suggestions and points that I have read this week.

One: racial reasoning on MARTA is off track. I agree wholeheartedly with this general statement. Racists might be a problem, but racism at MARTA is no more of a problem than racism at Hartsfield. It’s an excuse, but if there was a way to easily make money in public, mass transit, then people would pay no attention to the race of riders. Racism, as usual, is the lazy person’s excuse. However, on the same general lines, people apparently love the privacy and comfort of the single-car commute. While the single-car commuter’s reasons for their choice to get to work and back may not be racist, they are selfish, and contrary to their own financial advancement. I would ask you to do the math on the amount of money you save taking MARTA to your job downtown.

Two: I read some things from your columns to the effect of “heavy rail is prohibitively expensive” and MARTA lost about “$150 million last year.” And MARTA costs .94 cents per mile compared to Dallas and Phoenix who, by contracting to independent carriers, pay substantially less. “Prohibitively expensive” is a term that needs to be applied to the automobile monopoly on our existing, single-car-commuter, transportation “system.” According to the AJC, June 2009, when the Fed was passing out stimulus funds, the roads received $932 million, mass transit received $144 million. A downtown round-trip on Marta costs $3. The same trip in a car costs over $2 per mile. Additionally, this same paper stated that Delta lost $256 million just during the recent volcano. Why so much money for cars and planes but rail, the far more efficient alternative, is left to beg for just a fraction of the airway and highway money from the overburdened middle class?

Three: Safety: Cut and pasted from the front page of today’s AJC.com: “Driver, 80, hits wall, dies 10:52 a.m.” “Seat belt crackdown set,” “Driver killed in wreck on Ga. 316,” “Toddler trapped in car window critical,” “Dad of 5 killed in drive-by.” Bottom line: about 40,000 people are killed annually in car wrecks in the US. Furthermore, for every auto death, there are approximately 5 people who are seriously injured. These include broken bones, ruptured organs, extended hospital stays, plastic surgery, unbearable pain, loss of limbs, third-degree burns, paralysis, the list is endless. The leading cause of teenage deaths is car wrecks. These deaths, injuries, and the mandatory insurance required for drivers to pay for them are prohibitively expensive both financially and psychologically. That’s before we even mention the carcinogens and their effects emitted from every single car by the metric ton every few minutes.

Four: While your suggestions are sound, one thing I do not see from your articles or from any articles about mass transit is the lack of effective marketing. Mass transit should compete head-to-head with car dealerships. I see car ads stating $249 lease for 3 years as if that is some kind of great deal! I see BP oil on the TV telling us how they are working to save the environment!? You want to increase ridership on MARTA, run a few ads with sexy riders and celebrity endorsements. Show a stream in Georgia filled up with battery acid and tires; they are all over the place. Do a cost benefit analysis of the car side by side with public transit. For example, about 7 years ago my family became a 1-car family and all work commuting is done on the bus/MARTA. We live well into the suburbs and our bus service is relatively new and tragically underused. Public commute takes longer, but the time in the bus and on rail is spent working and reading. Commuting is transformed into a productive part of the day. And as the day is regimented around the transit schedule, my arrival time to work is more predictable and dependable. But the best part is the savings. Including gas, insurance, normal wear and tear, we save probably about $200 a month, even more if you factor in a car payment. When we became a 1-car family we decided to put the money saved into stock, bonds, mutual funds, ETF’s, & savings accounts. After seven years we have saved about $70,000.00. When we owned 2 cars we lived paycheck to paycheck.

Last, one thing that is not mentioned are the powerful groups who have no intention of giving up the billions and billions they extort from the single-car commuter to pay for gas, concrete, speeding tickets, normal repair, tires, insurance, and medical care. A few very wealthy and very powerful people have no intention of letting rail (or plane for that matter) take away their transportation monopoly. The oil/car barons are the most powerful people in the world and they have conned the American commuter hook, line, and sinker. Between the road, cars, junkyards, polluted air, and polluted streams; to the endless political strife between the US and the Middle East, the gas/car barons have pervaded every step of American life, literally. It is time for Americans to wake up, get rid of all the cars, and start walking, biking, and riding the bus more. Until that day, there can really be no talk of fiscal reform in any of the other woefully underfunded methods our federal government uses to regulate intrastate commerce. That giant sucking sound you hear is your car.

In sum, Warren Buffet has stated that he does not believe mass-transit can be profitable. While that may be true, the benefits to businesses from people moved by mass transit is enormous. If high speed rail connected ATL with CHI, DFW, DC, NYC, & LA, then maybe transportation wouldn’t come to a screeching halt every time there is a “wintry mix” of weather. If rail took us to Savannah, Florida, or Tennessee, no doubt my family would regularly go there to spend our tourism dollars. As it is now, our only way is to waste a day driving or take an overpriced, inconvenient plane. We badly need high speed rail connecting all major transportation centers throughout the country, like we used to have! These would be the same rails that made Atlanta the largest metropolis in the southeast. However, with people’s selfish attitudes and the belief that a car is not only a birthright but an important status symbol, I am not optimistic. People prefer traffic gridlock, car expenses, and spending hundred of billions maintaining dangerous motorways to cheap, low maintenance, low fuel, quick, and convenient buses and rails.

I didn’t even mention the ugly and expensive parking decks that clutter our city, parking fees/fines, speeding tickets … and people complain about tax to pay for schools! It’s sickening!

Thanks to anybody who read this.

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Regard race: Ha! Jokes on you, if you think MARTA will bring minorities to the suburbs, look around! Cobb County is full of hispanics and Gwinnett is full of asians. People will live, work, and shop wherever they want to, regardless of a train system.

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Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in “SuperUGLY!”

May 23rd, 2010
10:58 am

What I said is exactly what occurred the last time MARTA was put on the ballot in Gwinnett County. When people who said they wanted MARTA service were asked if they were willing to pay the added tax, their answer was no. The issue was about money then as it remains the issue now. Even if MARTA could deliver on a promise of instant service I doubt you could get enough serious support to get it on the ballot a fourth time in Gwinnett County.

You and I can agree on sticking a fork in MARTA… It’s definitely done!

PS. The issue for me remains the proper use of taxpayer money and what government should or should not do. Government should provide Public infrastructure, Government should not provide Public transportation.

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You need to understand that MARTA is hopelessly lost. The entire thing. The people, the culture, our culture, the representatives in GA. It’s all a mess. And more so – GA has a car culture that eschews mass transit. There once was a place for MARTA back when ATL was cool. This is no longer the case.

Frankly, this is the main reason why Atlanta is an awful awful place to live. If it takes you an hour and a half to drive from Alpharetta to Atlanta during rush hour then you’ve wasted more of your life on the road rather than being out in the beautiful GA sun. We no longer recognize what it is to be alive – we go from our suburban mansion into our BMW and sit for an hour listening to Rush Limbaugh and then go to work, rinse and repeat.

Nowhere in there should anyone care whether or not MARTA exists – in fact most people write it off. And that’s exactly the problem – it becomes a problem of the city of Atlanta which can’t support it because it’s filled with residents from mostly poor economic backgrounds.

By the way – one of the main reason why Georgia Tech isn’t revitalizing Atlanta is BECAUSE of marta. With all of the international students coming in and experiencing America for the first time, they think they cna’t go anywhere, that mass transit is a horrible experience and they can’t afford a car so they sit at home all day and go to work. It’s a horrible existence with no redeeming qualities about Atlanta. They tell me all the time that they’re leaving b/c America isn’t what they expected. Some may say good riddance but it’s important – these are your tax payer dollars helping these students out in an effort to bring good talent into GA.

But you know what, Atlanta doesn’t deserve a working MARTA. The dream is dead – we chose our cars and our ever expanding and dangerous road system. You really want to make this city work? Flush out the connector – make it a green space, route all traffic around the city and utilize the 16th street tunnels that were dug and never used. Connect MARTA with all the major city squares – L5P, EAV, Grant Park, GT ( and no North Ave. is not GT), Vinings, VaHi, etc etc

They all need connecting before you can expand to the suburbs. Look, the suburbs don’t want mass transit. This is our city damnit and if someone wants to drive through our city – make them go around it. We need the critical space through the center. This is all stupid, I can’t believe the way this city was laid out.

Hopeless, this city is hopeless.

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“Neither will many of them engage on the substance of MARTA’s track record, and that’s too bad. Because any of them who truly care about the agency’s future would see there are plenty of real problems to address.”

MARTA’s management does well in overall comparisons to other US transit systems.

The essential problem of urban planning was never addressed in the series. (shocking) MARTA trains connect giant parking lots to other giant parking lots. Northern and European trains connect urban centers with each other. Those stations have beautiful streets with retail, offices and condos a few steps away fron the station entrance. MARTA has made some changes to a couple of old stations but the proposed stations are still designed as giant parking lots. Until MARTA transforms every single train station into a mixed-use tranist oriented center with shops, offices and residences, it will be an awkward and somewhat useless system for most trips in Atlanta. The privatization idea will do no better than the current public system (except for making a few of Kyle’s buddies extremely wealthy)

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Regardless of the current state of racism, the mumbling about “those people” in the ’80’s doomed MARTA. In transportation, if you don’t anticipate expansion you’ll never catch up. You need more access in the very place the land prices have risen because of growth. It would kill MARTA to buy the land to reach where people want to go.

Telling MARTA to get over it, deal, privatize, etc. ignores basic reality. Check out the North Springs parking lot. There’s an abundance of vehicles from Counties that don’t pay taxes for MARTA. No transit system can support 20-30 counties on sales taxes from two. So thanks for an interesting series, Kyle, but it was kind of a waste of time. All we can do now is wait for traffic to come to a complete standstill, or gas prices to hit $5. Until then, nothing of substance will be done.

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I ride MARTA everywhere (to religious services in Dunwoody and HIghlands, to work in Midtown, to see friends clustered in Decatur, East Point, and Chandler Park, and regularly to the doctor around the airport). I carry with me copies of the schedules for buses I regularly use: there are 14 in my purse right now. I notice- and often only have to wait a few minutes for my guests to nice- that the further south or more extreme east/west you go, the darker the riders get and the poorer the service becomes. Roach-killing contests on the 121 vs. drivers that cheerily greet their passengers and hand out candy from the North Springs Station…I swear to you, the buses pulling out of the Medical Center Station “ting” and sparkle in the morning (one always smells like Febreeze), while I carry paper napkins specifically so I can sit on the 114 worry-free. Once, at the Decatur Station, after the train operator’s announcement a teenager added, “This stop is the end of the line for all white passengers”, and the train car exploded in laughter. It’s true. Anyone who actually rides MARTA knows that. It is so clear that you don’t ride MARTA day-to-day (no, the Braves game doesn’t count).

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For Andy the native, 7:12 am: MARTA rail did not go to any of the projects you mentioned. Sorry, but you’re just wrong. You missed the one, single project that the system used to serve pretty closely – out of 38 stations – but you’re not right. Clearly, you don’t know where MARTA goes, and clearly you never overlaid the housing projects either.

For Kyle – if you let these through, I’d hate to see what you moderated out:

smarternotmarta, 7:33 am: “And white folks shouldn’t be concerned about black crime coming to their neighborhoods via MARTA?”

BeBe KID, 9:16 am: “Keep many blacks from having transportation to the suburbs because we all know that you can’t have law and order and black people too.”

mike, 10:58 am: “Do you watch the news? It is not middle class whites that are committing the violent crimes.”

I’m glad you moderated this post, as much MARTA-related news turns into racist garbage quickly. But for the other side of the argument, doesn’t preventing racist commentary from posters on your article artificially back you up, removing user commentary that contradicts with your message? Not accusing you of being dishonest in any way, but that could be a quandry.

And by the way, I’m seeing Aquagirl’s comment, and I have to say – I don’t agree with lots of your points in this series, Kyle, but you’ve addressed this in a more thoughtful and thorough way than anyone with a conservative bent that I’ve ever read. You added nuance, history, and stats, instead of brick-wall “transit and subsidy is bad” pandering. Thanks for provoking some thought out there.

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What is it about MARTA trains and that funk ! Can’t they do something about the smell !

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Perimeter Mall is a prime example. Whenever the Marta train shows up the crime stats, thuggery stats, stupidity stats etc increase dramatically.

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In a previous article you quoted the cost of tax subsidies for driving at 1 cent per mile. The International Center for Technology Assessment, in The Real Price of Gasoline, and Stephen H. Burrington in Road Kill: How Solo Driving Runs Down the Economy, both estimated the real cost of driving a car at about a dollar a mile (including individual costs and tax subsidies). Some say it’s even more but compared to your cost of MARTA at 42 cents per mile, MARTA is a bargain even with all of its inefficiencies.

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Discussions about MARTA do become racist garbage…on both sides.

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Taxes. Roads are subsidized at the state level, public transportation at the local level. Not a fair playing field. Public transportation should be funded and managed at the state level.
Crime. I’ve ridden MARTA for 30 years and have never seen any crime. Sure, I read about it in the paper but if the system is so unsafe, why do I have 30 spotless years of experience? Maybe that explains why I haven’t won the lottery? Wasted my good luck on MARTA! Dang!
Pay and wait. Interesting people will pay taxes for roads and wait a long time for improvements to happen but don’t want to pay for the train and have to wait for it to come to them. If Gwinnett voted the right way in 1990 (20 years ago) I suspect we’d have a train line all the way to Mall of Ga by now.
Politics. Probably more politics than race. Why doesn’t MARTA go to Turner Field, Zoo Atlanta, the Carter Center or Emory? Well it does but you have to take the bus from the train station. Of course, the same can be said for Morris Brown, Morehouse and the MLK National Historic site. Hard to understand that one. BTW, I think the walk from Ga State or Garnett is about the same as the walk from Kenmore or Fenway to get to Fenway Park in Boston.
Population Density. Why doesn’t Wyoming have a world class public transportation system? Well, they do sort of but it’s all busses and the average trip cost is $5.50. http://wytrans.org/ You see, they don’t have the population density in Wyoming to support a nice train system like MARTA. Of course Salt Lake City supports a train system and offers free WIFI on the express routes. That would be nice on MARTA. Well, our population density in Atlanta is growing ITP and is pretty darn good OTP. We can’t support a map like this http://www.cfpt.org/documents/worldclass_map.pdf but we are getting closer every day. Build to a vision like this and you are building for our economic future.
I am a native Atlantan. I was around when the white people left the city for the suburbs. The blacks were happy to see them go. We all were just afraid of each other because we looked a little different and we acted a little differently. That was 40 years ago. Are we still afraid of each other? I’m not but I’m sure there are people who are still afraid of those who are different. Perhaps if the State ran our transit system (as they do our road system) maybe we could make the trains run everywhere and break down this barrier of fear?
I just got back from a trip to The Netherlands and Italy. Had one day of a rental car and the rest of the time it was trains, busses and taxis with one ferry for fun. I got around Venice, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre and Rome without any real transportation issues. I even go stranded at the airport in Treviso when our arranged limo didn’t show up. No problem. We just caught the bus to the train station and then the train to Venice. Rick Steves wrote about the pick pockets on the busses in Rome. So, we took the train and some taxis. (sound like a familiar big city problem?) Why can all of Italy get it right and Georgia can’t? Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a good train system. We need to invest for the future. It will take time. If we had started in 1990 when I lived in Gwinnett and voted YES for MARTA, we’d be 20 years closer today.

Today I live in Atlanta near Cheshire Bridge. I work near 5 Points. Sadly, taking MARTA would result in about a 46 minute trip for me to go only 6 miles. So, I don’t ride MARTA to work. If the beltline were in place, I’d probably have a public transit option that worked for me. But, it isn’t here today. I do ride MARTA to go to Decatur from downtown and have used it for the Airport. Any time I get a chance, I’m on the train. Oddly, there used to be a trolley that ran down N Highland into downtown. If it were here today, I could leverage it for a short trip to work. Atlanta used to have a nice trolley system and we had trains to go to towns like Marietta and Stone Mountain. Today, we just don’t have those options anymore. I hope we get them back one day.

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“Why should I pay for other peoples’ transportation. Will they pay for my car repairs? User should pay.”
To everyone who expressed this opinion in some fashion: I commute by bike almost everywhere I go. I rarely drive anywhere, and when I do it’s almost always in a carpool. Despite rarely utilizing roads, my tax dollars help to maintain roads throughout the entire state. So I have a great solution, users should pay right? We should stop all state and federal funding for road maintenance and instead put a tax on gasoline to pay for road upkeep. You think gas prices are high now? That way only people who use roads pay for road upkeep. The more you drive, the more you pay. Those of us who utilize alternative modes of transportation will continue on our merry way while gas-guzzling hypocrites have a heart attack at the actual cost of driving their precious single commuter vehicles.

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Angus-
Oh I certainly realize where I live. But technically you’re incorrect b/c there is MARTA service to Cumberland Mall. What I was getting at was not soley concerning MARTA but commuter rail in general. Something that would compliment MARTA service not add to it. Honestly Angus, that’s the only way mass transit rail will ever get approved in Cobb, Douglas, Gwinnett is by creating a new service and calling it something other than MARTA. But I digress. We both know nothing will change in the near future. MARTA will still continue bleed money while being run by incompetent people and it’s expansion into the burbs will be denied because people are afraid of what may come into their communities.

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WM – you got me on the Cumberland thing – I didn’t know that.

I agree on your points and add that only the state is in position to make happen what many of us want (although I’m not so sure GDOT is much better with $$$ than MARTA). Unfortunately, state law actually prohibits GDOT from participating in rail service. And on top of that, I think the state officially wiped its hands clean of metro Atlanta traffic woes with the new transportation bill – I can’t wait to see these message boards when that referendum approaches.

FWIW, I used to live in Smyrna – actually drove 35k miles one year. Now, I’m nestled in one of Atlanta’s historic ‘hoods and can’t really complain about traffic (I’m down to driving ~5k/year).

Good luck to you.

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Kyle, you’re a perfect example of why Pres. Obama seeks SCOTUS justices that also have some “empathy”, and I don’t mean you are not a nice person, but you must have lived in Georgia, and still do, with your eyes closed. To believe, & you gave no evidence to support your opinion, that racism was not a major factor in stifling MARTA’s growth, since it’s inception, is frankly, preposterous. I’ve personally had people admit that, and also regret today, that action, since it meant massive gridlock, plus hugely increased costs in future expansion (as compared to had it occurred 20-30 years ago).

And to compound your apparent historical misread, you insist on carrying it to the present. When otherwise educated, prosperous, family men, who happen to also be Republican, conservative, businessmen, readily admit their “fear” at the thought of a “black man in the White House”, (during the campaign), in 2008, it takes someone really oblivious to their environment, to say that racism, for the most part, is not a factor in Georgia politics & social affairs.

Now c’mon Kyle, even if you aren’t “on the ground”, as a man of letters, I’m sure you see the kinds of comments, not just here, but all over the web, that smack of the internet’s anonymity being the 21st Century’s white sheets/hoods! Are these visceral, hate-filled, racist rantings simply the words & mindset of a few backwoods, redneck misfits? Or is that just the expedient rationalization, to explain away so troubling a thought, that perhaps America has not really moved off of race, quite yet?

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I’ve lived in Atlanta for a long-time and I think you are underestimating the racial animus against MARTA by suburbanites and conservatives. There is a black/white divide in Georgia, even if you don’t want to see it. I ride MARTA every day (and have for 10+ years) and I enjoy its convenience and, for the most part, its reliability. But many of the comments above focused on the race of MARTA riders as to why they don’t want it in the suburbs. Maybe racism has decreased in Georgia, but maybe not. I don’t think people are honest about that issue unless they can hide their identity.

I think you’ve made some really good points about what MARTA can do to improve its performance. Update bus-routes, reduce middle-management, etc., all very good ideas. Privatizing para-transit is a good idea and needs exploring, but I think Conservatives automatically resort to privatization for too often and private contractors are too interested in profits than in providing service. On the other hand, I think the MARTA employee’s union is too obsessed with protecting its employees in the short-term as opposed to making MARTA a premier transit service provider. Difficult situation.

But the one thing I think you’ve overlooked in this series is the balkanization of transit services in metro Atlanta. That GRTA competes with MARTA, Gwinnett County and Cobb County transit on bus routes isn’t helping any of them. Creating one system for the entire metro Atlanta would be the best remedy — but that would take a lot of heavy lifting (including amending the Ga Constitution) and I don’t see the GOP interested in doing any of that, ever.

I think the system will stay the same and either MARTA will right-size itself or suffer such a financial calamity that it will have to right-size itself. Maybe we are there now. But without consolidation, we will have lots of little, inefficient county bus systems and MARTA for the forseeable future.

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It’s hard to believe you actually read the stuff you write here, Kyle. You point fingers & name call those who disagree with you, accusing them of exactly what you are guilty of. You say “The race-blamers offer no substantive counter-argument to any of this, just another finger pointed at the South’s stained past.” This, after you admit you weren’t even born during the early days of MARTA, & pooh-pooh the current day existence of racism, on the basis of ONE person who made what you considered a reasonable argument, and you call those of us who are actually aware of racism, “race-blamers”, and we offer “no substantive argument”? And yours once again, was, what exactly? A feeling perhaps, a belief that 40 years after the Civil RIghts Bill, racism must be in near complete remission? Something “substantive” like THAT?

Either you need a dictionary, or come with a little stronger game, but admitting you know little about what went down before you were born, or as a little kid, & base your whole case for the present, on one person’s comments to you, is not going to win over any juries… Maybe, to make up for knowing little one way or the other about the role of race in America, and especially here in Georgia, you might want to get out and around, and maybe talk to residents about race, and about MARTA, it might be an eye-opening experience…

But calling posters names, and demanding higher standards of evidence than your own, is not getting any of us any closer to truth, or to solve our many problems.

Oh, and to say the argument that Republicans drag their feet on MARTA, because they don’t want to help out Atlanta, is unfounded on the basis of Ralston finally getting some kind of transportation bill passed, after EIGHT YEARS of nothing being done, is laughable…

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marta–the most poorly run mass transit program in the country. I’ve been to every major city with mass transit—they are all better than marta, which is run by a bunch of incompetents drawing big salaries for accomplishing little or nothing. Do the escalators work yet? The system is an embarrassment.

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^ Meant to say, other cities such as Charlotte, Austin, and Tampa will pass us by if we don’t get our act together.

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