Comments on: Decatur Stations Affected By Proposed MARTA Bus Service Cuts

By: karass

karass — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:10:08 +0000

Write a letter to the AJC. It’s important that people see the human face of these service cuts. The phrase “service cuts” doesn’t convey the hardship like describing the elderly trying to walk a half mile to catch a bus to their doctor’s appt.

By: sarah

sarah — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:58:11 +0000

we live on tilson rd.we have to ride the bus everyday other families,they stoped the 22second ave.bus from coming down tilson rd. we have doctors appt. we have to get to work,children has to get to school,sometimes we have to walk to candler rd.to get the bus,if you have a dr, appt, you do not feel like walking that far to catch the bus,what about us the ederly

By: Calvin

Calvin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:06:34 +0000

Yeah it really will be saying a big forget you to a lot of dekalb and the rest of Atlanta and I understand it’s a money issue, and for that reason i wish we could get rid of money, because more often its a reason things don’t get done.
It does need to reach out to places people get to faster in order to make money because Marta cutting service will reduce revenue.
Maybe it could create custom routes by users registering who use it frequently for the same to and from location.
Make applications like on IPhone 3G (I don’t use them) to say when the next bus/train is coming and interactive trip planners, like tracking packages on UPS.
Maybe reducing some low volume but still need routes to every couple of hours so people will have a chance.
Reach out to every major shopping center including the Flakes Mills one.
Make shuttles to Dunwoody to Doraville, Doraville to Indian Creek, Indian Creek to Airport, Airport to HE Holmes, HE Holmes to Cumberland, Cumberland to Dunwoody, and sometimes they make stops to intermittent locations such as Mercer University, Northlake Mall, and Dekalb tech on the Northeast side.

By: MARTA mulls drastic bus route cuts, prays for legislative action | Fresh Loaf

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:57:33 +0000

[...] If not, the transit agency is asking strap-hangers and transit fans to contact state lawmakers. MARTA’s compiled a handy spreadsheet of routes that could be cut or modified. We’ve uploaded an .xls copy for your reading pleasure. If you live in Decatur and are interested in proposed cuts that could impact that city, Decatur Metro has those details for you. [...]

By: Karass

Karass — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:41:12 +0000

I ride the MARTA train for work and pleasure and love it. I have tried so hard to ride the buses in conjunction with the train and they just run too infrequently to make them practical for most of my trips. I can’t go from work to the doctor’s office and then back home in time to pick up my kids from school. So I resort to train from work-to-home-to car-to doctor’s office-to home-to train to work–to school to pick up the kids. If the buses ran more frequently, me and the kids would be on them. Discontinuing or reducing service aggravates the situation and leads to a downward spiral of reducing service leads to reduced ridership leads to more reduction of service and so on. I had elderly neighbors at one time that stopped going downtown once direct bus service along Scott Blvd to downtown ceased. They were just too old to negotiate the wait and complexity of transfers.

One thing that has improved over the years is the presence of attendants and MARTA police at the stations. I remember an earlier time when you’d often be alone at night at a smaller station and it could feel scarey. After a murder at the Inmark Park Station, that changed.

Emory’s Cliff buses work great but only if you’re going where they go.

Seems like both ingredients are needed–a commitment by the public to use mass transit and a commitment by someone to provide it. If not the government, then who? Are there any models out there of the private sector providing effective community mass transit? If not, how can we persuade our elected officials that it’s their responsibility?

By: nelliebelle1197

nelliebelle1197 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:50:46 +0000

Actually, the number 18 drops off behind my house. My son and I walk dt and then take the bus home all the time- usually once or twice a week when the weather is nice.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:16:36 +0000

I don’t disagree with you Nelliebelle. Land use and planning is probably the most important thing in whether public transit works or not and our governments have failed us.

But I do think we as a people in this region are at fault too. The voters of this region had a choice to make in whether they wanted to pay for a first class transit system and in the end only two counties decided to do so (and Fulton only by a hair). The people of this region also seem to have a preference for auto centered development and transportation.

We all make decisions every day (myself included) to use my car to get from place to place just because it is easier instead of using transit when it does let you “actually get somewhere.”

When was the last time you took the #18 bus to get to downtown Decatur instead of driving? It runs about every 30 minutes. How many Decaturites work or go to school in Downtown Atlanta and live within a 10 minute walk of a rail station, but drive anyway? Plenty. Enough so that if they actually used the existing transit lines they would not be shutting down service.

So yet it is our governments fault, but our government only reflects ourselves, sadly.

By: nelliebelle1197

nelliebelle1197 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:35:29 +0000

No, Mary, actually state and local governments must plan, design, fund and build workable alternatives to cars so that you can actually get somewhere on public transit so people want to use it. Saying people have phobias or don’t like public transit is an easy way to blow off the deeper issues of the “two Georgias”, the regime politics that have characterized metro Atlanta since the 1940s and the poor management of our cities, counties and state by our elected officials. Of course, I am not going to bring in the massive issues of NIMBYism in counties that benefit from proximity to metro Atlanta but don’t want to participate in regional transit planning….