Through all our talks of transportation solutions in Atlanta, we often sneer at the lowly bus, and talk with the greatest enthusiasm about rail.  We envision an intricate web of hard steel, stretching across our metro-landscape, allowing cheerful residents to jump from trolley, to train, to trolley and back again.   There’s an undeniable nostalgia attached to the train and trolley, but is it the best and easiest solution for a city’s transportation problems of the 21st century?

On it’s front page this morning, the NY Times profiles the new, extensive bus service in Bogota, Columbia called the “TransMilenio” and deems it an undeniable success.  In response to fears of global warming, smog and congestion, the paper writes…

“Bus rapid transit systems like Bogotá’s, called TransMilenio, might hold an answer. Now used for an average of 1.6 million trips each day, TransMilenio has allowed the city to remove 7,000 small private buses from its roads, reducing the use of bus fuel — and associated emissions — by more than 59 percent since it opened its first line in 2001, according to city officials.”

Could such a system – which according to the Times article costs 30 times less than a subway to build and requires a third of the budget to operate – be the answer in the U.S.?  Despite the praise the given to Bogota, the Times reporter hedges his bets when it comes to native soil.

But bus rapid transit systems are not the answer for every city. In the United States, where cost is less constraining, some cities, like Los Angeles, have built B.R.T.’s, but they tend to lack many of the components of comprehensive systems like TransMilenio, like fully enclosed stations, and they serve as an addition to existing rail networks.

Huh?  So, buses aren’t the answer in cities where it’s not executed properly?  That doesn’t really exclude anyone, except those municipalities that suffer from genetic incompetence.  It sounds to me like if you really went whole-hog on a B.R.T., it could work anywhere.  That entails things detailed in the article like fully enclosed stations and dedicated bus lanes.   And to appease the aestetic crowd, we could buy cool, iconic buses.

I haven’t completely sold myself on the idea that this could be implemented anywhere successfully, but this article’s example gives me more reason than ever to doubt my own “train-skewed” vision.   In an era of record debt, maybe it’s time for the U.S. to swallow it’s collective pride and take a lesson from the second and third world.

A recent study released by the traffic information firm INRIX shows that Atlanta’s traffic congestion dropped 36% in 2008 to the 12th worst in the nation from the 10th worst the year before .

But is this drop in congestion something to cheer about?  Well certainly high gas prices – while they lasted – had something to do with it.  However the other major factor contributing to a 30% drop in congestion nationwide this past year is a slowed economy.  Less people commuting to jobs, fewer goods being shipped, etc…

So you be the judge.

Did Atlanta drop from 10th to 12th because we saw a larger percentage of people hop on public transportation than our U.S. city competition?  Or is our economy actually just slowing at a faster rate than cities like 10th ranked Minneapolis or 11th ranked Philly?  The answer is some kind of combination of those two.

h/t: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Scott points out that Decatur was featured on CNN’s Issue #1 this afternoon in a segment about the real costs associated with living farther outside of a metropolitan area. In it, Decatur residents’ transportation costs are compared to those of distant Dacula.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the video, just the transcript. And its a little long, so I’ll post it in full in the continuation. Scott found the video!

Good press for our little city! Plus it continues to show that Decatur is on the right side of a long term trend in sustainable living.

Thanks Scott! Read the rest of this entry »

OK, I don’t mean to freak anybody out, but I think that Paul Krugman is stalking me. Either that or we just think alike and have the same experiences.

Acckkk! There he is!

Just look at his latest op-ed piece in the NYT. (thanks Scott!) It’s like he’s read my posts about transportation and travel to Berlin over the past week and summed it up in a better-written, little package!

Here’s the scariest part…

“To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas — it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.

Changing the geography of American metropolitan areas will be hard. For one thing, houses last a lot longer than cars. Long after today’s S.U.V.’s have become antique collectors’ items, millions of people will still be living in subdivisions built when gas was $1.50 or less a gallon.

Infrastructure is another problem. Public transit, in particular, faces a chicken-and-egg problem: it’s hard to justify transit systems unless there’s sufficient population density, yet it’s hard to persuade people to live in denser neighborhoods unless they come with the advantage of transit access.”

Weirdness.

OK but seriously…since I live in one place and just visited the other, let me belabor Krugman’s comparison for a moment. Not only does Berlin have an enviable public transportation system and bike network as I mentioned previously, but as Krugman states, cars are generally smaller. Now we’re not talking about a city of smart cars and mopeds…we’re talking about lots of VW Golfs/3 series BMWs and not many SUVs.

Also, while Berlin is more compact than Atlanta, it has hardly any skyscrapers. Most buildings are shorter than 8 stories and small, street-level retail is abundant and strongly supported. This is an important example that a high-density city doesn’t have to look like midtown Manhattan, Midtown or the often-cited Buckhead. It can be 8 story commercial/residential and easily support smaller, street-level retail. Sound familiar?

Decatur’s plans are based on Berlin’s ideals. Now we just need the rest of Atlanta to follow suit.

It seems like things around Decatur have been relatively peaceful this past week from what I can gather from thousands of miles away. But I just wanted to check in and share a few thoughts, generated by firsthand observations here in Berlin, along with an article Cherie was good enough to send along.

The article talks about the countless U.S. cities that are voting to demolish their archaic and poorly planned highways. The one in Oklahoma City, highlighted in the article, will be turned into a park while other cities look to open up the waterfront property that many highways overtook because of the flat terrain. (Seriously, I don’t understand any of the motivations behind urban development in the U.S. mid-20th century.)

As for observations from Berlin…they all deal with public transportation. And though none are unexpected, they still are worth mentioning.

First, bikes are everywhere. On nearly all Berlin streets, bikers have their own dedicated lanes, sometimes in the street, but more often as a part of the sidewalk, indicated by a different color brick. Also, bikers always follow the rules of the road (unlike Atlanta bikers that pretend that traffic lights and signs don’t apply to them)

Second, trains and buses are ultra-efficient and always on time. Even the bus stops tell you when the next bus will arrive with electronic signs

I’d be a fool to think that we’re not a long way off from this in the U.S., especially in a city like Atlanta. But cities like Berlin show us that $8 gas creates an entirely different urban dynamic.

An agenda item for the Planning Commission meeting tomorrow night makes it sound like the city is in the process of securing and accommodating a new scooter dealership. See below…

4.  Consideration of amendments to the text of the zoning ordinance to allow the sale of electric personal assistive mobility devices and two-wheel motorized vehicles in the C-1 local commercial zoning districts.

This was also mentioned at the City Commission meeting on April 21st.

You may remember that back in September 2007, the city openly wooed a local scooter store in Decatur Focus. Sounds like they may have found someone.

JKGA reminds us of the free Emory Cliff bus in response to my recent “In case you didn’t know, Atlanta traffic sux” post.  My issue with actually using the Cliff bus has always been its limited range.  Other than to commute daily to Emory, I have to be honest in saying that I don’t think I would ever use it.

However, for those of you that do make frequent trips to Emory and up North Decatur, did you know that you can track the position of every Cliff Bus live online (each bus is a little moving blob) and on your mobile phone (text only)?  It’s a pretty great feature.

But be careful, I quickly found myself wishing that MARTA had a similar service.  It might actually make riding the buses a viable (a.ka. smarta) option once again!

I swear, I’m not being paid or reimbursed in any way by a “streetcar mafia” for all of my recent posts concerning rail transportation.

In a study by the Brooking Institution, that was recently reported in the AJC [h/t: InDecatur], Atlanta ranked midway among the 30 largest cities in terms of “walkability”. But don’t thank downtown for that ranking, thank Decatur…along with Atlantic Station, Buckhead and Midtown.

Here’s the cutesy Decatur blurb… “Here, parents sip lattes while kids dance in the misty fountain at the center of the town square. Traffic jams do happen — in strollers. And shoppers sauntering down the latern-lined sidewalks aren’t just on a first-name basis with each other. Jake means ice cream. Eddie means music. And Twain means billiards and beer”

In addition to the rankings (which always get press, along with seemingly endless mentions on this blog), the study concludes that rail (not buses) is a key component of promoting walkable neighborhoods.

Take it away AJC…

“The survey underscored the link between walkable areas and rail transit, finding that 65 percent of the pedestrian meccas were situated along the tracks. It concluded that metro areas not experiencing this type of development might want to consider investments in rail.

And Leinberger noted that Atlanta could do more with special zoning districts around MARTA stops to encourage development. “You have a tremendous resource in Atlanta with MARTA,” he said. “But you haven’t taken enough advantage of development within walking distance of those stations.”

Remember that opposition website to streetcars in Decatur as proposed in the Community Transportation Plan, which threatened everything but a plague of locusts if a trolley system were installed on Clairemont?

Well, here’s yet another piece of that puzzle.

Atlanta’s Transit Planning Board (comprised of MARTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Regional Transit Authority) is proposing a widespread mass-transit system for the metro area that includes major plans for streetcars. On the TPB’s map, streetcars don’t just connect Decatur and Emory, but extend up to Lindburgh MARTA station where they connect with a loop that runs thru Midtown and downtown and a rail that runs up I-75 to Marietta.

So, here’s the question. What if the Atlanta were to extend a streetcar network beyond Emory so that Decatur was connected to much of the metro area? Would that change your mind about light rail on Clairemont? Or is MARTA enough for you? Would you protest the idea and force the trolley to stop at Emory?

Of course all of this is hypothetical and TPB’s idea is just one “plan” among many created by different entities attempting to increase transit options in Atlanta. But its fun to think about.

[Hattip: Fresh Loaf]

The endless saga of City vs. State continues.

Atlanta area mayors Shirley Franklin, East Point’s Joseph Macon, and Decatur’s own Bill Floyd participated in a meeting of the Urban Land Institute on Tuesday.

From the AJC article, it seems that Floyd was most out-spoken (or most quotable) on the city’s transportation problems. As the state’s most liberal city, our mayor has the political backing to often take an unpopular position in a conservative state. Like raising taxes to improve infrastructure.

Floyd said the Georgia Legislature should reconsider the idea of allowing areas to tax gasoline to pay for transportation improvements. In an interview, Floyd conceded the idea could hit some potholes because of rising gas prices.

The Decatur mayor also suggested the state should let the entire Atlanta region take over MARTA’s rail service and fund it with sales tax money.

“It’s a great idea, but there’s not enough confidence [among state lawmakers] in MARTA right now,” he said after the hourlong meeting.

Unfortunately, the state’s still asleep at the wheel when it comes to helping curb and control urban growth. Perhaps we should just pray for an expanded, reliable MARTA system?