MARTA: It’s Not Just You, It’s Atlanta
Decatur Metro | September 5, 2011 | 1:35 pmRebecca Burns wrote a great little reflection in Atlanta Magazine recently on the general unfriendliness of Atlanta to the car-less population and how MARTA continually suffers from this burden.
Burns used to live in Avondale Estates and struggled to walk the mile to Avondale Station thanks to a lack of pedestrian infrastructure along the way. Why so much trouble?
Sidewalks stop at the city limits (i.e. three blocks from my home) forcing you to navigate footpaths worn through the easement and hop in and out of parking lots, as shown in the photo above. One business (You know who you are!) erected chain-link around its parking lot, forcing pedestrians to venture onto the shoulder of College Avenue, risking five lanes packed with speeding cars, trucks, and buses. Walk on the south side of the street, and you dodge drunks lollygagging around two liquor stores. Walk on the north side, and you pass a salvage center that was reportedly the site of a homicide. When it rains, the whole thing turns into a red-clay swamp.
Burns continues that after looking for an affordable new home this summer, the best she and her family could do in relation to MARTA was in Cabbagetown, close to King Memorial Station. However, even Google Maps advised her to the dangers of walking this route thanks to “missing sidewalks and pedestrian paths”.
So she broke down and purchased a car. As Burns points out, she’s lucky to have that option, one that many other Atlantans don’t.
Sure, we don’t know what other unmentioned limitations Burns and her family had during their house hunt. (My wife and I lived cheaply out by the Kensington MARTA Station back in the day, though it was a rather dangerous area.) But certainly Burns’ experience is a good reminder that critiques of Atlanta’s transportation system should always extend beyond just blaming MARTA and give critical review to all components of our infrastructure.
h/t: ATLUrbanist
I was thinking about this yesterday, when I was trying to quickly walk from the square to the mini-Kroger and back. Not all that pleasant (plus it was starting to rain). Even in relatively pedestrian-friendly downtown Decatur, the existing construction often makes it hard to get from point a to point b.
one also has to remember, when critiquing MARTA, that MARTA isn’t responsible for the complete lack of state funding it receives. that blame rests squarely on the suburban and rural politicians of GA, and the 20-30 yr ago populations of the northern suburbs. and those folks made/make their decisions based on…you guessed it. race. it always comes back to that in this, and many (one could argue all), american cities and states.
yes, there are other factors and dynamics at play when looking at why atl’s transportation infrastructure is woefully inadequate–but racism is the primary culprit.
+1 and then some.
Amen, Oakhurst Worker. Racism is alive and well everywhere I go. Just returned from Oklahoma and felt/heard the same kind of racist crap that I grew up with. Where/when/how can this issue ever “go away”?
Sidewalks and crossing governments are funded by local governments, not MARTA. And despite restrictions in the state constitution, federal transportation funds can be used for sidewalk improvements, especially when they’re done in connection with changes to the road. Indeed, the federal transportation bill sets aside money for Transportation Enhancements — which includes pedestrian and bicycle projects.
[I have nothing nice to say here.]
I agree that race has part to do with it, but i am not sure it is the primary reason. There are many to choose from. The lack of political will that “oakhurst worker” mentions is another.
A biggie is that fuel taxes, which are among the lowest in the nation, can only be used for roads and bridges; it would take a constitutional amendment to change this. And i imagine the fact that we had both a Ford and GM plant here until recently has had something to do with the lack of will to change that.
MARTA has never been what it was intended to be – a five county system, not two. And unfortunately, federal dollars are more likely to go to metro regions that have a clue. It’s a problem for sure.
I have to agree with Oakhurst Worker. Why don’t we have state or regional support for mass transit? Why did Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton vote against supporting MARTA (although their residents get plenty of benefit from it today)?
Racism – pure, simple and ugly – is the underlying answer to those questions.
When, and only when, white people can’t get anywhere in their cars because the congestion is so bad will anything change.
So are you saying that there is no possible legitimate reason to oppose state funding ofMARTA, and hence all opposition is racist by defnition, or that you somehow know why tens of thousdands of people do oppose it and that the reason is, in fact, racism?
But smith, and all due respect intended of course, you don’t think that is a little simplistic of an explanation? I don’t doubt that race may have played a big role in MARTA beginning in the late 60s and 70s and is still part of the debate. But it’s no secret that our neighbors to the north are more conservative than are Fulton and Dekalb, and they want to do things their way. And, though I can hardly believe I am saying this, partly in their defense, who can blame them? Look at some of the recent examples of horrendous governance in the City of Atlanta and Clayton County.
Their refusal to cooperate in regional transit is absolutely selfish and wasteful. But I have trouble accepting that it is only about race.
“Look at some of the recent examples of horrendous governance in the City of Atlanta and Clayton County.”
And this is relevant how? MARTA is a state-created authority that includes Atlanta in its domain. Clayton isn’t even part of MARTA.
Oh brian you nitpicker. I wanna play too – Clayton is nominally involved since Marta runs into Clayton to the airport. But the real point, of course, is that poor management in metro Atlanta governments is another reason why Cobb and Gwinnett don’t want to play with us other other metro kiddies, unless of course people chalk that up to race too.
And back at you, how is Marta being “state created” relevant? The state has never participated in Marta or seemed to care much (no funding) so operating as political subdivision therein is a technical matter at this point.
“how is Marta being “state created” relevant?The state has never participated in Marta or seemed to care much (no funding) so operating as political subdivision therein is a technical matter at this point.”
That is the relevance. The state, for example, sets a capital to operating expense ratio that limits MARTA’s flexibility. Yet, as you point out, no operations funding comes from the state to accompany this oversight. I wonder much state funding Cobb and Gwinnett get? Let’s compare their governments to Atlanta, if that is the comparison you think is relevant, after they have experienced some of the same problems–problems, like white flight, that they are just beginning to experience.
Relevant: short PBS clip & article about pedestrian access to MARTA bus stops on Buford Hwy. Think I got this clip from DM comments originally & it is really a must watch. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/video/video-dangerous-by-design/1053/
Thanks for posting!
Yes — DANGEROUS BY DESIGN!
Atlanta is not dense enough.
And the powers that be in Georgia are too dense.
I agree, but believe it or not, I think it’s improving to some degree. Frankly, I’d rather have suburban Republicans running things than the rural Democrats we had for so many years. Mike Jacobs (Dunwoody), who chairs the state legislative committee that oversees MARTA, actually seems to care about the system (unlike the previous [self-edited] ) and is pushing MARTA to move to a distance-based fare system that will collect more from the people who live in Gwinnett and Cobb and use MARTA. The other reason I think there is hope is because the business community is pressuring the state leaders to do something; Georgia is showing on up on too many national lists citing the poor transportation network here. For example, a recent list I read that only four states spend less per capita on public transit than Georgia, and they are all small, rural states without major metropolitan areas.
Here is one of the signs that things on the state level may be improving:
http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2011/09/10/nathan-deal-asks-for-legislation-to-make-the-state-a-player-in-mass-transit/
A Republican governor in Georgia asking for a transit plan for metro Atlanta has to mean something?
It means at least he has more vision than his predecessor. I’m sure the Tea Partiers will find a reason that such a collaboration should not exist, though.
I would buy a bike before I bought a car for a 2.5 mile commute. Plus, she could easily stroll through Oakland cemetery and hop the train if she was dead set on using MARTA.
Take that back about strolling through the cemetery (there is a brick wall surrounding it). But she could take Woodward which parallels Memorial and then up Grant to hop the train…..
But would that be “pleasant?” And keep in mind that this author has compared a short walk on E. College to a military obstacle course. I’ve walked that same stretch many times, and it takes no skill or athleticism whatsoever to navigate. I’m sympathetic to building better pedestrian pathways, but the level of bellyaching we see about this issue is quite off-putting. Some people need to toughen up just a bit. (Which I suppose is another reason why biking to work did not come up in her discussion.)
Article in today’s AJC has geniuses like the Mayor of John’s Creek complaining that Atlanta is getting more than its “fair share” of potential transit tax revenue with projects like the Beltline. Wish someone would tell hizzoner that that the only reason John’s Creek exists is to feed replaceable middle managers to Perimeter Center businesses, and that the only reason those businesses exist is because of …. wait for it … Atlanta! You think we’re going to be able to compete globally by having the cleanest chick-fil-a in Milton County? I’m sure the Chinese will be very impressed with your swim club.
The City of Atlanta has carried all of the region’s burdens for 200 years so that people could move out to Suwanee and complain about “fair share”? Maddening.
Best rant in many a moon.
+1
“Thanks for boosting our economy and carrying the burden, Atlanta. Now, be a good sport and hold still while I stab you in the back, eh ?”
Why not give him a call yourself and see if heaping this kind of scorn on the mayor, his constitutents, and Johns Creek itself convinces him?
Funny, since I was going to point out in your other comment, that telling people to “toughen up” and bike probably wouldn’t convince them either.
Same as when I point out there are plenty of free hours in the day to grow local food so long as you watch less tv. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’ll ever be adopted large-scale.
Being a pragmatist is hard, no doubt.
I’ll go further and say that the author of that piece cannot possibly convinced of anything by me suggesting that she might stand to toughen up. But it’s kind of funny that some of the people who profess to be the most committed to commuting alternatives are the least likely to be convinced to bike to work, or even to walk if that means traversing a bit of clay or broken pavement. If I had a nickel for every time I heard “I’d walk or bike to work but . . .” I’d be retired by now.
Scorn is a good word for it, but at this point it’s all I can muster. Here’s what I think: the dirty secret of the low/no tax form of capitalism that our suburban friends tend to champion is that sometimes you’re a winner and sometimes, unfortunately, you’re a loser. So far in this young decade I believe that Atlanta (broadly) is a loser, in large part because of a failure to tackle regional growth issues with bold ideas and strong leadership. Our stalled growth and unemployment rate suggest as much, and blaming the national economic downturn is to some extent a cop out. Just my opinion, however poorly developed.
Me sharing this opinion with the mayor of John’s Creek would get us nowhere, but I would like to see local and state leaders step up – and in a slightly more diplomatic but still aggressive way – sell the importance of these critical regional initiatives. For now I will just keep my opinions within the anonymous world of Decatur Metro, I will vote and encourage others to vote for the penny tax, and if we haven’t made any progress in a few years I’ll probably move someplace else.
I wasn’t literally suggesting that you call the mayor. It was a rhetorical question.
I know. But it wouldn’t be outrageous to suggest that I do so, as it’s a lot easier to rant online than to actually get involved in the civic process. I didn’t attend any of the local open houses to discuss the transit list and am actually somewhat ashamed of that. OK I’m shutting up now. Usually I’m a thread killer so I’m just excited to have gotten some feedback…
It is just a formality but…
Public Meeting: DeKalb County
Wednesday, September 28
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Manuel Maloof Auditorium
http://www.atlantaregionalroundtable.com/meetings.html
Love this post
IMHO, the transportation problems in metro Atlanta have multiple culprits:
1. Scattered distribution of workplaces and residences
Back in the day, most of the jobs were centralized downtown. That time has long passed, and now jobs are scattered all over the metro area. Residences are likewise scattered everywhere as well. It’s very difficult to design a mass transit system under these circumstances.
2. Racism and Class-ism
Those who use mass transit are overwhelmingly black while those oppose mass transit are overwhelmingly white. Likewise, mass transit (in Atlanta, at least) mainly benefits those without a vehicle while those can afford a vehicle, fuel, parking, etc.,. do not derive nearly as much benefit. Hence, those with the means to support mass transit are not likely to do so since it doesn’t directly benefit them, despite benefiting the local economy (fewer cars on the road, better job opportunities, higher worker productivity, etc.,.)
3. Car culture
For the lack of a better term, the U.S. and especially Atlanta is a car-centric culture. Many (most ?) people view their vehicle as an extension of themselves and are loathe to leave it at home. Americans are also lethargic as a whole. We view exercise as something reserved for a gym or best not done at all. Why walk or ride a bike when you can drive ?
Our car-centric culture also makes it difficult (dangerous) for pedestrians and cyclists alike, with the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, and drivers who understand and respect walkers and pedal-ers.
The solution out of this problem isn’t easy. It’s a big, f’ing mess. The only other city in the U.S. that I’ve seen do mass transit well is NYC, but they have critical mass on their side. While there are easily enough people moving around throughout the day (esp. going to/from work) in NYC in a small enough area to support mass transit, the density in metro Atlanta is an order of magnitude less.
RE: “It’s very difficult to design a mass transit system under these circumstances.” — I agree. We’re attempting to build alternative transportation infrastructure within the car-centric sprawl and leapfrog development that’s taken place in the metro over the past several decades. It’s an inefficient process.
The Atlanta metro is a text-book case of how difficult it is to create alternatives to cars when the built environment (roads, residences & commercial buildings alike) is designed almost entirely for the movement and storage of cars. Past generations of metro builders have saddled the current and future ones with an environment that nearly requires a personal car and makes the creation of wide-scale alternatives maddeningly difficult.
I think the most damaging thing we can do is to put transportation, building or jobs creation is silos. All three of these things should go hand in hand. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Our transportation mostly serves cars instead of people at large, buildings address the needs of cars ahead of pedestrians and the lions-share of jobs are available to people who own cars and can make long commutes in them.
I agree that NYC is one of the only US cities that does transit well – and I doubt that we will ever reach that level of density in Atlanta. However, there are examples of other cities in the United States that do it much better (maybe not NYC levels) than we do – Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco. Even our closest competitors, Dallas and Charlotte, are making gains in transit and Atlanta is basically stuck in the same system (2 counties in a metro area over over 5 million) it had 30 years ago.
Denver and Salt Lake City are also examples of smaller cities that do transit well.
Portland, Oregon does a pretty good job considering that it is a highly residential city, fairly low density, and it’s downtown is relatively small.
A lot of the older cities owe their great transit systems to the same race and class problems, but they just happened longer ago. You don’t build a Boston MBTA without plowing through a lot of immigrant neighborhoods with zero regard for existing businesses and residents. Atlanta’s system was built by committee, and I think that winds up being its downfall. So really it’s that Atlanta’s rober barons just weren’t sufficiently hardcore.
The real model needs to be those younger cities that are doing it right – eg Denver. I think what a lot of them have in common is fewer counties/municipalities involved.
I agree that the cities we need to look at are younger cities more like Denver, Portland, and Salt Lake City.
However, one thing that is missing from those cities that exists in Atlanta is a history of racial discord.
The shameful reality is that most white people I know will not ride MARTA (save for maybe a few big events a year where the demographics change significantly) because they feel that it is “unsafe.” The reason they believe it is “unsafe” is because 90% of the people that ride MARTA are African American.
That is the shameful truth.
Ding! Ding!! Ding!!!!!! React to Marty’s statement however you want, but don’t try to say that it’s not true. It’s like when people try to argue that the Civil War was not about slavery. Color it however you want, admit it or not, the underlying problem is race. Everything else is secondary and resultant from that.
I agree that the people who are not wanting a station in their neighborhood are pretty much trying to disguise their racism with concerns about crime and traffic problems, or other various culprits. (Just generalizing there mostly)
But the unsafe issue…
I rode another subway for years.
The difference with that system and MARTA, was there were station attendants actually out on the platforms, at every major platform , and they were fairly easy to spot, at almost every station. This isn’t the case with MARTA except during events, and certainly not late at night.
I don’t personally feel unsafe when I ride it which is fairly frequently. But I could see where people would get that unsafe perception and be hesitant about riding it, whether it’s actually true or not. Even when I ride it during the day, I’m like “where are the employees?” The only accessible employees you actually see are the bus drivers when you walk out to where you board the buses. Perhaps invisible fairies keep the whole system plugging along…
Partly it’s a matter of psychology: People don’t feel like they have control on MARTA but have the (false) perception that they are in control when driving. Similar to the fear that some have of flying even though driving a car is actually far riskier.
Don’t know about the other two cities but actually Portland has quite a history of racial discord, accusations of racism, gangs moved up from Los Angeles, black/white disparity issues in the city public schools, all of which problems I would never know about if I hadn’t lived there for awhile. A friend’s sister was married to a man from Africa and their biracial child had a real hard time of it in public school back in the 80s/90s. Perhaps Portland’s smaller size and proportionately smaller black population makes its black/white tensions less evident to the outside world.
I’ll just quote Wikipedia here:
“In 2009, Portland had the fifth-highest percentage of white residents among the 40 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. A 2007 survey of the 40 largest cities in the U.S. concluded that Portland’s urban core is the “whitest big city in the nation”.[124] The Pacific Northwest as a whole has been called “one of the last Caucasian bastions of the United States”.[according to whom?][125] While Portland’s diversity was historically comparable to metro Seattle and Salt Lake City, those areas grew more diverse in the late 1990s and 2000s. Portland not only remains white, but migration to Portland is disproportionately white, at least partly because Portland is attractive to young college-educated Americans, a group which is overwhelmingly white.”
I agree that race has something to do with it, but that is not the only factor. Regardless if it is fair or true, the perception is that MARTA is very poorly run. I have to say that I agree. My experience the other night was just one example: the train broke down so we all had to get off. When they made an announcement to explain the situation, you could not understand them because the loudspeakers were broken.
Not to nitpick, but I have to question how faulty trains and broken loudspeakers are a management issue and not a financial issue that just illustrates the dire situation that Marta is in due to lack of financial support.
I think you miss my point. No one is going to want MARTA to expand into their area as long as they perceive it as slow, unreliable and in disrepair.
Ah, thanks for the clarification BenJT. I did misunderstand the point you were trying to make and in terms of the actual issue you were pointing out, I completely agree.
MARTA is really hamstrung on this kind of stuff, but you’re absolutely right. It makes it hard to sell the outer areas on why they should buy into the system. I have seen a MARTA maintenance supervisor nearly break down in tears as he described the challenge of working every day for a system that politicians use as a punchline without providing any of the resources necessary to keep up with even the most basic maintenance.
MARTA is not poorly run in comparison with other systems (I speak of the rail portion only – I rarely ride the buses). I have ridden the train from Decatur to 5 Points every work day since 1996. I can count the number of times when service was seriously disrupted (15 minute or more delay, getting off train, etc) on my fingers. I ride mass transit when I go to other cities and MARTA compares fovorably to most except for the fact that it does not go enough places.
I agree, Smith. MARTA has done a very good job in the midst of a state that has been mostly run by anti-urban legislators. When you consider that Georgia spends less per capita on public transit than every state but Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, MARTA’s performance looks close to miraculous.
Couple of thoughts from someone who has ridden both the NYC subway and MARTA intensively during past phases of life.
1) When you ride MARTA daily, it does not feel like it’s dominated by black ridership–#1 because it’s not at all so during work commuting hours and #2 because once you get familiar and start recognizing neighbors and fellow commuters who happen to share your work schedule and train car preferences, you stop noticing race. And the NYC subway system is pretty darn diverse, in terms of color, race, religion, income, mental health status, age, and attitude, yet white middle class ridership is high.
2) The NY subway was widely ridden in the past when it was a mess, in terms of management, union attitudes, and physical disrepair. The cars were packed despite many having no A/C in the sweltering heat of August, broken windows, graffiti, and lots of gangs and vigilantes. So we cannot blame MARTA’s woes just on poor management.
If you keep this up, then eventually we will be forced to blame ourselves. If we blame ourselves, then we may end up asking ourselves to do something. Such engagement may start out with a surge in dialog, but, sooner or later, you’ll ask me to leave my comfortable couch.
Rebecca blames an Atlanta attitude for her buying a car. Bo is willing to throw a few more dollars into the industry, but he’ll probably move if “they” don’t improve our lot. Why not leave it at that. Surely others are doing worse; we’re better off. Those problems don’t have to be our problems. 😀
The crux of the article was safe access to transit. There are lots of contributing causes many which are listed including low density jobs/housing. We are woefully behind in building sidewalks, bus shelters, safe crossings, etc. along existig routes and station areas. Adequate funding for non-auto modes from all levels of government and priorities are the cause.
Car-centric is getting more and more expensive by the day. Why can’t people see that reality? I haven’t had a car since 1998 and have done well. I look at the traffic streaming by on the streets and see 1 person only about 90% of the time. It seems crazy to me… just sayin’
It’s just not expensive enough yet. For better or worse, cars are crazy convenient and many of us are willing to sacrifice most anything to accommodate them. Sure, some folks are having second thoughts and rethinking HOW we accommodate them, but upkeep costs still have a ways to go before people give up there car. Think about a typical household budget and all the other things that can be cut before most would think, “hmm, let’s get rid of this car.”
How about slimming down to one car per household, at least, rather than having as a default one per adult? That’s a lot more doable.
We (my wife and I) did that and saw a big improvement in quality of life. Living here, we put less than ten thousand miles a year on our one car. If not for regular trips to visit family out of state, we could probably get by without a car at all, but I doubt we would be willing to do that. But one car works quite well for us.
I’ve been watching that “reality” show “Downsized,” and on a recent episode the father decided they needed to spend all of their savings to buy a house because the house they are renting did not have enough parking for the family’s cars. Getting rid of some of the vehicles was not even mentioned as an option. I know these shows are edited to make the people appear even dumber than they actually are, but their attitude seemed fairly representative to me.
correction: “see 1 person only in the vehicles”…