MM: Another Decatur Saturday Parking Report, Muni Court Restructuring and Adair Park’s History
Decatur Metro | June 23, 2015 | 9:01 am
- Decatur begins Saturday parking enforcement [AJC]
- Decatur modifies restructuring of municipal court [AJC]
- Atlanta poised to adopt $3.65 billion transit plan for BeltLine, Streetcar [Saporta Report]
- Bright at Night Walk Thursday, June 25 [Be Active Decatur]
- Architect Discusses History Of Atlanta’s Adair Park [WABE]
As the streetcar continues to miss ridership projections and costs (again) vastly exceed budget, there will be real accountability for those who used misleading numbers to justify the project.
Ha! Just kidding.
The streetcar is not missing ridership projections. They are getting 3000 riders a day. What is continuing? The private sector development along the line.
Assuming you are right about not missing ridership projections, the streetcar is missing revenue projections. And even if the streetcar is hitting ridership projections, it is only because they extended free fares through the end of the year.
Right — the projections were made assuming riders would pay a $1 fare. When the streetcar got underway, ridership was way off, so they made it “free” all year. Thus, even if it is hitting rider projections now — which I am not sure is true — it’s doing so under very different conditions than initially assumed.
i heard they made it free because they couldn’t figure out the payment system.
Really? They not only built this thing, but made revenue projections while having no idea how to collect a $1 fare? And they won’t have that detail figured out and implemented until 2016?
I think my point about accountability has been made, if this is true.
that’s probably not exactly how things happened. maybe they did go in without any plan as to how to collect fares; i could be wrong. or maybe part of that plan didn’t pan out. could be their fault, could be that the machines they bought didn’t work, could be that they worked somewhat but not well enough, maybe they were supposed to be delivered at a certain point but were late, maybe something else. assuming they had no idea is probably a stretch, in my opinion.
Fair enough, though it’s still a pretty major screw up. Have they tried a bucket that says “insert dollar bill?” Just crazy enough to work!
From February:
“The streetcar, which opened December 30, is carrying 18 percent fewer riders than anticipated, according to data released by the city this week. That’s actually worse than it sounds because the streetcar is still offering free fares. Passengers will start having to pay $1 per trip in the coming months.” Per the AJC.
Maybe it’s balanced out since then.
From the Atlanta Business Chronicle last week:
“Extending the existing line to the Atlanta BeltLine will only add to that “last mile” connectivity by bringing riders to other unfolding attractions, including the Krog Street Market, Geisler said.
The Atlanta Streetcar, which is free to ride through the end of the year, is attracting 3,000 riders a day, he said.”
From Streetsblog: “In its first six weeks of operation, the streetcar carried 102,000 people. Project sponsors had predicted 124,000, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.”
Check my math here: 124000 riders divided by 45 days is a projection of 2756. So 3000 is exceeding projections.
So the streetcar was brand new (people take time to hear about it and figure it out) and it was dead of winter when it was missing projections.
The property tax increment from development along the line that would likely not have happened otherwise will more than make up for the $3000 a day in revenue they are missing out on.
Math may be right, assuming the daily average projection for the first six weeks were not lower than the first six months. These numbers, we do not have.
From the article linked in DM’s post:
“The downtown loop of the Streetcar is a 2.7 mile route that has opened and is to serve an estimated 14,000 riders each day. Ridership currently stands at about 3,000 riders a day, the city reported last week. The system has been open six months.”
This seems like a missed projection.
Well, there you go.
Nope. If you look at the second presentation linked in the article you find clarity on page 21. “Phase 1 streetcar ridership estimated at over 14K daily riders.” Phase 1 gets us 11.3 miles of track. So that 14K number is not a projection for the current streetcar, but for the next phase.
Fair point.
Current stats on ridership seem to be hard to find on the web. I came across this, which is only about one month old, and purports to rely on data reported in government documents. The numbers cited here say that ridership was projected at about 90,000 per month, which is close enough to the 3,000/day I have heard. Actual boardings for the first quarter of 2015 are, however, far below that projected level. (I have not attempted to verify his numbers, but he purports to link to the supporting reports.)
January – 64,448
February – 47,037
March – 63,865
https://jtcanalytics.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/atlanta-streetcar-ridership/
The streetcar and its current route are just a minor part of what’s in the pipeline. The money spent on it is pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. IMO, they’d do well to devote some of the hotel/motel tax to it and keep it fare-free.
+1 much better investment than a new stadium for the falcons.
Amen.
Accountability for poor cost estimating is an issue in government and the private sector. To an outsider, estimating ridership would appear to be a much more difficult proposition and I am not surprised if they are off.
However, the criticism of the streetcar is not really about construction costs or ridership estimates. It’s an ideological argument against mass transit and for individual car transit. My question is how do you propose to develop more car capacity on downtown Atlanta streets? There is no room to widen or add streets like you would in the suburbs. As downtown and midtown continue to grow, gridlock on the streets is going to get worse. Atlanta is investing in a mix of transit that includes MARTA heavy rail, a streetcar network, MARTA buses, and public streets for cars. Personally I think this is a wise investment. One problem that needs to be addressed is the large number of commuter buses that come into/out of downtown each day. These buses are choking the streets at rush hour. Replacing the buses with commuter rail is the next logical step.
“It’s an ideological argument against mass transit and for individual car transit.”
I don’t think this is true. I think there was an argument to be made as to whether this was the best use of money within the mass transit discussion.
Agree with that Walrus. Also agree with much of what Smith said.
I admittedly like the streetcar, but this 2.7 miles doesn’t exactly “fix” much. However, this is just a start. This line, if linked to a completed Beltline transit option, puts thousands of homes on a transit line that links up with thousands of jobs downtown, in addition to linking to the nexus of the MARTA system. That has the potential to get thousands of cars off the streets and the connector. With that, we are making progress in providing useful mass transit.
I agree that the streecar is certainly no solution at present. One thing literally impeding its ridership numbers though is the sheer number of moronic drivers on the road who block its path, collide into it, illegally park on the tracks, etc. This had led to numerous disruptions of service.
We also can’t view the Streetcar, as currently built, as the sole indicator of whether or not the Streetcar, as fully built, will be a success. It, like most transit systems, will only shine when it goes enough places that people actually start using it as transit and have enough time to adjust their commuting patterns accordingly. Transit projects have a long time horizon (which is why governments usually build them, not private companies) before they start bringing in significant revenue.
Goody goody. Yet another streetcar “discussion,” with the same people repeating the same things, with the eventual same (non)results.
Oh, and a delayed good morning to you, DM.
Stay classy, bro.
Always. Bro.
I thought it’s “brah” now.
Dude, Point Break came out in 1991.
It’s “brer”, damnit.
Hey, that’s got a ring to it. I think I’ll write a children’s book for adults with a character called “Brer Damnit” in it… 😀
“Yet another streetcar “discussion,” with the same people repeating the same things, with the eventual same (non)results.”
Fair enough. Indeed, it’s a moot debate anyway since it’s not something we have any control over in Decatur, as is the case with both the Falcons and Braves stadiums, both of which I would be opposed to spending money on (and yes, I know there’s federal funding involved in the streetcar, but the amount is a pittance).
Half of the capital outlay, roughly $50M, is a pittance?
Sorry to have wasted 11 seconds of your time. You are free to move along to other threads where other matters of public interest are being discussed for the first time ever, all comments supply completely original and penetrating insights, and the related controversies will be completely resolved by time the threads end.
11 seconds? I don’t THINK so. It was more like 30 seconds!
Brah.
It’s good to know you read carefully, even though you didn’t like the posts!
But seriously, if you stick around the thread, I predict that the pro-transit folks will realize they are wrong, fall back in love with cars, and we’ll have this disagreement all worked out. Amirite?
I can get on board that train.
Tee hee. I made a pun.