What can I say?  Thanks to Emory Village, I’ve got traffic circles on the brain.

An interesting stat from an ancient (read: November 2010) New York Times article about roundabouts…

Three years ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published a study titled “Long-Term Trends in Public Opinion Following Construction of Roundabouts.” After interviewing 1,802 drivers in six communities, the researchers reported that, on average, only 34 percent had supported roundabouts in their communities before construction. But shortly after the roundabouts were in place, the number rose to 57 percent. After a year or more, the number increased to 69 percent.

h/t: Alliance to Improve Emory Village

It ain’t pretty (yet!), but the Emory Village roundabout opened without fanfare on Friday.

Though the most of the brick-paver crosswalks are in, there’s still a ton of work to be done on many other elements of the roundabout plan.  However, cars are now proceeding counterclockwise through the five-way intersection.  I drove through it a couple times over the weekend, and while I’m sure it will take a while to get acclimated to it – and hopefully it will seem less chaotic when all the surrounding projects are complete – I certainly enjoyed my quick loop around from Oxford to North Decatur.

And I didn’t even have to wait 5 minutes to do it!

Hoping to hear some other initial impressions. Especially anyone who’s navigated it through rush-hour.

According to the a Siemens press release, the company will provide Atlanta with 4 streetcars at a cost of $17.2 million.  Also this…

The first car is expected to be delivered in September 2012 with revenue service beginning in early 2013. These will be the first streetcars in Atlanta since 1949 and will mark Siemens entry into the streetcar market in the United States.

…The four new streetcars are based on the proven Siemens S70 light rail vehicle platform, which was designed in the United States and is in operation in cities such as Houston, Charlotte, San Diego, Portland and Salt Lake City. The streetcars were purchased through an existing contract with the Utah Transit Authority and will be customized to meet Atlanta’s operating environment. The streetcars are fully upgradeable for future light rail operation as the regional system grows.

h/t: Atlanta Business Chronicle

I’m sure many of you have seen the stories floating around the interwebs about a MARTA proposal to raise the $2 one-way fare by 25% to $2.50 sometime in the coming year.  But here’s the only really in-depth conversation I’ve yet seen on the topic: an interview between WABE’s Dennis O’Hare and MARTA’s new chairman Jim Durrett.

In it, O’Hare challenges Durrett’s call for higher fares by referencing MARTA’s oft-stated point that it’s one of the most cost-effective systems in the country, Durrett admits that MARTA must transition to variable fares (based on time of day, distance, etc) and plans on doing so by 2016, and also mentions increased costs for para-transit down the road.

On the 2016 date for variable fare, Durrett says

“…all of our partners that have been working on delivering transit in this region agree that we need to evolve to a variable-based fare.  Whether it’s the time of day that you’re traveling or how far that you’re traveling.  Right now our plans are to implement that kind of a system in the year 2016 or the fiscal year 2016.  It takes that long to analyze the system, to determine what the appropriate fares are, to change all of the hardware that we’ve got in place right now, in order for us to have that kind of a fare model. We’re working toward it with our partners and I believe that we will see that in 5 years.”

All of this talk of MARTA fiscal future and I don’t think Durrett once brought up the lack of state funding!  A new public tactic?

Interesting stuff.  Thanks to Al for forwarding the link!

I’m about a week late on this, but still think it’s worth pointing out to anyone that doesn’t also stalk Thomas Wheatley online.  The ARC has created an interactive map that shows all proposed transportation projects currently on the Transportation Roundtable’s table.  Sure we reviewed all of Decatur’s projects a few weeks back, but what about MARTA and DeKalb projects that GO THROUGH Decatur?  Heh?  Did ja think about those??

For instance upgrades and expansion of the DeKalb Multi-Use trail running along Howard Ave!  Let me know what else you discuss, as I haven’t had a ton of time to investigate yet.

“Updated” sounds so much better than “correction”, doesn’t it?

After posting the new map routes for MARTA bus route #2 a few days back, which seemed to indicate that changes to the route wouldn’t include a return to Decatur as first anticipated by many, Jerry sent me a note saying I should double-check with MARTA.  Good thing he did!  Here’s the official MARTA summary of Bus Route #2′s future….

Route 2-Ponce de Leon Avenue has undergone several modifications since the implementation of service reductions on September 25, 2010. First, as part of the service modifications being implemented on April 23, 2011, the service frequencies on Route 2-Ponce de Leon were improved to provide adequate service levels to accommodate the alternating trips to/from North Avenue Station via Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Avenue. Then, as part of our June 18, 2011 service changes, Route 2-Ponce de Leon will be extended to Decatur Station via North Avenue, Boulevard and Ponce de Leon Avenue. The service from North Avenue Station along Ponce de Leon Avenue to Candler Park Station will remain unchanged. Route 2 will alternate trips between Candler Park Station and Decatur Station.

Decatur cyclist Ben Gerhardstein was hit by a car running a red light in downtown Decatur two weeks ago.  The car was traveling around 30 mph.

“Lucky to survive”, Gerhardstein wrote an opinion piece in yesterday’s AJC detailing the experience and insisting that we – as a society – should accept nothing less than zero traffic fatalities.  Sound like an impossible goal?   Gerhardstein makes an interesting point…

Zero traffic deaths may sound unrealistic. But, consider our approach to air travel. We do not tolerate aviation fatalities and when a plane wreck occurs, we expect government investigations and changes in laws. Further, to ensure aviation safety we accept long security screening lines.

In contrast, when we are behind the wheel, we expect lenient traffic law enforcement and no delays. Too often, the unintended consequence of our lax attitude toward road safety is an injury or death of an unprotected road user.

He goes on to RIGHTLY point out that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all make mistakes – something I continuously try to bring up in the ongoing DM debates between transport-parties – and goes on to assert that our energies should instead be focused on investing in safe road environments that “account for our human propensity for error.”

Implementing Georgia’s 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is just one step, according to Gerhardstein, but he’d also like to see reduction of speed limits in “high pedestrian and bicycle areas” and a further separation between bicycles and cars and pedestrians.

Quite a well-reasoned op-ed from a guy who was almost killed by a car a couple weeks ago.

h/t: Lain Shakespeare (via Twitter)

Steve points out that the newly released, revised bus map of MARTA Route #2 doesn’t, in fact, bring the bus back to Decatur Station, as was the original plan.  Here’s MARTA’s description of the approved change…

Weekday service frequencies will be improved to operate every 15 minutes during the peak; every 25 minutes during the midday and 30 minutes during the evening periods. All trips will alternate between Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Avenue to/from North Avenue Station and Monroe Drive. Service along the afore- mentioned segments will operate 30 minutes peak; 50 minutes midday and 60 minutes during evening periods. Saturday and Sunday service frequencies will be adjusted to operate every 35 minutes with all trips alternating via Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Avenue to/from North Avenue Station.

After thinking about it for a moment, this anti-transit comment in Ariel Hart’s morning article on Gwinnett and Cobb’s new, seemingly more snugly attitude towards mass transit, might actually be a positive indicator for pro-mass transit supporters.

Harold Bost, co-founder of the Fayette County Issues Tea Party, is taking the lead coordinating tea party groups to oppose the referendum.

He says the burden of another tax is only one reason he opposes it; he also opposes mass transit because of the people it would bring into the suburbs.

“Criminals catch that kind of transportation into our county,” Bost said, “and I’m not going to support anything that works toward increasing our crime either.”

One quote doesn’t a rule make.  However, the fact that the old standby “criminals take mass-transit” opposition line came from Fayette – and not Gwinnett – is inline with other recent observations that Cobb and Gwinnett’s population growth has taken the mass-transit conversation in those counties from “why?” to “how?”.  And that’s certainly a good sign for transit-friendly Fulton and DeKalb going into a 12-county referendum in 2012.

Going simply by the requests of public officials in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the idea of more widespread mass transit isn’t just a yuppie-duppie, ITP sorta pipe-dream anymore.

Based on the Atlanta Regional Commission’s compiled Atlanta metro wish-list of projects to be paid by a Transportation Sales Tax, mass transit is a top priority, not just for old hats like Fulton and DeKalb, but also for many of the most populous counties outside I-285.

The AJC’s summary of the 436 project list shows that the 12 county region asked for over $13 billion in mass transit and $8.5 billion in road improvements.  (You can view the full project list yourself, HERE) These numbers mean next to nothing, since local governments weren’t asked to prioritize projects and those reticent of mass transit would use that larger number to argue its outrageous expense just as quickly as supporters would use it to demonstrate its need.

However, a closer look at individual county projects shows that once-hesitant mass transit counties, like Cobb and Gwinnett, are now more than ready to get into the train game.  Cobb’s most expensive requested project is a mass transit line from the Arts Center MARTA station in Midtown to Town Center/Acworth/KSU.  Gwinnett would like $1.1 billion to build a light-rail line from Doraville to Gwinnett Arena.

So what has changed?

The obviousness of the answer makes the question almost rhetorical.  Cobb and Gwinnett are very different counties today than they were in the 1970s.  Atlanta’s growth has subsumed them, MARTA or no MARTA.  Populations have soared and traffic has gotten appreciably worse as a result.  And as is so often the case – boring as it may be – need tends to trump ideology most days of the week.

Now, I’ve surely gotten ahead of myself.  This list is only representative of the wishful thinking of public officials, and not necessarily the voting population.  But based on this initial sign from Atlanta’s outer-boroughs, mass-transit is really less about Left or Right as it is about need.

And with gas approaching $4/gallon and cars providing flexible but slow commutes during rush-hour, the need for faster, cheaper alternatives might finally win out in a few counties where such options were once quite unnecessary.