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Originally Posted by CityFan
It's a good thing that more people are using mass transit system. Once MARTA is over crowded, new systems will be considered. When MARTA is under loaded, there is no need for any addition.
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You say that there's no need for any addition until MARTA is overcrowded, but people won't crowd MARTA if it doesn't make any additions... If MARTA isn't getting the average person where they need to and want to go, they won't ride.
That is the primary reason why traffic is as bad as it is now. MARTA just isn't getting the average commuter where they need to go in a reasonable time. The majority of Atlantans are not from Atlanta. They are usually from various larger cities (mainly New York, Chicago and DC). That means that most new Atlantans come from a place where they don't need a car and would most likely love to commute without an automobile, but MARTA just isn't doing the job for them.
I understand that MARTA has for years been against a few brick walls unable to gain public support for expanding into the Clayton Co., Cobb Co. and Gwinnett Co suburbs but that is not all they can do as far as expansion.
What about the rest of Atlanta CITY that is not being covered by rail service. Not EVERYONE works along the Peachtree corridor. Infact, most Atlantans DON'T work along the MARTA system. In Manhattan, DC and Chicago, stations are placed strategically so that you are within walking distance of a station as long as you are anywhere in the city center.
People would like to be able to WALK (not depend on the inefficient bus service) from a nearby trainstation to places like Fernbank, Stone Mountain park, Zoo Atlanta, King Plow Arts Center, Six Flags, Emory University and CDC, Cumberland/Galleria area, Lithonia, Virginia Highlands, The Vinings, the list goes on... If MARTA ran into the county line walls years ago, they should have started improving the rail system in the city's center.
"If you build it, they will come..." That saying is SO true. If MARTA wants ridership, they need to first expand rail system coverage. Not wait until people get out of their cars to expand, because that just won't happen.
If you take a look at this map of Atlanta, you'll notice that the railway does already exist if MARTA wanted to build stations and place trains that would service the North Western and South Eastern neighborhoods. Maybe even to Stone Mountain:
MARTA needs to grow a pair, take a chance and spend the money (an investment) to first build it, then the riders will come.