Atlanta has missed the boat on public transportation compared with some other cities, said the president of a national mass transit organization. Now that more people are driving less, the consequences could be grave. “You’ll get left in the dust,” said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association....
...Millar pointed to cities like Charlotte, Denver and Salt Lake City that are building or expanding their mass-transit systems. He said they will be able to draw more employers with good jobs and offer a better quality of life.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Left Behind
As the Transit Space Race heats up, there will be winners, and there will be losers.
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3 comments:
does this mean the belt line won't be built?
This article is over the top (or, I should say, the main source for it, Millar).
Sure, MARTA isn't expanding as fast as it once was: it's now a large system with a significant heavy rail core (just under 50 miles of track, about on par with Boston).
They are still working to expand. Sure, the expansion is not as fast as it was when the system was smaller, and it is not nearly as fast as it ought to be (especially re. starting a commuter rail system). But I think it's silly to talk about Atlanta getting "left behind" by places like Charlotte, when Charlotte's system is currently decades behind Atlanta's.
I don't think that it means anything about Atlanta not building the beltline. They do have a big plan called Concept 3 that they will be pushing in the next year. It's not just Millar though, locals have been saying this for the last 2 years, that if Atlanta doesn't do anything, they will be surpassed by Charlotte. As I'm here in Charlotte, I can tell you that they are doing some amazing things here and as they extend their network, it will only get better.
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