Are the infill stations a plan to slow kill the BeltLine Rail?

There may be a limit to the amount of density Atlantans are willing to tolerate without the promise of mass transit. That's one takeaway from NPU-F's 282-84 vote Wednesday night denying zoning and land use changes for the BeltLine adjacent Amsterdam Walk redevelopment project that straddles the Virginia-Highland and Morningside neighborhoods off the busy Monroe Drive corridor.

As a resident of Old Fourth Ward, located near the proposed Streetcar East expansion, Ian strongly supports both this extension and the larger project of bringing rail to the entire Atlanta Beltline.

The BeltLine has already shown its potential to change how people navigate the city. It is a major corridor that should include all types of accessible public transit. There's no evidence the Southside portion of the recreation trail will be used in the same way the Eastside Trail is being used.

Light rail, a trusted mode of transportation across the world, grows in capacity as ridership does, and preserves the BeltLine greenway that is so cherished. Doing nothing? That would be a colossal missed opportunity – 22 miles of dedicated right of way with zero connectivity to the 45 neighborhoods it rings.

Are you as gobsmacked as we are by the mayor’s latest interview?!? Has he really done a 180, or will this keep going and end up as a 360? Although we've walked straight forward on our mission from day 1, we're getting dizzy.

In this latest Rail Writers column, we hear from downtown resident Lauren von Hollen, who gives a perspective on commuting by bicycle to the BeltLine from her downtown home. We haven't featured this perspective before, and it is an important one as there are thousands of others like Lauren who live downtown and who will benefit from the Streetcar East Extension, which entered the final design phase with MARTA consultant HDR last month. Read on for her perspective.