Four Ways To Fix The Atlanta Streetcar Right Now
Before We Build More, Let’s get the Recipe Right.
Great news!
MARTA is getting ready to extend the Atlanta Streetcar from Jackson Street to Ponce City Market, creating the first 1.4 miles of transit along the 22-mile BeltLine loop.
We’re thrilled MARTA isn’t waiting on this important step toward light rail on the BeltLine.
MARTA is kicking off the process with public input for the streetcar east extension, in tandem with a six-month study to resolve technically challenging aspects along the Eastside corridor.
Yet the mere mention of the word ‘streetcar’ in Atlanta is currently met with complaints and derision. The 2015 launch of the Atlanta Streetcar was - and in some cases, continues to be - plagued with problems that set light rail off on the wrong foot for our city. The streetcar doesn’t go anywhere, is regularly stuck in traffic, and has poor connections to MARTA’s rail system. The result has been embarrassingly low ridership.
Atlantans aren’t going to go for more of a bad thing.
This public input to MARTA is a golden opportunity to right some wrongs, and turn the streetcar into a valuable and integrated asset within the city’s larger transit network. Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit:
Increase frequency of trains: every 10 minutes rather than every 15.
Extend hours of operation past 11 p.m. to match MARTA rail’s. (Getting to or from MARTA rail at Peachtree Center only works if there’s enough time to make the connection.)
Add an eastbound stop at the corner of Luckie St and Forsyth Avenue, for a better connection to Peachtree Center MARTA. (To go eastbound from Peachtree Center now, you either have to take the loop all the way around or walk almost 1/3 mile to Park Place.)
Synchronize traffic signals so that the streetcar is prioritized over cars and isn’t waiting for cars ahead to turn.
With enough public support, MARTA would also need to consider getting the streetcar out of traffic by giving it its own lane in more places, and creating pedestrian-cycle-transit zones by reducing or even eliminating car access.
And perhaps the best benefit of all? A combination of these improvements could allow the streetcar to run THREE TIMES faster, getting riders where they need to go a whole lot sooner. And there’s simply no better way to win the heart of Atlantans than with a faster and more reliable transit option.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Help us make the streetcar East extension onto the BeltLine a success from Day 1! Join MARTA’s virtual public meeting May 27 at 6:00pm and let’s find out how many of the above fixes MARTA already has in the works.
