Tag: public transportation

“The official MARTA app was pretty rough,” Chad Etzel says of the On the Go app. A former Apple engineer, Etzel found all the data he needed online and began tinkering with an app that would provide more accurate, user-friendly information about MARTA’s buses and trains. A few days later, he had his prototype, which he named Terminus.

On nights when ride-share surge pricing and drunk drivers rule Atlanta’s streets, the bus is an absolute haven, particularly in rail-service dead zones. Thanks to lopsided budget requirements that prioritize capital improvements over efficient service, MARTA buses, while not always on time, are nice: well-appointed, clean, and bright.

It may be hard to imagine today, when gridlock traffic is synonymous with Atlanta, but riding public transit was once the norm. Here, a brief look at the city's former streetcar system and why Atlanta's public transit had such a decline.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for public-transit agencies across the nation. Even when the pandemic does end, it’s possible that our work and travel patterns will be disrupted permanently. Then, there’s the economic impact of the pandemic and its corresponding effect on tax revenue, a major source of funding for many transit agencies, including MARTA.

Back in November, voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax increase to fund transit expansion in the City of Atlanta. MARTA just released its ideal expansion plans, which include bus rapid transit crisscrossing the city, late night and weekend bus service, and 21 miles of light rail. But there is a fatal flaw: the light rail infrastructure goes through one of the most congested part of town, the downtown path of the Atlanta Streetcar.

One month into his tenure, Parker dished on his optimism for widespread transit expansion, MARTA’s venturing into mixed-use development, and the prospects of a region-wide system being called “The ATL.”

On Wednesday, Georgia lawmakers in the House and Senate approved their chambers’ versions of legislation that would create a new regional agency that could kickstart a long-awaited expansion of bus and rail lines throughout metro Atlanta.

We almost shed a tear when we learned that, after three years, Midtown's beloved Rockspinner sculpture was leaving town. But Midtown Alliance recently installed its replacement: Autoeater.

MARTA Army’s core team is comprised of Georgia Tech students and alumni, lawyers, accountants, designers, developers, and even teenagers who lend their skills to serve the overall objective: making MARTA a more efficient and appealing option in a city angling to become a pro-transit powerhouse.

Streetcar boosters believe the referendums, if approved, could shift the conversation away from its early troubles. When the first trolley rolled out in December 2014, the project was already more than a year and a half behind schedule, and construction costs had ballooned from an estimated $69 million to more than $98 million, with federal grants covering less than half the price tag.