Mass Transit
Atlanta is not much of a mass transit kind of city. I could blindly guess that this is because Atlanta's big boom of growth happened after the interstate system was built. (Thanks, W)
For whatever reason, it's very difficult to get around here without a car, unless you live and work downtown. There's MARTA, but their rail system is basically a big "+". There's a north/south line and an east/west line. Unless you happen to need to go along that narrow rail you're out of luck. The southern line ends at the airport, which is it's only useful benefit. There are buses, but if you've done that, you know what a pain in the ass it is. It takes three hours to go where it would take you ten minutes in a car.
Personally, my commute is about 30 miles each way, but the nice part is that I work farther away from the city than I live, so I'm never stuck in traffic. Still, I'm loading miles on my truck like crazy. It's difficult to find a used car with low miles, although we bought Mrs Schwartz' Jeep from a yuppie couple that DID live and work downtown, so we did it.
As long as I've lived here, there's been screaming and nashing of teeth to build a light rail system for the commuters. One of the worst ideas I've heard is to build a rail line between Atlanta and Athens. I love Athens. I'd hate to see it poisoned by Atlanta. Part of the problem with mass transit is that it brings the masses TO you, as well. When they were looking at expanding MARTA into Cobb County, the Cobbians (?) all said 'hell, no'. They didn't want to be that well linked with Atlanta, thank you very much. They have history on their side. Lennox Mall used to be THE ritsy expensive mall around these parts. Then MARTA built a station right up against the back of the mall. In no time, the place went to hell. There was nothing but shiftless-looking thugs and homeless hanging around and not buying anything. In no time the rich white ladies that HAD been going there built another mall about a block away.
Compared to the rest of the world, our gas is pretty cheap. Everybody (me included) bitches about the high cost of it, but really, we have a lot of disposable income. Got cable TV? Got a cell phone? You can afford gas.
For whatever reason, it's very difficult to get around here without a car, unless you live and work downtown. There's MARTA, but their rail system is basically a big "+". There's a north/south line and an east/west line. Unless you happen to need to go along that narrow rail you're out of luck. The southern line ends at the airport, which is it's only useful benefit. There are buses, but if you've done that, you know what a pain in the ass it is. It takes three hours to go where it would take you ten minutes in a car.
Personally, my commute is about 30 miles each way, but the nice part is that I work farther away from the city than I live, so I'm never stuck in traffic. Still, I'm loading miles on my truck like crazy. It's difficult to find a used car with low miles, although we bought Mrs Schwartz' Jeep from a yuppie couple that DID live and work downtown, so we did it.
As long as I've lived here, there's been screaming and nashing of teeth to build a light rail system for the commuters. One of the worst ideas I've heard is to build a rail line between Atlanta and Athens. I love Athens. I'd hate to see it poisoned by Atlanta. Part of the problem with mass transit is that it brings the masses TO you, as well. When they were looking at expanding MARTA into Cobb County, the Cobbians (?) all said 'hell, no'. They didn't want to be that well linked with Atlanta, thank you very much. They have history on their side. Lennox Mall used to be THE ritsy expensive mall around these parts. Then MARTA built a station right up against the back of the mall. In no time, the place went to hell. There was nothing but shiftless-looking thugs and homeless hanging around and not buying anything. In no time the rich white ladies that HAD been going there built another mall about a block away.
Compared to the rest of the world, our gas is pretty cheap. Everybody (me included) bitches about the high cost of it, but really, we have a lot of disposable income. Got cable TV? Got a cell phone? You can afford gas.
posted by Exador at
9:21 AM
2 Comments:
I've heard some talk about a rail between Chattanooga and Atlanta so the Chattanooga airport could become an annex to Hartsford. And the really wide eyed dreamers in TDOT think if that could happen then it wouldn't be that hard to get a line built from Nashville to Chattanooga.
That's a little bigger than the commuter rail you were talking about, but it's an interesting idea. Think Atlanta would trash up Nashville?
BTW, you're welcome.
By
W, at 5:14 AM
Nashville's big enough to have it's own trashiness, but it would definitely destroy Chattanooga.
I'd ride the one to Nashville just for the thrill of going over Monteagle. WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
By
Exador, at 6:55 AM
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