Public Transportation is Ineffective for Atlanta

Public Transportation is Ineffective for Atlanta

The public transportation in Atlanta is usable at best. The Metro-Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was implemented to better help the residents around Atlanta to get to where they need to be via public transportation. However the lack of initial support and lack of continued integration throughout the city has caused MARTA to be ineffective for its cause. The limited integration of MARTA throughout Atlanta and the continued growth and sprawl of the city has continued to decrease the effectiveness of using MARTA.

When the MARTA system was initially started, support was limited. Of the 10 counties that MARTA was proposed to, only 2 counties (Fulton and Dekalb) wanted the proposed system. This lack of support would be continued as the city grew as well. After these initial adoptions, other counties such as Cobb and Clayton have created bus systems of their own with limited connections to MARTA. However, this is not a real substitute for having an integrated bus system. These stations are few and far in between. This has caused large travel times, and inefficiency of movement around Atlanta to their workplace or home. As time has passed this has gotten “better”, but only due to the sprawl of Atlanta.

Since the city of Atlanta was created, it has experience constant growth of at least 2.9% per year. And due to the lack of natural barriers around the city, Atlanta has simply sprawled outward in an uncontrolled growth (Bullard 5). Due to the sprawl, the MARTA system has had trouble keeping up with the growth and has had trouble servicing all new areas. The problem really rears its head near the outskirts of the city. Some riders have to walk to only one of two trains (N-S or E-W) then take bus upon bus to get just 15 mins down the road. Other areas with public transportation have much better access and service throughout their city such as Denver-Aurora, Colorado; which is listed as the number one city for public transportation according to the U.S. News (Kurtzleben). Just looking at their system map compared to MARTA’s you can see how organized the RTD is compared to the random sprawl of the MARTA lines. This leads to less wait time for citizens of an organized system, and better accommodation for riders stop locations. Unfortunately the lack of continued integration and support for MARTA ha led to the opposite: longer wait times and poor accommodation of stops for riders in the outer sprawl.

MARTA - ATLANTA

RTD - Denver-Aurora

The MARTA system is sprawled out to the extent of its use being useless. When first implemented it was there to serve as a way to commute around the counties and city, but with the lack of initial support that happened in a limited manner. As time went on band the city grew in an uncontrolled manner, the state of the system declined. The sprawl of Atlanta coupled with the lack of organized integration has left Atlantans with a poor excuse for a public transit system.

Kurtleben, Danielle. “10 Best Cities For Public Transportation”. U.S. News. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/08/10-best-cities-for-public-transportation

Bullard, Robert D. “Anatomy of Sprawl.” Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in

Atlanta. Eds. Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres.

Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2000. 1-20.