For MARTA’s bus routes, simpler might be better

Study to look at reorganizing MARTA’s tangled web

On certain days, Alexia Howard must board two buses and a train to get home — a trip that takes more than an hour, even though she lives less than two miles from the Wal-Mart where she works.

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But Howard, who was the subject of an April 20 CL cover story, now might be able to get home faster.

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Late last month, MARTA reworked 24 of its 120 routes — including one linking Howard’s home to her job — in an effort to ease riders’ commutes.

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Such tweaks aren’t uncommon in the city’s transit system. Every couple of months, MARTA expands the number of buses on one line while scaling back service on another.

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But critics argue route changes don’t fix the transit system’s core problems — and often deter riders who must constantly adapt to changing schedules.

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“You don’t take from Peter to pay Paul,” says Terence Courtney, coordinator for Atlanta Jobs with Justice.

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Transit activists are pushing MARTA to take a basic inventory of its bus routes — many of which follow serpentine, illogical paths — and then rework the entire system.

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Caleb Racicot, a former city of Atlanta planner, says the lack of sensible routes is the product of MARTA’s attempt to provide door-to-door service. By that logic, a single bus route can travel down as many as 30 different streets. To make matters worse, few bus stops display a map of the routes — or even the route number of the bus that stops there.

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Racicot says there’s a simple solution: bus routes that go up and down major corridors, such as Peachtree Street, Moreland Avenue, Ponce de Leon Avenue and Memorial Drive.

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That approach might have people walking a bit more, because only the bigger streets would have bus service. But riders would have a far easier time navigating a more grid-like system as opposed to a collection of routes that resembles a plate of spaghetti.

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MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson says that by the end of the year, MARTA will begin a system-wide study to find ways to improve its bus routes. The study, funded by the Atlanta Regional Commission, will take up to 18 months and cost $2.5 million.

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GET INVOLVED: MARTA holds public hearings for proposed route changes each month. For more info, visit www.itsmarta.com.






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