MARTA losing P.R. War
MARTA still has an incredible amount of public relations work to do.
A friend of mine lives very near Chastain Park and works about halfway between the Garnet and 5 Points MARTA stations. With over 300,000 conventioneers in town this past Friday, she drove to work. She drives to work anyway. This amazes me.
That she does not see MARTA as a better alternative on a regular day is a testament to Atlantan’s deep passionate love for their cars. That she does not take it in the midst of two conventions, one of which brought nearly 200,000 people to downtown and made it so that it took 45 minutes to go 1500 feet means that she is not getting the message.
The question is why? Part of it is that she’s white, grew up in the suburbs, and her parents are not spivs. The counties, city, and MARTA have not done a good job of showing people the advantages of mass transit. The state has been wholly unhelpful in this regard. There should be a coordinated campaign to educate people on how to use MARTA and to make it better.
These authorities need to court the media so that there are front page stories indicating that everyone, not just conventioneers, but citizens as well, need to take the trains. Then the city and Fulton Co. needs to take some of the tax revenue they will collect and use it to help fund more buses and trains on the system. If you simply tell folks they have to ride, but then to do not provide additional capacity on the system, the public relations campaign will fail.
Lastly, though it will be very difficult, more parking is needed. The Buckhead station (closest to Chastain Park) has no parking. It needs a Garage. Perhaps a garage can be built on Lenox Rd. behind the station and a pedestrian bridge built to it similar to the one in East Point. That will ease the ability of new N.W. Buckhead residents to use MARTA.
The need to convince folks to ride MARTA comes at a tough time both for MARTA and in the world. Lack of State funding continues to impede MARTA’s progress, while across the world countless cities are grappling with the influx of cars. In Paris, automotive traffic has gotten so bad that you must live in the city to drive there on many days. Regrettably, the only American City where that is practical is New York. Everywhere else, the disruption will be too great.
The trick is to give people good alternatives and let them choose, of their own volition, to give up the car. The problem is that to do that, the non car option genuinely has to be better.
June 27th, 2004 at 12:22 pm
A recent message in the Citizens for Public Tranist message board gives at least one sign of hope:
“If you can, hop on the train during the next few days….MARTA is running at full capacity for the Megafest. Long trains that stretch the full length of the platform are running every 2 or 3 minutes, and employees at the faregates (thats me!) are keeping people flowing through and off the token machines. This is a rare time to see the system run like it was designed to run and with the capacity that it was designed to handle…..go out and have a look while it lasts!”
August 4th, 2004 at 6:17 pm
The problem with Marta is, it does not meet the needs of the riders it is trying to convert. The trains are run by a computer program and if the trains are too close together it will slow one down. Many late fees are being charged to parents late for pick-up at the day care center. Do not try to go out with co-workers or to a doctor because your car is clear across to counties and the train does not go near your destination. Never mind the buses in rainy weather cold or hot weather. Marta is Not very Smarta to most users.
September 8th, 2004 at 2:16 am
the socio-economic impact of the failure of a minority run transit system would devastate atlanta as a city and negate at LEAST 25 years of economic growth and social integration of its population. although negative initially, gentrification of the lower income neighborhoods within the perimeter would eventually create a higher overall standard of living for a more a diverse population.
October 30th, 2004 at 2:38 am
“the socio-economic impact of the failure of a minority run transit system”
Huh? What do minorities have to do with anything here?