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The issue now seems to be an annual ritual. Those who use the Braves shuttle complain about it, and something is done to make the whole situation worse.

Last year, citing low ridership, MARTA shifted the location of the Braves shuttle from Forsyth St., directly adjacent to the Five Points station, to the Coca-Cola plaza. The move meant that fans taking MARTA would have to walk across Underground Atlanta to ride the shuttle busses.

A similar move back in 2002 prompted an outpouring of letters to the AJC.

Among the letters I pulled off LexisNexis:

“The reason I pay $1.75 to ride the Braves’ shuttle is to get to the game while avoiding the hassle of traffic and parking. Leave it to MARTA to make riding the shuttle a hassle.” –John Laskaris, Decatur

“Who wants to spend an additional 20-30 minutes to walk to and from a shuttle bus on the other side of Underground? It makes no sense! … The Braves probably would get the most benefit, as surely this move would increase their parking revenues from all of the people opting to take their polluting vehicles to the games instead of putting up with the additional hassles of taking MARTA and then trudging two blocks through a crowded Underground with their kids or elderly parents in tow.” — Jay Osborne, Atlanta

“I don’t need to be entertained on my way to the stadium, and I don’t need to buy anything — I will already be spending enough at Turner Field. I just want to go to the stadium, and not behave like a tourist in my own city. MARTA and Underground would be losers under this plan. People will get back into their cars and will never even get close to Underground.” — Arjan Wietsma, Atlanta

“So the city of Atlanta believes using MARTA to shove baseball fans through Underground would revive its economy? It won’t.” — John Dodd, Lawrenceville

“It’s already hard enough for the Braves’ Northside fan base to come to the games. … It’s also unclear whom we should boycott — MARTA or Underground. So let’s boycott both.” — Paul Edenfield, Atlanta

When Dan O’Leary spoke to the AJC about the shuttle in 2002, he was very optimistic about the shuttle’s prospects for improving the brand image of Underground Atlanta:

“It seems absurd to make me walk through a long-dying, poorly managed and unsafe shopping area to reach my destination,” John Dodd of Lawrenceville wrote in a letter to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ouch.

O’Leary is one of the first to concede that Underground has a bad reputation with some metro Atlanta residents. He lives in Alpharetta, a mind-set away from downtown Atlanta.

“That mentality about Underground is very prevalent out there, but the reality is that isn’t the way it is,” O’Leary says. “I know when people come through on their way to the ballgame, they’ll be thinking those thoughts. I hope that as they walk through they’ll say, ‘Wow, this isn’t what I thought it would be. I didn’t feel threatened, and there were a lot of people having fun.’ ”

O’Leary says Underground is a work in progress. “But I do believe that Underground is a whole lot cleaner and safer and a whole lot more fun than most people in metro Atlanta may think,” he says.

The Atlanta Braves president, Stan Kasten, told the AJC that he was furious about the move to the Coke pavilion. He was, according to a report on March 28, 2002, not informed of the decision, and didn’t know about the plan until he read about it in the AJC. Underground’s General Manager, while conceeding that a “miscommunication” took place, defended the move with the claim that “It enhances the experience for the fans who are excited and headed to the ballpark to have fun with their family and friends”

In discussing the issue, some have noted that MARTA would much rather not have moved the shuttle, despite anything the authority’s spokespeople say. In fact, with all the resources that have to be stretched — overtime pay, additional maintenance, fuel — MARTA would probably just as soon not provide the shuttle. So, what happened?

Underground clearly saw an opportunity. They wanted to make money, which is understandable, especially for a landmark in debt. O’Leary clearly believed, from his statements, that this move would improve Underground’s brand to metro Atlanta fans. Accounts of his negotiating skills show that O’Leary can achieve remarkable results in turning tables his way. In fact, his life story is nothing short of inspiring.

However, attracting more visitors to Underground Atlanta is more an act of persuasion than negotiation. That Underground sits at the heart of Atlanta’s transit system shows that O’Leary should be thinking of what effects his actions have on MARTA’s ridership. When ridership on MARTA goes up, his business should improve. When MARTA riders get fed up, they will in effect abandon Underground Atlanta, too.

To appease riders, MARTA could decide to move the shuttle to the West End station, where busses would have a straight shot to Turner Field. Under the best scenario, MARTA’s management and union would utilize the shuttle as an opportunity to show off a great transit system and persuade some of those shuttle riders to become daily riders.

Underground’s management, meanwhile, could resurrect previously scrapped plans to market Underground as a pre-game destination for all the major sporting events in town. This would be a more persuasive approach to attracting more metro-based visitors to the shopping and nightlife destination. Working with MARTA to persuade more metro commuters to use the system on a daily basis would help them out, too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2005 at 12:23 am and is filed under Stupid Development Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.