Friday, February 26, 2010

MARTAgeddon

Continuing with our series on words you need to know, let's examine MARTAgeddon.

[mar-tuh-ged-n]

–noun
1. the place where the final battle will be fought between the forces of good and evil (probably so called in reference to the battlefield of the Gold Dome. Revelations HB 12:18).
2. the last and completely destructive battle: The legislative race can lead to MARTAgeddon.
3. a decisive or catastrophic conflict.
[Late Latin MARTAgedōn, from Greek, from Hebrew MAR TA məgiddô, the urban region of Georgia : MAR, Metropolitan Atlanta; see hrr in Semitic roots + məgiddô, legislative fuckery.]

Synonyms: annihilation, decimation, devastation, catastrophe, end of the world, MARTOCalypse

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Politicians and MARTA

In the name of advocacy, I'm going to start a new thread of MARTA who's who down in the capital, where I will introduce the folks who either screw things up or advocate for us, and how we can try to make a difference.

To start us off, let's go with our friend, Rep. Jill Chambers, who heads the MARTOC committee.  First, what the heck is MARTOC?  Cause when I hear that one, I'm inclined to think of a caveman.  (Come on, picture it with me here, folks.  Geico dude, stomping around with his club, points to himself 'Me MARTOC!').  (Now quit giggling).

MARTOC, as I was told, stands for MARTA Oversight Committee.  They basically just left off that last A, so it's the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Oversight Committee and it's a relic left over from the days when MARTA was chartered.  The state legislature at that time wanted to maintain some sense of control over MARTA, but since they don't control the purse strings (i.e. give state funds to MARTA), MARTOC simply creates some hoops that the MARTA board has to jump through.  I'm not sure that they can actually *do* anything to MARTA.  MARTOC is a joint committee made up of both house and senate representatives and it does not handle legislation nor does it have a vote on the MARTA board (blame your GA Legislative website for that double negative).  They just get to see the budget.  But someone sure seems to think they can.

Enter Republican Rep. Jill Chambers, who currently chairs MARTOC.  Jill comes to us from District 81 in North Dekalb County, which encompasses Doraville and Chamblee (The Yellow line!).  We're not her biggest fans here at the TMiATL land.  She likes giving MARTA a little too hard of a time, and rather unfairly.  Last year when MARTA announced plans to hire a new lobbyist Rep. Chambers threatened the board that she would "have their seats" if they approved this new contract.  Honey, maybe if you supported MARTA they wouldn't need to hire lobbyists.

Actually, Jill was one of the gang that killed SB 120 last year.  See, the Republicans in the House would only let the bill to relieve MARTA of that 50/50 restriction if the Democrats would support their property tax freeze.  The Dems refused and the Republicans stalled SB 120 at the last minute, so that the 2009 legislative session ended without a change.  Rep. Chambers was one of the few who really worked towards that campaign.

To add to her list of transgressions, she cut off Senator Stoner's mic in a meeting!  I mean really, a fellow legislator?  (I will talk about Stoner later, whom I personally adore).  She is known for constantly bullying and berating MARTA, the board, and CEO Dr. Scott and has hunted for discrepencies and corruption to fuel her fire and found none.  Rep. Chambers was also quoted as saying something along the lines that MARTA keeps crying financial woes but hasn't gone under yet.  Lady, did you notice the ARC bail out for MARTA?  That had no effect, right?  And all the other transit systems in the nation are just peachy, too, right WMATA?

I don't like negative people.  I think my problem with Rep. Chambers is that rather than be proactive and be part of the solution, she just adds to the problem.  She could help MARTA secure funds rather than waste their time dealing with her. But running against Rep. Chambers this year is a young and upcoming politician, Elena Parent.  She's from Virginia, I might add, and we all know how awesome things from Virginia are (play nice!)  Elena has made strides in her fundraising and is proving to be someone we should watch.  And, she's just a nice person to know, and someone who's pro transit.

The MARTA Pub Crawl

In one word, EPIC.  Last Saturday I, in conjunction with the Club, hosted a MARTA pub crawl.  If I was cool, I would have posted it on the blog so you reader types could join us, but I'm not.  Enough said.

We started at Avondale and hopped on the train to Twain's in Decatur, where we had dinner.  Then we hopped on bus number 2 down Ponce to Engine 11.  We spent so much time at Twain's that we had to cut the Highlands out, but all in all, it was a blast.  I may have to do this in May for my birthday.

 
MARTA matters!  And we show our support by getting our butts on the bus!  :p

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Cell Phones and Breeze Cards

Last week was an adventure as always, I tell ya what.  First off, I loose my cell on the 10b outbound.  Lucky for me, one thing CCT does do well is lost and found.  I got off the 10b at Arts Center Wednesday night and my phone must have fallen out of my coat pocket.  Sure enough, when I went to get it, there was no phone.  I waited until the next morning, called CCT, and inquired about the phone (at that point, I wasn't sure where I'd lost the darned thing) and they had it.  Either the driver or someone at the bus yard had found it and was so awesome they immediately turned it in.  CCT, you get a brownie point.

But then, on Thursday, after leaving the Gold Dome, I got to the Peachtree and my Breeze card was DOA.  And I mean DEAD.  When I scanned it, I got nothing.  No X, no beep, no reject, nothing.  The station agent, who wasn't about to take his time figuring it out, just let me go through.  I had a meeting, so I went on to the Sierra Club office and texted One, who I shamelessly go to with all my transit problems and questions (get attacked at Five Points?  Call One, even though he's in Boston.  Stranded by the bus in Cobb?  Call One!)  He said something about the antenna in my card breaking.  Huh?  I decided that the @$$holes under the Gold Dome ruthlessly hated MARTA so much the vibe killed my card.

I think I'm right.

So Friday I went to a RideStore to get the sucka fixed.  As I'm waiting in line, a station agent walked up and asked what he could help me with.  I told him my Breeze Card died.  Of course, he asks me if I broke it.  I hand him my card, he inspects it, and of course, nothing's wrong with it.  He asked me what he was going to get if it worked.  As I thought about it, all I could think was, doesn't matter, I know it's not going to work.  I'm a newbie, but not an idiot.  I know how to work a Breeze card (on the other hand, one of my favorite stories is the time some dummy tapped One with her card cause he told her to tap it.  I guess you need to be specific, cause that big ole circle with BREEZE on it isn't explicit enough).  So I offered up a hug, cause that seemed safe on the off chance my Breeze Card betrayed me.  We walked over there, he tapped, and sure enough, dead.  He might have just stuck his hand up there.

I gave him his hug anyways and went to get a new card.  Twenty minutes later the rude woman handed me my new card back and I was a happy camper.  I needed that for the pub crawl!  As I left, the station agent asked if, "He treated me well?"  I suppose he treats me well, assuming MARTA would let him out of his cage every once in a while.  That, however, was not my response, which was simply, "Yes."

Homeboy said: "Well, you know I was gonna have to ask for your number if you said no."

Yay for new Breeze cards and getting hit on!

MARTA needs pets, or mascots, or something!

Most of the time I like to use WMATA as an example of how awesome MARTA is.  I mean, we haven't killed anyone this year.  However, WMATA has one-upped us this time, and I'm sorta jealous. 

WMATA has pets!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

MARTA Community Forums

Both JV from That's MARTA and I attended the community forum this past weekend at the MARTA headquarters.  It gave me a wicked headache, infuriated me, and pretty much disillusioned me.  The people who attended aren't the best representatives of the MARTA riding population.  They were rude, aggressive towards the MARTA employees, and at times, just plain stupid. 

Therefore, I'm going to leave it to JV to tell y'all all about.  She paid better attention than I did, anways.

Notes on the Afternoon Forum

Alright, catch-up time!

So a lot has been going on, and I need to buckle down and write about it.  I'm not sure why I need to tell y'all, but hey, I'm gonna.  The first topic up: legisltative breakfasts.  Last week I attended two.

Last Tuesday was the legislative breakfast held by the Georgia League of Conservation Voters, at the Blue Room in the Freight Depot.  I was there representing the Sierra Club, of course.  There were three speakers, all of whom I adore, April to discuss water conservation, Joe to tell us about interbasin water transfers, and Lee to press on us the transit issue.  I was lucky that I sat with Senator Doug Stoner, a transit advocate, my former rep, and the author of SB120.  Highlights of the breakfast: April telling me that she reads the blog (hi April!) and getting to talk to Sen. Stoner about the likelihood of SPLOSTs passing.  While most folks were concerned about Dekalb and Fulton going along with potentially passing additional taxes on themselves, I'm more concerned with Cobb passing the SPLOST, which is where Sen. Stoner hails from.  Let's face it, Cobb has the only economically viable transit system in the state, which this year created new routes and bought buses, while other transit systems are facing cuts.  Why would they buy into a tax to support MARTA?  Sen. Stoner said that Cobb would love to give up the responsibility of having it's own transit system and join in with a larger one, which helped calm my fears some.  I guess Cobb is too stuck up to be proud of their own transit system.

Thursday was the Transit Lobby Day, starting off with a breakfast at the Freight Depot.  The Sierra Club purchased a table there, along with some other environmental groups.  After breakfast we went to the Gold Dome to talk to our reps - that was a total fail.  The place was a zoo with all the folks, most of them from ACT, trying to get in touch with their legislators.  Hardly anyone actually got to speak with any elected official, it was such a zoo.  It makes me think that being there on your own is more effective.  But don't head down to the capitol for a couple of weeks, they're in recess to save money?

Here are some photos of the day:

 
A southbound MARTA train as viewed from the Freight Depot.

 
The bus display.  Supposedly this was so the legislators could ride a bus in a safe, un-intimdating environment.  Too bad only 7 legislators attended the breakfast.
 
The mad house of the Gold Dome - all these people are waiting to talk to their representatives.
 
More chaos.

Friday, February 19, 2010

All I have to say is WOW

Weekly Transit Photos

I have a lot to catch up on, blogs about my two days at the capitol, one being transit lobby day, and the general craziness of my commute, i.e. leaving my cell on the bus and my breeze card dying.  Epic.  But until then, here are your transit photos of the week!

 
Working on the escalator at Peachtree.  Woot! 
  
Someone needed some extra help trying to get from Avondale to the Airport, apparently.  The MATRA map is hard to figure out.
Dude, you're eating an ice cream cone on the train.  A: Gross.  B:  That's a huge cone, and boy does he look excited.
 
I wanna know what the heck in on that dolly, all covered up in trash bags.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

No Streetcar :(

Sadly, Atlanta did not receive any federal funding for the streetcar.  In fact, it looks like Georgia won't be receiving any of the stimulus funds available, not Gwinnett to redo some parts of 85, Cobb to move the CTC, or Savannah to widen its port.  Is this a slap in the face for Georgia?  Are the feds trying to encourage us to get our butts in line, because, let's face it, why would they put $300 million into a project to be maintained by an agency that may soon shut its doors three days a week?

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Cabbies

If you depend on transit, occasionally, you'll find yourself in a cab, like I did today.  I was downtown at a breakfast for the Georgia Conservation Voters (I'll write more about that later) and clearly missed my bus.  I knew I would, but did not feel like driving down there and finding parking, when the depot is right outside of the MARTA station.  I had resigned myself to calling a cab from Arts Center to get to the office.  I really should have taken the bus to CTC and hopped a cab there, but I thought I'd get one quicker in town.  They fooled me!

But, I learned a great deal about the life of a cabbie today.  I used Atlanta Checker Cab, my cab of preference, but don't ask me why.  I guess cause they seem old school, with their Checkers.  Anyways, I sat up front with my cabbie, and, like usual, started asking questions because this is what I do.  Perpetual three year old (can I get a WHY!?!?!?!?)  But I noticed that he had lovely colored stickers on his cab, one for January, and one for February.

"Do you have to get a new sticker every month?"

"Yes, they are from the insurance commissioner and we must have a new sticker for each month."

"How much does that sticker cost you?"

"It costs me nothing.  It costs the company $140 and that is included with my weekly fees, but it is not itemized."

"What are your weekly fees, then?"

"$600 for the sticker, dispatcher service, and maintenance."

"Geez!  So how much do you clear in a week?"

"Sometimes, not even the $600.  When times are good, I can make a thousand, when not good, $400 - $500."

So, cabbie dude works 12 hours a day and clears $600, not including gas, and there are no benefits.  This is a little over $30,000 a year, and less than minimum wage.

So now my question is, how much are you supposed to tip the cab driver?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Snowpolozia 2010 Part Duex

For the second time this year Atlanta was ravaged by a blizzard of epic, life altering proportions!!!  (O noes!)  We got 3 inches!!!! (And you doubt global warming?)

I think Atlanta came away better off this time, I didn't hear too many reports of MARTA buses sliding around and I made it home safe, but my date with the AC was canceled.  Darn snow!  So we'll reschedule our transit misadventures for later.  Maybe Tuesday.  If I fell spry (or crazy) enough, I'll take the bus to Boulevard to a benefit for Haiti a friend of mine is holding (comment or e-mail for info). 

But the highlight of the latest storm to wreck chaos on our beloved ATL was that this awesome fella was spotted waiting on the 37.
I'm in love!  Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  (Photo taken by, and stolen from, One :)

Friday, February 12, 2010

Time for this week's Transit Pictures!

It's Friday!  Which means...... transit photo op! 
 
This is the crap that I haul around with me on my transit adventures.  I thought you might be interested in knowing how nuts I am.  The black bag is my daily necessities for the shelter, so it's clothes, shampoo, etc.  The purple bag is my work/ Sierra Club bag with lap top, and the canvas bag is my horde of Rosetta Stone software that I'm learning.  I've decided to really start boning up on my languages, since I just got a new computer.  But that meant installing all that crap on there, hince, the bag.  So I think that's something around 97 pounds I carry with me on MARTA and CCT.  I'm hard core.  Or nuts.  

 
This, friends, is an elevator out of service.  That tiny white sign on the door says the elevator is undergoing preventative maintenance.  I'm sure that you guys are aware of MARTA's little escalator problem, but this is Oakland City.  So elevator, down.  Escalators, down.  Me with my 112 pounds of crap and all the other lazy people, on the stairs.  I think this is really a conspiracy to make Atlanta loose weight!
 
The bus bay at Arts Center.  Notice the fact that we're all hiding in the sitarwell and running out when the buses come.  It's cold out there!  And by cold, I mean 40.  (Shout out to my readers in the DC area!  We are wusses!)
 
Transit geek out!  This is the rapid bus park and ride that's being built along Memorial.  I just thought I'd share.  It looks like it may be done soon, but that's relative.  But hey, it's paved!
 

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I'm disappointed in you, MARTA

The gold line.  What will I make fun of now?

Transit Funding Soapbox

Again, in layman's terms, let's examine the options for MARTA as they currently stand, based on my understanding.  It changes often.  If I get this wrong, hopefully Two or somebody will correct me.  Cause I'm trying to figure this one out myself.

See, MARTA is facing a $120 million deficit for the fiscal year 2011, starting in July.  Without some source of funds, they face those Draconian service cuts (i.e. death by Harry Potter)  that could mean MARTA would stop running three days a week.

There are a number of things to watch out for in terms of funding:

1.  SB 120.  This bill is still out there, waiting in the wings since it never made it out of the House transportation committee.  Remember, it was tabled during the last session, so it's waiting for someone to pull it out, dust it off, and frickin vote for it!  For those who don't remember, SB 100 (as in senate bill) was written by Rep. Doug Stoner to alleviate the 50/50 restriction placed on the sales tax MARTA receives.  This restriction, placed on the 1% sales tax Fulton and Dekalb counties collect for MARTA, dictates that half of the funds go to capital improvements while half goes to operating funds.  This means, only half of that income can go to fuel, salaries, electricity, and the basic day-to-day expenses that MARTA incurs. 

Now will this will help the problem, it's not a solution.  Basically, MARTA would burn through their reserves and still be left broke.  Only broker.  So will we still want this, MARTA needs something else.  Which could come in terms of:

2.  The Dems are working on some fancy legislation dealing with the 4% sales tax on gasoline.  As it stands, for every dollar of gasoline that you by in Georgia, you pay 4 cents in tax.  3 cents of this go to roads and bridges, and 1 cent goes into the general funds.  What the Dems are proposing is that this 1 cent go towards transit in general, including MARTA.  They're smart, too, because they're proposing to make this a gradual transition, so that a quarter of the 1 cent will move from the general funds to transit, taking four years for the entire move.  This would allow for immediate funds to come to MARTA without a state/region wide vote.

3.  Governor Perdue's plan.  See, the governor's office came out last year saying, "MARTA didn't come to us saying they have problems" and basically were inactive in the fight to save MARTA.  This year, the G.P. has proposed some sort of transportation plan, but it's lacking in terms of funding for MARTA.  There are two key components of this plan to watch out for, though.

The G.P. has proposed selling $300 million in bonds to fund transportation projects.  His plan comes with a project list, and MARTA isn't included.  So it's my understanding that MARTA is trying to get in on a little bit of that action.  I'm not sure when those bonds go for sale, though.

The G.P. has also written into his plan SPLOSTS, special-purpose, local-option sales taxes.  This means that the metro counties could vote to tax themselves an additional cent for MARTA and transit in general.  This one isn't so ideal for a number of reasons:  Where does that leave Dekalb and Fulton counties?  They already pay sales tax for MARTA, can they opt-out or would they have to pay another cent?  And would neighboring areas vote for the tax?  I don't have a lot of faith in my neighbors.  And why would Cobb pay for MARTA when it runs CCT?  So what would happen to CCT in a TSPLOST?  But the biggest problem with this is that it won't go into effect for years, so that doesn't help MARTA's immediate need.  These are also only good for 8 years, and in order to get Federal funds for transportation, you have to prove you can fund it for a minimum of 20 years.

4.  SPLOST legislation outside of the G.P.'s plan, still, not ideal for the reasons listed above.

5.  Collecting the sales tax.  Apparently the state's Department of Revenue has been a little lax on collecting the sales tax from businesses and hasn't even kept up the records for business licenses.  Despite this, there are also many exclusions from the sales tax, so money isn't being collected on certain items.  I forget what, just bare with me, okay?  But there's talk of this adding up to billions of dollars of lost tax money.  So the state is now left with the task of collecting these funds and this could increase MARTA's coffers as well.  The debate now is, should the state collect or leave it up to the individual counties?  Who will probably be more eager to collect.

Now you may be asking yourself, why should you care about MARTA?  I know my coworker thinks it's worthless and has no effect on the city.  For starters, think of the half a million people who ride MARTA.  A huge chuck of those people ride MARTA to doctor's appointments, to the grocery store, to things that are necessary to life.  How will my ladies at the shelter get to Grady or the Women's Day Shelter without MARTA, because there's not enough government funding out there for cab fare.  It's $13 for a cab just to the train station!  Let alone downtown!

So if we estimate that a quarter of MARTA riders are busy running their very important errands, that leaves the rest of us going to work.  For those of us, like me, the AC, and One, who own cars, we have to go back to the roads.  I'm gonna be conservative and say that adds another 150,000 cars to the road, and you think traffic in Atlanta is bad now?  Then what about the folks who don't have cars and who most likely can't afford one, like the working poor.  How do they get to work?  They probably won't, so they'll loose their jobs, become homeless or go on the system, and those businesses will be without their hard workers.  And I don't care what you say, those people are doing jobs that others don't want to do, so it's not like people are rushing to fill them, so they will go undone.  Like the maids at the hotels in Atlanta.  Who will clean the rooms for all the tourists and conventioneers?

O, that's right, we won't need them to be cleaned, because people will stop coming here.  Conventions come to Atlanta because it's convenient.  There's MARTA to bring folks up from the airport to downtown and Buckhead.  These convention goers can go places without need of a car because we have MARTA.  If MARTA 's not around, conventions will start going to other cities, like Charlotte, and Atlanta will be left behind.  Taxis are expensive!  It's $30 some dollars to downtown from the airport and $40 some to Buckhead.  Plus tip and you're spending more than $50 for cab fare.  This does not please conventioneers in an already bad economy where folks simply aren't going to that many conventions, training budgets have been cut.

And people will stop coming to Atlanta cause the airport's probably going to start sucking bad in the wake of MARTA service cuts.  Think about it, a great deal of the employees of the airport get there on MARTA, I ride the bus with them in the mornings.  Without MARTA, they're either not going to work, making those epic security lines at the world's busiest airport that much worse, or they're going to be parking everywhere, meaning parking is going to suck that much worse.  And where will you park your car when you go to conventions in other cities?  Not at the airport! 

Think about all the world-class cities we have in the US.  NYC, DC, Chicago, Boston, they all have transit.  London, Paris, Shanghai, transit!  Where will Atlanta be without MARTA?  Birmingham, that's where (and I know what sort of good threat that is for you native Georgians!)

Dear CCT, I miss you.

Today, not so good a day.  I got up, got ready, and my happy butt was all in gear to get on the bus!  I'm supposed to be relieved from the shelter at 7am, but at 7:10, no one was there.  I called Anna, who said she was in Macon, and that Lillian was supposed to be in.  A few minutes later, Lillian called saying she was on her way. 

In order to make my epic commute, I have to leave the shelter no later than 7:15, to catch the 7:30 train, or I don't catch my beloved 8:05 10b.  And I was so looking forward to that bus ride, because I desperately needed a nap.  I had stayed up late gossiping with the Accidental Commuter about such awesome things like ponies and how she's buying me one, so my plan had been to catch up on my beauty rest on the bus.

7:15 came, no Lillian. 

7:30, no Lillian.

8:00, still no Lillian.

She called me at some point to tell me that she was stuck in traffic, and she finally arrived at 8:15.  There was no way I was going to make it to work in any reasonable time save for driving.  So rather than being cozy and napping on the bus, I was stuck in hell on the Perimeter.  To beat it all, I could have slept in had I known my butt would be driving! 

Is it bad that I look so forward to the bus now?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Lavender Line, for all those Gays in Midtown!

The MARTA color scandal has now hit the national news!  And by national news, I mean the Gawker.  Read all about it here:

Who wants kung pao?

Some of the commenters, though, had some brilliant suggestions.  To roll with those, I am suggesting that the streetcar (assuming we get the funds, we'll find out next week!) be named the Lavender line (through midtown, gurl!).

There were also some fab reworks to MARTA's acronym:

Moving Asians Right Through Atlanta

Metro Atlanta Rapidly Transporting Asians

I vote for: Moving Asians Rapidly Through Atlanta.  But in all reality, I think it's kinda silly.  Yes, someone at MARTA should have paid attention (I love y'all, but really, you managed to not name the south or Bankhead lines Black, and that's a primary color, too) but this seems trival, doesn't it?  Has anyone noticed if Asians boycott the Yellow wood varnish or what have you?  And I never would have thought that the Yellow line was for Asians, heck, I didn't even know they lived up in Doraville, I thought they were all on Buford Highway and up in Gwinnett.  But there's something to be said for perputating stereotypes.  If they hadn't have fussed, who would have noticed? (or am I the only oblivious one?)

The Word for Today is

Draconian!

As in, the service cuts to MARTA are going to be Draconian unless someone gives them some money.  Those smarty-pants always say Draconian, but I am no smarty-pants, therefore, I don't know what Draconian means.

But I do now!  I learned it, just so I could teach you!

Dictionary.com tells us that Draconian is an adjective 1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Draco or his code of laws.

Uh huh.  Thanks for that one.  Draco?  Wasn't that the annoying rich kid with white hair in Harry Potter?  The bad one?

Definition 2. rigorous, unusually severe or cruel.

So, yea, sounds like that kid from Harry Potter.

Draco was a Greek statesman who, in something like 621 BC, introduced such harsh laws that debtors were forced into slavery and capitol punishment for minor crimes.  He died by way of suffocation because, in a Greek show of approval, so many hats, shirts, and cloaks were thrown on to him that it killed him.  If you ask me, they didn't really like him.

When we say that the cuts to MARTA will be Draconian, what we mean is that they will be cruel, harsh, and severe.

So basically, if MARTA doesn't get money, the nasty kid from Harry Potter will come and kill MARTA, or make it a slave, or something.  Do I have this right?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Soapbox

For the first time in my commuting life, I bumped into a friend!  I was on MARTA Monday morning when I looked up, and low and behold, there was Jim!  And by friend, I mean, someone I know in real life, before my transit misadventures, not one that I've made on the bus or train.  We shared the ride together and caught up, talked about the fun of our work lives.  I love MARTA.

Even if MARTA has its bad days, like when it decides to single track on the North/South line, such as on Saturday and Monday, making me late.  I don't take it as hard as Two, whose response was, when I texted him inquiring of his whereabouts: @ home, plotting my revenge against MARTA.  Sometimes it happens, folks.  (Two does understand this, he just gets exasperated easily :p)  And you know what, it's going to happen more if something doesn't change.  I've heard grumblings that these single-tracking days may be a pre-service cut way MARTA is trying to save a little bit of money, cause it's rough out there for transit.  The other morning I heard some people complaining about MARTA CEO Dr. Scott's announcements that we should expect some fare increases, or possibly the transition to a distance based fare structure.  I say bring it, because I support MARTA and what it needs to do to keep my happy butt, and half a million other happy butts, out of cars and off of the roads Georgia loves so much.  And WMATA in DC is talking about raising fares so that some rides will be more than $5!  We don't have it so bad, y'all!  So find that Mansell Park and Ride and get on the train!

Your's Truly

Is now famous.  Transit Misadventures was featured on iMetro.

http://www.wtfmetro.com/2010/02/from-you-to-me-vol-62.html

So behave!

The Yellow Line

This morning a few of the staff and I sat around having our coffee at the shelter.  I'd like to preface this with saying that, if  you don't know me, I am a shelter manager at an international women's refugee shelter.  We offer asylum to woman and their children for any reason, be it domestic violence or sex trafficking.  We are a diverse staff, from a variety of backgrounds.  I'm there as the person who speaks Mandarin, as I studied in China when in college and picked up a minor in it.

With that being said, our director inquired for the 297th time about when the darned construction for the MARTA rapid bus line will be completed outside of the shelter.  It is the bane of our existence.  They often block the road, have torn up the road, and break the gas lines on a regular basis.  They have, however, finally paved the parking lot.  No actual shelter, yet.  One, work on that for us, please.

Anyways, that conversation lead to what Anna had seen in the news, that the Asian community is up in arms regarding the renaming of the Doraville line to the Yellow line.  Last October MARTA switched to a color based naming system rather than the directions, i.e. North became Red, East/West is Blue, and the Bankhead/ Candler Park pocket is Green.  Apparently, there's a rather large community of Asian-Americans who live along the new Yellow line and they object to the renaming of their line as because "yellow" is often used to refer to skin color with negative connotations.

Anna asked what the other colors were, and somehow this lead to our group deciding that we should rename all of the lines to be mutually offensive.  Therefore, we'd like to propose to MARTA that the North Springs line be white, the Bankhead line can be black, and the line out to our side of town, Indian Creek, can be red.  Then everyone can be offended properly and not one group feels singled out.  I think we're genisus.  Lillian, our Assistant Director, thinks we should have our own tv show in the morning.  People need to know how awesome we are.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Mansell Park & Ride

As usual, I'm totally supposed to be studying right now. And then working out. And then getting ready to go meet a friend for dinner. All of which needs to be done in the next 3 hours. So I'm blogging. Anyway, I decided to check in on things and saw the post rating transit systems by ridership and population. CCTGirl made a good point about how no one actually lives inside the city limits of Atlanta. There are exceptions and I was completely ready to throw out a stereotype about people from old money and/or those folks who buy up old houses in Kirkwood and raise up children with names like Remii and Trice on the organic squash that they grew in their neighborhood co-op garden. But I'm not a huge fan of stereotypes. Remii is a fine name, I happen to like squash, and I know a few very generous and cool people whose families just happen to own professional sports teams and have museums named after them.

What's my point? The Mansell Park and Ride. I have decided that we need to show it a little bit of love. I have lived in Atlanta for most of my life and I only discovered the Mansell Park and Ride a few weeks ago when I started parking at the North Springs station. I made a mental note of it primarily for selfish reasons. My sister and brother-in-law live in Alpharetta and frequently ask me to shuttle them to the North Springs station when they need to go to the airport. If they didn't know about it, and I have been riding MARTA four days a week since August and I didn't know about it, someone should start spreading the word. So where the F is it, might you ask? I don't know. Somewhere near 400 and Mansell Road. I have only spent about 10 minutes looking online (b/c I'm supposed to be memorizing the muscles of forced exhalation) and I have yet to find an actual address (CCTGirl or somebody who is more dedicated than I - can you let our readers know how to get there?) A Google search yielded a Meetup group bearing the same name, which I still don't really understand. Maybe it's like a Fight Club for people who can't afford a country club membership until they pay off that Dartmouth MBA.

Atlanta's mass transit system could use a little bit of work. We already knew that. But for a city full of people who don't live inside of the city, I think that we could do a better job of taking advantage of the buses and park and rides that can get us out of the Acura MDX Sippy-Cup Express and onto the train. Your neighbors will think that you're so brave and urban and Shelly in Accounting will be proud that you didn't expense $60 worth of parking at Hartsfield. Just don't sit in the seats that are reserved for people with disabilities because everyone will know that you are from the Park and Ride (the first rule of Park and Ride is you do not talk about Park and Ride).

Friday, February 5, 2010

This week's transit pictures

This may become a regular feature.  Because I am that much of a dork.
 
They put a new MARTA bus sign for the 12 out on Aker's Mill!  The 12 is a long ride, but it's the only ride on Sundays in Cobb County.


 
So my guess is the sign got vandalized and they scrubbed it clean.  Kinda funny though.  Thrifty!  

 
Insufficient memory error message on the 162 :p

Thursday, February 4, 2010

To GoodManRenting

GoodMan wrote me a comment on my previous blog entry asking:

CCTGirl: What are the top 5 mass transit system in America and which is most successful, as defined by ridership? Also, of the 3 most successful, what is the percentage of ridership per capita?

I feel the need to preface this with the fact that I am not a true transit geek, I just hangout out them (ps How do you know my name, dude? Do I know you in real life?)With that being said, I'm using two websites to answer this question, Wikipedia, of course, and the American Public Transportation Association.  But I am a statistician, which means I'm able to make some sense out of these damned reports.  What I've discovered is a little startling, because it goes against one of my facts I've been touting (and I do love my facts).  With that being said, I've been told (by One and Two, the resident true transit geeks) that MARTA is the 9th largest transit system in the nation.

Well, based on the ridership for the 3rd quarter of 2009 (the most recent info reported), the top ten transit systems in the US are:

1. MTA - New York City.  Average Weekday Ridership: 9,651,600
2.  CTA - Chicago.  Average Weekday Ridership: 1,673,400 (that is a huge drop, y'all)
3.  LA MTA - Los Angeles County.  Average Weekday Ridership: 1,255,900
4.  WMATA - Washington, DC.  Average Weekday Ridership: 1,447,000 (does this include the Senate's private train? :)
5.  MBTA - Boston.  Average Weekday Ridership: 1,231,200. (the oldest heavy rail system in the us!)
6.  SPTA - Philadelphia.  Average Weekday Ridership: 1,010,200.
7.  Muni - San Francisco.  Average Weekday Boogies: 805,600 (are you paying attention?)
8.  MARTA - Atlanta.  Average Weekday Ridership: 482,500 (but y'alls butt on the bus!)
9.  MTA - Baltimore.  Average Weekday Ridership: 415,900.
10.  King County Department of Transportation - Seattle.  Average Weekday Ridership: 374,300.
(for sh*ts and giggles, CTA - Charlotte, our biggest competition is terms of proximity and crap and taunting us with their fancy light rail car is currently rocking a AWR of 103,400.)

Now, I have ranked these by combining all modes of transit in a system (but not the metro areas), so rail and bus and trolley and pony rides.  Two says that who 9th thing was based on previous ridership data, so we may actually be moving up  But we are in no competition for the 7th spot.  In other random transit facts that you never needed to know, we are 7th largest heavy rail system and 11th largest bus system.  Y'all really don't like buses.

Part one of the question down.  Second part.  I don't know how to answer that, mainly, GoodMan, because you used the successful.  Successful is relative, and all transit systems are suffering right now (except for, apparently CCT - the bane of my existence).  And I know WMATA (thanks to my good friend MetroMan) is facing some Draconian cuts of their own, and that's the fourth largest system.  There's even this dirty rumor of them stopping service at 10pm.  For now, they've raised fares.  So I'm going to ignore the concept of success for the moment, and continue with ranking them by ridership.

Now.  Math time!  Populations and % of ridership per capita. 

1.  NYC.  Pop: 8,363,710.  Ridership: 115% (do they just pay the unemployed to ride the bus?!?!)
2.  Chicago.  Pop: 2,853,114. Ridership: 58%
3.  LA.  Pop: 3,833,995.  Ridership: 32% (ouch, dudes)
4.  DC.  Pop: 591,883.  Ridership: 244% (take that, NYC!)
5.  Boston.  Pop: 650,535.  Ridership: 189%
6.  Philly.  Pop: 1,540,351.  Ridership: 65%
7.  San Fran.  Pop: 808,976.  Ridership: 99% (wow, nearly everyone rides!)
8.  Atlanta.  Pop: 537,958.  Ridership: 89% (that's pretty good, except no one actually lives in Atlanta)
9.  Baltimore: Pop: 636, 919.  Ridership: 65%
10.  Seattle.  Pop: 598,541.  Ridership: 62%
And Charlotte - Pop: 687,456.  Ridership: 15% (y'all are not nearly as cool as you think)

That makes us the 5th largest!  Yay!  Of course, those numbers that are more than 100% make sense if you factor in commuters from the greater metro areas.  And, just to make you go hmm lets's see how those cities rank in terms of population.

NYC - Largest city in the US
LA - 2nd.  Get the hell out of your cars!
Chicago - 3rd.  Good showing, guys!
Philly - 6th.
San Fran - 12th.
Charlotte - 19th.  I had no clue!
Baltimore - 20th
Boston- 21st (you guys kick Baltimore's butt!)
Seattle - 25th
DC - 27th
Atlanta - 33rd.

By my analysis, I think this means we make a damned good showing and we should be proud!  Give yourselves a hand, Atlanta!  Of course, this in no way factors in the greater metro areas, which is just really sad for all of these cities, because I did look at that, and we're not going there.  Get out of  your cars, people!


My head hurts.  That is a 33 page report, mind you.  And time spent with a calculator.  Good thing I really do love this blog and transit, and you reader types.  CCT boasts a ridership of 15,000 a day!  Damn!  GRTA is 7,800 (and we're building them HOT lanes?  That's just ludicrous!)  But I think this is a good argument towards lobbying for what we have, plus more additions if people will give us some money! (*ahem* State of Georgia reps)

Okay, I'm bored.  Does that answer your question, GoodMan?

It's hard to post...

when the commute is rather uneventful.  Except for those darned escalators, will someone fix that, please?  I hate the stairs, mainly, my leg hates the stairs.  For those of you who don't know me, I broke my leg in a kayaking accident late last summer, in two places.  They gave me a year recovery time-period, and let me tell ya, it's not a fan of stairs.  Especially when I'm hauling around my bag for work/ the Sierra Club and a bag with all my stuff for the shelter.

But MARTA did the right thing is closing down all the escalators that crappy technician worked on.  For those of you who aren't in the know, they were shut down because it came out that an outsourced technician bypassed the safety features on an escalator rather than repair it.  Out of the 149 escalators in MARTA stations, 100 were determined to have possibly been effected and are now out of operation.  Way to go MARTA, now fix them, ASAP please.  It was really entertaining to see how many people crammed onto the elevator at Arts Center yesterday morning, though.  Two said that MARTA has now hired an inspector on staff now, so maybe this won't happen again.  But I hope the company they outsourced to fired that guy!

In other news, I found out a startlingly fact.  One and I were discussing Sam Olens's run for Attorney General.  Olens is currently the Cobb County Commission's Chairman of the Board.  One was talking about how fiscally conservative they've been, especially Olens, and how that's helped out CCT.  For those who don't ride CCT, they just started a new bus route out in West Cobb and have purchased buses from MARTA, ones that MARTA bought but can't afford to operate.  Olens and the Board have put CCT in a state so that they are the most fiscally viable transit system in the state.  Which is amazing, because they sure aren't the smoothest operating one.

Not this isn't to say that MARTA isn't fiscally smart, they just have more expenses (remember, no transit system in the nation is entirely self-sustaining).  Maybe, if I were smart, I'd figure out what the budgets are for MARTA and CCT.  And by smart, I just mean get off my lazy butt and ask.  But I just think it's incredible that CCT is doing so well.  One's not sure how they'll fair without Olens, we'll just have to see.  But it's nice to know that at least one transit system is operating without the constant fear of Draconian cuts, or, in the case of C-TRAN, imminent death.

Speaking of which, Two told me an interesting fact.  Apparently the ARC made an offer to Clayton County to help them save C-TRAN.  This involve some fancy-pants redistribution of sales tax at the airport, but it would have given them the money to keep C-TRAN running.  The Clayton County Commission, however, declined this generous offer to save itself.  The Commission hates buses, for the same reason that MARTA wasn't allowed in Cobb and Gwinnett counties.  Buses are associated with undesirables.

I am not undesirable!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Updates

So I added a new comment formatting, thanks to Shap's help, and unwittingly deleted all previous comments.  I suck.

In other news, we had a replacement bus driver again this morning.  A different dude, who of course, decided to not go my way.  I hollered at him to tell him to turn, I was paying attention this time.  He responded that "No one gets off up here."

"I do?!?!"