Transit Misadventures in the ATL

Moving on Up!

2010-06-16T11:54:00.001-04:00

Howdy loyal readers whom I adore. And whoever found this blog randomly. It's been a little while coming, and I was waiting til we were 100% ready, but Blogger is giving me a fit today, so I'm rolling it on out now.

Transit Misadventures is moving.

The site, not the AC or I.

We've joined blogging forces with That's MARTA to create a newer, betterer, and awesomer blog, MARTA Rocks! Your Atlanta Transit Authority.

Yay! Check it out while we spiffy it up and all that jazz. But I'm excited and you should be too.

Why?

Because MARTA Rocks!

(I am SO lame!)

Let's Talk Clayton County

2010-06-09T18:02:00.000-04:00

I just got back from a meeting in Lovejoy. Yea, Lovejoy. Where is that, you ask? Beats the living daylights out of me. Somewhere south of the city. Take 75, turn at nothing, and then turn again before the racetrack. But they have a super lovely, brand new, not on the maps city hall. It's a witch to find.

This is the fourth week into the creation of the Friends of Clayton County Transit. This is a group, spear-headed by the wonderful state rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, is focused on getting the MARTA amendment through the Clayton County commissioners and onto the ballot in November and passed to bring MARTA to Clayton and restore transit in that county.

I know, an easy task, right?

I have to admit, I have a political crush on Roberta. She's great. She's focusing on this, not her own campaign for re-election this November, and has even said that whether or not she's elected to serve another term is unimportant, this is a necessity. Roberta is passionate. When someone brought up the argument that transit is connected to low income and therefore crime, she stood up and said,"I came off of Section 8, I came off of the bus, I still don't have a car, now what?" More of our politicians should be like her. If there were, this state would be a better place to be.

But until we can get a state full of legislators like Roberta, we're campaigning to make MARTA in Clayton a reality.

This is a fight that's more than C-Tran, it's about the environment, it's about economics, it's about growth. Atlanta can't sustain this insatiable road lust, and transit means a better way of life. For every dollar spent on transit, you get at least two back in economic growth. It just makes sense.

To support the Friends of Clayton County Transit, join us on Facebook. You can also find us on Twitter.

There will also be a fundraiser next Wednesday, June 16th, at Shout to help fund this campaign. The fundraiser kicks off at 6:30 and the suggested minimum donation is $40. You can come to the fundraiser or donate by mailing a check or going online. But get your butts out and help us make world-class transit in Atlanta a reality.

F*@%$ng Transit Karma

2010-06-08T18:23:00.000-04:00

Last night and tonight were the MARTA hearings on the cuts. I didn't go. Hopefully That's MARTA! attended and will give us an update, but I felt like I already know the cuts and the people screaming at MARTA staff just annoy me. I didn't have the heart.

That transit karma came back to bite me in the ass.

Yesterday I bought a bike. I had spent months thinking about it, weeks looking at bikes, and days test riding bikes. I fell in love with the Giant Citystorm, but wasn't going to pay $1450 for a bike, no matter how pretty it was. It comes with matching bags. It really is gorgeous. So instead I found a lovely Raleigh Route 4.0. Dark blue, which really is a kind of teal color, and I rode it around and it was awesome.

I took Two to the store to gain his approval. He thought it was a good choice, so I bought my bike and all the lovely accessories and loaded it onto the bike rack on the back of my car.

See, I thought that every good environmentalist and transit aficionado needed a good bike. I have had bikes growing up and spent most of my childhood riding up and down the river with my friends. We all lived so far apart that bikes were a necessity to hang out. And to get to the best swimming holes. (Growing up in south western Virginia really is quaint, and awesome). But I hadn't ridden too much as an adult until my stint in Florida, where I learned how awesome and easy it was to ride a bike where it's flat. You hardly have to do any work at all. Peddle a few times and just soar.

Now I'm living in the ATL and a bunch of my friends are bikers to the extreme, some of them car free, like Two, thus making him my resident bike expert by default. Compared to SWVA, ATL is pretty flat.

So I bought a bike, a lovely bike, and the whole ride from the store to a sandwich shop on Peachtree I kept checking it out in my rear view mirror and grinning stupidly. I was tickled about that bike.

When Two and I were in the sandwich shop, it was stolen off the rack on my car.

Transit Karma

2010-06-01T23:47:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are regular readers, you already know that the biggest reason I ride transit is because I hate to drive. I mean, the environmentalism aspect is cool and I pretend it gets me brownie points with One, but really, I hate being in a car and I'm afraid that I'm going to kill someone one day. Not because I can't drive, but that most of the people out there can't and it infuriates me. So until they come up with a teleportation device or some other magical way to beam me from the shelter to whatever coffee shop I'm meeting That's Marta! at, I'm taking MARTA. I'm actually waiting on them to build me my own personal railway line up to Virginia so I don't have to make that six hour drive every time I want to see my family.

But today I was lazy. I needed to run by the house and the bank and then to SIP to do work, and by work I mean blog. So after hitting up the bank, I headed to SIP and was accosted by the very reason why I don't drive. I was privy to the worst accident I've ever seen. And I was nearly a part of it.

I was driving along my merry way on Piedmont when a van pulled out in to traffic. I slammed on the breaks and swerved, thank God there was no one in the lane to my left, but the woman in the lane to my right wasn't so lucky. Her VW was hit on the front quarter panel, driver's side, and her bumper ended up way down Pharr street (pronounced FAR. Who the hell gets to name streets in Atlanta?) So old van lady took out the VW lady and two other ladies waiting patiently at the light before coming to a stop. I pulled into the gas station and ran over to check on VW, some other bystander checked on old van lady.

The VW took a rough hit and the lady ended up taking a trip to Piedmont. It's only by the grace of God that it wasn't me, and I took it hard and ended up sitting in my car crying, then proceeded to call One to ask for a hug. He wasn't at the office but off at a meeting, the jerk. Who schedules meetings during my irrational meltdowns, anyways? Instead, I borrowed the Bus Nerd for hugs and conversation until I calmed my happy butt down.

But the crazy thing about all of this happened as I exchanged information with the VW lady in case she needed anything or a witness for insurance. I gave her my card and she gave me hers, and that's when we noticed one anothers' name. Her name is Anne. We have the same last name, both of our first names start with A, and she works for the Metropolitan Atlanta Transit Consultants, a group that consults with MARTA.
I'm not sure if the transit gods are telling me to get my butt out of the car and onto the bus or if they're giving me karma for being so retardly dedicated to MARTA. Either way, this reinforces my own disdain for being a car owner.

I did check up on AR (the VW lady) later on in the evening and she's doing okay. And I did finally get a hug from One.

MARTA Doom Day

2010-05-31T18:10:00.001-04:00

What the hell? That Kyle dude is frickin nice, and gracious. Asshole. I don't know why I felt the need to pick a fight at midnight, but he ruined that for me. Thanks, Kyle, thanks a lot for making me like you.

In other news, I attended the MARTA board committee meetings where the budget and service cuts were announced. The three biggies are that bus service will be cut by 11.3%, 90 weekday routes. Rail service will be pushed back to 20 minutes during peak hours (up from 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the line) and turn back service on the branches will begin at 7 as opposed to 9. 39 buses will be retired, and 98 rail cars. They will close the ride stores at Lenox and Lindbergh, and the bathrooms, and info booth and call center hours. You can read all about that stuff in the paper, everywhere basically.

At MARTA, 743 positions will be cut, 191 non represented (that means staffers, not operators). This equates to 392 people, as some of these positions are vacant and will just be taken from the books. Most of these will be station agents.

What struck me most about the meetings was Dr. Scott's passion for the organization and its employees. Regarding the cuts, she said, "It's not okay, but it's the condition we've found ourself. It's not an acceptable level of service."

Dr. Scott even broke down into tears when the conversation turn to her staff and how they haven't received pay increases in she started at MARTA in October of 2007. Apparently MARTA either conducted or participated in a national salary survey and found that they aren't competitive. However, the legislation specifically targets MARTA employees to not receive pay increases in the bill that was passed. She called it a "real smack in the face." She said that her employees remain with MARTA on "faith." But she's right. How do you keep staff when you can't pay them for their dedication and effort? I know a couple of employees who work their asses off and live for MARTA, and yet they get nothing but more work in return.

I admire Dr. Scott.

So, after than fun and depressing news, I did have fun at the meeting. Apparently I'm a big deal. Or mini big deal. A board member commented that he liked my blog and planned to comment on it. And a MARTA staffer, let's call him my new Buddy, brought me copies of the presentations, budget surveys, and the route cuts. These weren't given to the common folk who showed up to the meeting. When Two, who was sitting with me at the meeting, went to ask for a copy, he was denied. Someone later sent one over to him, so I couldn't be too smug, but it's fun to think I'm important.

Follow me on Twitter!

2010-05-27T08:29:00.000-04:00

I'm headed down to the MARTA board committee meetings, so follow me on twitter to get live updates!

Yea, it's pretty much the dorkiest thing ever. :)

MARTArocks!

Privatizing MARTA

2010-05-27T00:17:00.003-04:00

Meet Kyle Wingfield.

He's needs to take my class on research.

Kyle writes for the AJC. He's recently been writing a series on MARTA. Of course, we took notice. And of course, we must dissect his every argument. Starting with this article.

A lesson on frugality for MARTA from out west

In this special nonsense, Kyle argues for the privatization of MARTA and how it can save MILLIONS of dollars if it were to privatize its bus service.

So why does this make good ole boy Kyle foolish?

You can't privatize MARTA. Period. It's a public entity that uses federal funds and therefore can't be privatized. It's against federal law.

Had someone done his homework, he'd learn the word he's looking for in the case is outsourcing. MARTA can OUTSOURCE the operation of its bus service, but it can't be made a PRIVATE entity.

Now that we have that notion out of the way, let's take a look at his other points.

Kyle informs us that 11 of the 50 largest bus systems use this "outsourcing" model (that's in quotations because he uses the word privatize, and he's an idiot). These are cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Honolulu, and San Diego! Wow! That's like SO important and SO like, a good argument for MARTA to jump on board too!

Except Phoenix moves 133,000 a day, Las Vegas 167,000, Honolulu comes in at 1,700 and San Diego at 86,000. MARTA buses move 225,000 passengers a day. You want to compare a system that moves almost a quarter of a million people a day to one that doesn't even move two thousand. That hardly seems like a bright idea.

How about you compare MARTA to our peers, Kyle? We're up there with cities like Boston, San Francisco and Baltimore. I'm pretty sure those guys aren't outsourced.

Finally, let's take a look at the cost savings gained if we outsourced MARTA bus operations. Kyle estimates that MARTA would save $22 million a year, up to $43 million! Holy shit! Man, I wish I could run my finances like Kyle, then I'd be a billionaire or something!

If MARTA were to outsource their the operation of their buses, the company that would inherit the fun would also inherit the employees and labor contract. The number one expenditure of MARTA is salaries. Whatever company might win the bid and the contract, they can't fire those employees or throw out the ATU contract, remember, those feds are some picky sons of a gun and those union members are protected. So the only cost savings gained would be the salaries of the handful of managers on MARTA's side. The last time I checked, they weren't being paid millions of dollars.

So Kyle, I do not accept your argument for privatization. Do your homework next time, buddy.

San Fran - Part San

2010-05-24T17:23:00.000-04:00

San is three in Chinese :) sorry for the bad pun.

So what is the one thing that comes to mind when you think of San Fran? Not Rice-A-Roni, crazy people. This is a transit blog.

Cable cars!

Of course I rode the cable cars. Who goes to San Fransisco and doesn't ride the cable cars? On the other hand, I ran the cable cars.

Yup, you're reading the blog of a brakeman for MUNI. How awesome and ultimate transit nerdish am I?

Like a good foamer in training I hopped on the cable car every chance I could and filmed and photographed and harassed the brakemen. One brakeman was particularly nice and so we chatted the whole ride from Market to Hyde, talking about where we're from and what cities we liked and even how the transit systems are in those cities.

The next afternoon as I was leaving the cable car museum (blog to follow) I saw that same brakeman walking down to the cable car stop. So I yelled after him "Hey, Puerto Rico!" and he invited me to hop on the back of the next car with him as he was relieving that brakeman. When I hopped on he handed me the tickets and taught me which ones were for what and then proceeded to tell me about the bell and that one ring is to stop and two to go.

After a little while of playing conductor and ringing the bell I got cocky and asked if I could pull the brake. Puerto Rico said I couldn't, that it's hard to pull it. I bet him I could.

And he let me.

And I actually did it.

It is tough, it takes a lot of force and I actually had to give it two good tugs to pull the brake, but by golly, I have what it takes to be a brakeman on the cable cars! So if I need a backup plan for a career, I'm going to be the third female brakeman.

After that, they let me stay on the cable car when they turned it. As soon as I got off that ride I called One so I could totally smear it in his face how cool I am. I've now done something he never has.

I really am becoming a foamer.

cable car innards

Free Ride Day

2010-05-13T10:14:00.001-04:00

Like I mentioned, I just came back from visiting Vermont. My family thinks I'm crazy. My aunt Marcia reads my blog and yelled into the phone to ask if I was taking MARTA to the airport, my uncle Jimmy refused to let me take the bus in Burlington to the airport, like no guest of his should be forced to take public transportation despite my pleas that I wanted to take the bus, and my cousin Heather thinks I have a problem following my insistence that I needed to collect bus maps and schedules to bring back to the Bus Nerd and friends and that these pictures really were interesting and important.
But they were important pictures, because while Burlington only has a bus system, it's extensive and run awesomely. They have two things that we don't and I think MARTA needs to implement them yesterday.

First, the bus stations have a next bus sign.

How frickin handy is that?

The coolest thing about CCTA in Vermont (yea, almost CCT! Whoo!) is that they're hosting a free ride day at the end of the month. That's right folks, a day where you can ride the bus for free!

I think it's brilliant. The bus is scary if you've never ridden before. Where do you get on? Where do you get off? Which bus goes where? And this is a great awareness opportunity. The first time I took a bus I was intimidated more than transit as ever made me.

The beauty of this program is that you have to register beforehand, so that means it's less likely to attract loafers and bums, they're less likely to have internet access. But if MARTA was to have a registration process where people printed off a free pass for the day, I think it would be a great outreach. Staff could be posted outside of the stations to help folks navigate the world of buses and with good publicity, I think it could help make MARTA seem more accessible. I even heard that they could use some federal funds to offer such a program.

MARTA should pay me for these rad ideas.

San Fran - Part Duex

2010-05-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

My first morning in San Fransisco I bought a MUNI passport so I could be sure to get my transit fill. For $20 you can get a three day pass. The cable car is $5 a pop and the street cars and trolleys are $2, so I figured this was a pretty good deal for someone who thinks it's their mission to ride everything possible.

San Fransisco has an awesome street car system. The street cars run along the F line, from Market to the Castro and the wharf, so it's more of a tourist line than practical. The cool thing about the street car is that San Fran has collected old cars from around the world to run their line, rather than by new ones, so it's a living museum.

Philadelphia, circa 1938

Kansas City

Cleveland

San Fran 1960s

Italy

There are talks of Atlanta buying old street cars as well for our line, if it ever happens. Apparently, if you can find them, they're cheaper. I think it's a wonderful idea and I am for it, give Atlanta some class.

C-Tran

2010-05-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lull in posts, I went on vacation. To Vermont, where apparently they still live in the dark ages and Verizon doesn't work.

However, on the ride to the airport, I notcied that MARTA still announces the airport as your connection point to C-Tran, which, in case you live under a rock, ended service over a month ago. Furthermore, I took these pictures on the train today:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

MARTA is still advertising C-Tran service on the train! I feel like this is misleading to people who never watch the news or folks from out of town. And MARTA, I know you like stickers, cause you put them all over the signs to change them to the Gold line, so how about y'all make some new signs stating that C-Tran is no longer in operation and send out some interns to put them on the trains and buses. Or I'll do it, whatever.

Streetcars and Light Rail?!?!

2010-05-06T11:08:00.001-04:00

The Marietta Daily Journal is reporting that Cobb County could have light rail as early as 2019 along Cobb Parkway, from Cumberland to Town Center. How suburban, they're going to connect the malls.

This project is estimated to come in at $2 billion, and they *hope* to connect to MARTA at some point. Really? Y'all need to vote to join MARTA and this would actually have a point. You could have a line from downtown to KSU, which makes better sense.

And in other news, there's another round of TIGER grants coming up that MARTA and the city intend to apply for to get some funding for the street car. Maybe, in light of the new legislation, we'll have a better shot. O, but the bill only provides funds for 10 years, which is a tad bit shy of the 20 year minimum.

I hope Cobb County isn't intending to apply for those funds as well. We need a unified region, not a hodge podge of lines that go nowhere, except to malls.

MARTA Monsters!

2010-05-05T09:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, That's MARTA! and I filmed a couple of etiquette videos, and man, did we have a blast. I personally think they're both adorable and hilarious. Other opinions, however, seemed to be mixed. The Bus Nerd loved them, so did Two, DT seemed a little underwhelmed, and One, well, he wanted to make sure we weren't getting paid for this because he didn't want MARTA to have to explain to MARTOC why they spent money during a tight budget on two girls playing with stuffed animals.

I'm pretty sure I don't like One.

I feel like this is the kind of crazy stuff that has what it takes to go viral. It'll spread all over the interwebs like only the best crazy stuff will. But until I get the edited one back (yea, edited, we're professional!) I made some stills that I'm pretty sure MARTA should use as posters.

As you can see, we're going with a monster theme. The monsters are doing the bad things, and then there's a MARTA bear and Marty the MARTA worm to tell us how to behave correctly.

Yup. We're gonna be FAMOUS. MARTA should snatch us up before the Cartoon Network does.

San Fran - Part One

2010-05-04T08:58:00.003-04:00

So I just got back from San Francisco a week ago, and, as the author of this awesome blog (why yes, I do like to toot my own horn), I had to experience all the transit I could. What kind of budding transit geek would I be if I didn't? I had some great experiences, so I'm breaking them down into multiple segments, so keep an eye for them.

The system in San Francisco consists of multiple parts, BART and MUNI, cable cars, street cars, rail, and trolleys. It's the 8th largest system in the nation, just ahead of Atlanta at 9th. However, they serve 800,000 a day while Atlanta serves nearly half a million, so that's a huge gap. However, I'm guessing half of that's tourists who ride the cable cars, well, maybe a third.

My first experience with the system was BART (holy crap, it took me three tries to type that out right, cause I kept typing BARTA) I took BART (two more) from the airport to my hotel downtown, on Powell Street. I have to say, it wasn't the most awesome transit experience I've ever had. I've taken rides on MTA, CTA, WMATA, the Tube, etc, but BART (one more) pales in comparison to them all.

For starters, that's the most confusing ticketing machine I've ever used. It told me to insert a card, I use cash. There was a $1 option, so I put in a dollar, and it spit quarters out at me. Apparently that's a change option. Why do I need change for? My guess, all the bums. So I threw the quarters in my purse and tried again. I was finally able to purchase a round trip ticket for the astounding price of $16.20. It's only like five stops. Of course, I had put in $21 (one dollar to activate the machine and a twenty to buy the ticket) so I get another hand full of quarters back. It gave me plenty of change to give to all the beggars around San Francisco.

MARTA Breeze cards 1, BART (AGAIN!!!! Ah!) 0.
And MARTA Breeze machines give out dollar coins, so MARTA 2, BART (score! didn't screw up!) 0.

So the train finally arrives and I'm on my way. Yes! And EW!

BART (FAIL) has cushioned seats. You may be thinking, 'O how nice, I bet they're comfortable!' and you might be right. But I also know what happens on transit. People spill things, throw up, and pee. So I'm not a fan of cushioned seats.

MARTA 3, BART (yay!) 0. (Yay cause I typed it right in one try, not cause they're losing).

After a 30 minute ride, I made it to my stop. Grabbed my bags and out I go. My directions were to go to the Hyde Plaza. Where there signs or station agents to direct me? Nope. I never saw one station agent any time I was on BART, so MARTA 4, BART 0.

I wish I would have taken a picture of that horrible machine, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead. One said they tried a system similar to MARTA's Breeze, but that it failed. I feel sorry for them. I had expected to buy a trip pass, like MARTA's day passes, but BART (one more) doesn't offer them. I was able to pick up a MUNI one.

But here are a couple of pictures.

Cushioned seats! Ew!

This sign actually made my day, how to evacuate the train. PS - Leave your bike. Apparently you can take your luggage with you, just not the bike. MARTA, we need these.

So that's MARTA 4, BART 1. MARTA, you're looking pretty good so far. BART, not so much.

And me? That was 9 typos of BARTA.

Etiquette

2010-05-03T10:08:00.001-04:00

Transit Etiquette is a big deal. We're all sharing this service, so you do not get a whole row of seats for your crap, stand to the right of the escalators, and this is not your house, so no eating, sleeping, or doing your nails for pete's sake!

There's a new site out there called Violation Report where you can publicly shame people for violating basic social etiquette rules, including transit rules. In fact, they even post a Transit Rules how to.

This afternoon That's MARTA! And I are going to start filming etiquette videos, so look for that to appear soon. Once I figure that nonsense out. But until then, check out this etiquette campaign:

Gawker's Subway Etiquette Campaign

What etiquette rules do you see broken that you want addressed? (this means comment, PLEASE?!?!!?) :)

Another word you need to know

2010-05-02T13:56:00.024-04:00

There are lots of crazy terminology out there that if you're not a Foamer, you've probably never heard of and have no idea what that means. Like the word Foamer.

A Foamer is a train geek, think One, the Bus Nerd (see That's Marta!), and the Train Kid. It's people who foam/salivate at the mouth seeing a train go by. The type of people who think boys nights are sleepovers in old rail cars. The people I hang out with way too much and am slowly becoming.

So how did train geeks get to be associated with rabid raccoons? I know lots of Foamers, and none seem to be into dipping trash into rivers and eating it.

But actually, the origin of the name has to do with a river. The term Foamer comes from the train geeks who would wade into the Feather River to take pictures of the trains heading down Western Pacific's Feather River Route through the Sierra Nevadas from California to Utah. Built in 1906, this route is known for it's impressive engineering and breath-taking scenery.

There was once a thriving timber industry along this route, and the pollutants from the mills was dumped into the rivers, causing foam to build up in the eddies and along the banks. Train geeks would venture into the river to capture that perfect picture of a locomotive crossing the trestles and would come back covered in foam, hence the moniker.

For further examples of what a Foamer is, I'd recommend checking this out.

Transit Photo Op - Part Two!

2010-05-01T13:52:00.001-04:00

And so we continue with the crazy stuff that catches my eye.....

I'm pretty sure God did not tell you to vandalize the MARTA bus.

A bunch of buses down Peachtree, taken from the window of the Candler Building. There are MARTA GRTA, CCT, and Gwinnett County buses.

On a new MARTA bus, the sign reads: PROG TEXT. I'm pretty sure thats not what it's supposed to say.

The sign in a Wal-Greens window in San Fran, a light up version of the transit map.

Poster in the National Sierra Club office, Sprawl Attacks! The reason why we love MARTA!

Fin.

The Weekly Transit Photo Op - Part One

2010-05-01T13:43:00.000-04:00

I have a bunch this week, so we're gonna do this in a two parter.

Transit etiquette folks! This woman is taking up the two seat by the door, in a crowded train, with her kid on her lap and the stroller out in the aisle. Fold up your strollers, people!

Now this dude is the exact opposite of a seat hog, he brought his own!

Coming back from the airport. I don't think I would have ever thought to hang my garment bag up like that. Then again, I don't travel with a garment bag.

My MARTA watch! Yay for swag! And harassing One with it :)

Random sign at Midtown. Not being used, just propped up against the wall.

HB277: A Pictorial

2010-04-30T09:19:00.003-04:00

The other day, when discussing the new transit bill, HB277, I mentioned we had one Win. Section Five of the bill has to deal with a MARTA expansion, allowing for the region to expand MARTA to the original five-county system that had always been the plan.

This is how it works (to the best of my I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-talking-about abilities, and in my oversimplified dumbspeak, with pictures):

HB277 includes an amendment to the existing MARTA Rapid Transit Contract and Assistance Agreement (RTCAA) to allow for all counties originally included to vote this November to opt-in to MARTA.

The first step is for the MARTA board to adopt this amendment.

Once that happens, it goes to the five county commissions plus the city of Atlanta that were to be included in MARTA, this is Dekalb and Fulton counties plus Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton. Two out of the three existing MARTA jurisdictions (the city of Atlanta, Dekalb, and Fulton counties) must approve the amendment first

and the given county commissions must approve as well.

This has to happen within 60 days of the MARTA board approving the amendment, so the counties need to jump on board FAST. If the two existing jurisdictions plus any of the other three counties approve, it then goes to a vote in that county this November. It can only happen this November, so this entire process has to happen before October 3rd. But if it does, then voters in those counties would have the opportunity to pass a one cent sales tax to join MARTA, bring in an influx of cash, help us grow the system and even to begin some commuter rail with the Lovejoy line, finally giving us the system that we're all dreaming of.

Photo Shoots!

2010-04-29T13:44:00.000-04:00

We're still waiting on those DVDs from the photographers, but until then, I was able to jack this off of the photographer's website.

Don't engage the crazy

2010-04-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

That's always a rule of mine, don't engage the crazy. This means avoid the nutjobs on transit at all costs. Don't look them in the eye, don't talk to them, don't acknowledge their existence. It's really easier this way, most crazies will just move on.

Well today the crazy got the better of me.

I hopped on the train headed westbound to go downtown to a meeting. At Decatur some older gentleman with brief case boards and then gets really confused when the train announces that the next station is Indian Creek (i.e. westbound for you folks that don't have the system map memorized. You better get on that, there will be a test next week). Flustered, he says, "O! I'm on the wrong train!" And as he turns to leave the train, the doors close. Another lady and I assure him that he's on the right train, that the announcement system was off. I, of course, went on to explain how it gets me too, sometimes. I think the trains are out to get me.

Said older gentlemen continues talking to me, telling me he's new to town and MARTA and how he's still learning. Of course, in my continuing search for good blog material, I asked him why he's decided to take MARTA and he says some line about how when he flew in he rode it to the VA and it was nice. As he's talking, he proceeds to tell me how he's retired and moved here and found a real nice shelter on Peter's Street, a mission. Then he proceeded to ask me about where I go to church and tell me about the church he's found. And as our visit was done, he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Today's Lesson? Don't let the brief case and clean older fella fool you, crazy is out there, and it will find you, despite your best avoidance strategy.

MIA in the ATL

2010-04-28T15:47:00.001-04:00

Did you miss me on my week hiatus? (or a little longer, something like that, sorry)

So it has been crazy busy and I have a lot to catch up on. A transit funding bill was passed (trust me, I'll get to this one), I went Amtrak camping, we had another photo shoot, I went to San Francisco, and I joined the ranks of the (semi)unemployed. I'm still at the shelter, but don't have a day job in Cobb County. I'm excited for the time to catch up on my blog and find that kickass job I've been dreaming of (hint, hint, MARTA) but I'm distressed because I no longer have a reason to ride CCT. Should I to change my name to MARTAgirl now?

Let's talk transit funding. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, I love MARTA, I need it to run, what else would I blog about? A bill got passed a Thursday ago, on the 38th day of session. Basically, this bill:

a - creates TSPLOSTs to be voted on in 2012 that would be in effect for 10 years
b - relieves the MARTA 50/50 restriction for three years
c - says new money voted for in the TSPLOSTs can not be used for MARTA salaries
d - says allows Clayton County to vote for a sales tax to fund transit
e - seriously maims the MARTA board

I'm probably missing something, but these are the points I want to talk on.

I'm disappointed.

I'll go with Dubose Porter on this one, this is barely a bandaid. I mean, good job Georgia for getting off your ass and doing something, boo for not doing anything terribly useful. We wouldn't see money from the TSPLOSTs at best until 2013, more like 2014 if it passes. And then it's only good for 10 years, which is about 10 years shy of the 20 year minimum to get and federal funds. So, FAIL.

Relieving the 50/50 restriction is nice, but three years? Really? You still can't trust them with their own money? And we all know that the relief isn't enough, because they've been burning through their capital reserves for necessary things, like the new FTA requirements in response to the accidents last year in DC. So, FAIL.

Can't use new funds on salaries? Because having people to drive the bus and operate the trains isn't really that important, right? And neither are the cops and station agents. FAIL.

Clayton County can vote to join MARTA. We just have to convince them this is something they want to do, and since their buses were absorbed by GRTA and sold due to federal regulations on the funds used to purchase those buses, they outta, it's their only chance at transit right now. This would also mean an influx on money for MARTA, so for once, WIN.

Slashing the MARTA board. MARTA and the board didn't show up during the final hours of negotiating the bill, so this would seem like a big old slap in the face. Mayor Reed even sent a cop car, lights and all, to pick MARTA CEO Dr. Scott up at MARTA headquarters, but, due to board instructions, she still didn't go. Maybe if she had, the bill would have been more favorable for MARTA. The MARTA board is full of older civil rights leaders who drive to the board meetings, so I'm not too sorry to some of them go. We need riders on that board, people who are more invested in MARTA, so I'm gonna call this a win. Now I need to campaign to get on the board. I hear there's a small stipend. Heck, I'd do it for an unlimited ride pass.

Three epic fails plus one ray of hope and a minor win equals

FAIL.

I has a sad

2010-04-16T14:43:00.001-04:00

From where I grew up.

Transit Funding!

2010-04-14T10:27:00.001-04:00

I know, you're probably getting sick of me prattling on about funding for MARTA. All you really read this blog for is my stories of getting attacked by homeless dudes or the Boob Tap. You even like the stories of me getting hit on, repeatedly. But I started this blog as an advocate for transit, and by golly I'm going to MARTAgeddon and Draconian y'all til death. Or at least until we get some money. I'll let you bet amongst yourself which happens first.

But there may be some hope on the horizon. Let's take a look at our playing field, as it stands on the morning of the 36th day of the session. That gives us four more days, so maybe like two weeks. Who knows. They may need a break, I don't know how these things work. I would probably need a break. I spent one day at the capitol this session, I'm good until next year.

Anyways, so what we have on the table are:

HB 1393, sponsored by the awesome Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam. This bill would remove the tax cap on Clayton County and would allow them to vote to pass a one cent sales tax for transit funding.

HB 277, a regional transportation bill (TSPLOSTs) which would allow regions to pass a one cent sales tax for transit funding and creates a 2020 Transportation Trust Fund Oversight Committee. This one is in a joint transportation conference committee which consists of a bunch of republicans from outside the Metro region. Why there are no Metro Atlantan reps on that one amazes me.

SB 39, again, another TSPLOST bill.

SB 120, Sen. Doug Stoner's bill to reduce the 50/50 restriction on MARTA. This bill, written last year, is still in the House transportation committee.

SB 285, same deal, reducing the 50/50 restriction. Also still in the House committee.

SB 520 passed out of the House transportation committee yesterday, so this one looks promising. Along with removing the 50/50 restriction, this bill would also restore the public transportation office to the Department of Transportation, which should help transit statewide. It would also rearrange the MARTA board.

I think that has us covered. I think we need to show overwhelming support for HB 1393, HB 277, and SB 520. Basically, I'm just picking SB 520 because it seems like the more substantial bill of the 50/50 ones. What we do need, however, is for Clayton County to get transit, the 50/50 restriction to be lifted from MARTA, regional input on project lists, and funding for transit that has a flexible sunset provision (because you can't receive funding from the feds for transit that isn't funded locally for a minimum of 20 years). So e-mail or call your reps, and the folks on that joint transportation conference committee and give your support for MARTA!

You can find out who your elected officials are here.

And those conference committee folks are listed out here.

Remember, transit isn't paid for at the fare box, it needs support from the state and local governments. It's a joint effort, folks. How can Georgia expect MARTA to go on it's own when no other large transit system in the nation does?

(PS - Like how I worked in that role call of my favorite blog posts? I hope you read them. All.)

Be the E

2010-04-13T12:31:00.001-04:00

I am E.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Be the E is a call to action evoking Gandhi's quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Publictransportation.org is partnering with Earth Day New York to promote the environmental aspects of public transit. Each year, public transit use in the US saves 1.4 billion gallons of gas, the equivalent of 4 million gallons a day. That's more than three times the amount of refined oil America imports from Kuwait. Besides being smart environmentally, for everyone concerned about America's dependency on foreign oil, this is a no-brainer.

Your call to action is this: take a photo of yourself giving the I am E sign. Show that you support public transportation, then e-mail said picture to me at cctgirl@gmail.com. I intend to make an awesome photo montage of your lovely faces and send it to our reps to show that Atlanta is E. We need public transit and we care.

I've already got some friends that are E, are you?

Mean People Suck, Part Infinity

2010-04-12T15:42:00.002-04:00

Dear Atlanta,

If you are riding the train and a person with a visual impairment who is accompanied by a seeing-eye dog attempts to board, please let him walk through the doorway. This may involve thinking about someone other than yourself for a few seconds and finding a spot where you and your good vision could get to quickly, no longer blocking the entrance and/or the aisle. Better yet, perhaps offer some appropriate guidance such as, "sir, the first seat to your left is free" or "all of the seats next to the door are taken, but there is a pole for you to grab onto about a foot to your right." Finally, I suggest that if you don't have an actual disability, maybe you should get off of your lazy ass and let someone who is impaired to the point of needing a service dog sit down. Having nine children under the age of three doesn't make you disabled, just stupid. So grab the stroller and move out of the way before I move it for you.

Warmly,

The AC

P.S. - MARTA, maybe you could actually program the pre-recorded announcements on the train to accurately describe the direction in which the train is headed, or I don't know, something crazy like getting the names of the stations and/or the lines correct. I hear that most blind people can't read and it might make their lives easier if they didn't get themselves to the Southbound platform at Midtown only to be told that the train that they just boarded is headed to Doraville and the next stop is Lindbergh Center. Thx.

Busghetti

2010-04-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

I have been swamped, and I have a lot to catch up on. I have hours worth of video to figure out what to do with, the legislative session resumed today with 7 days left to come up with some transit solutions, and One took me Amtrak camping, plus another photo shoot last night. So until I can get my head straightened out, this is what I saw at 8:10 AM Sunday morning on the 110.

That's right, they were eating a plate of spaghetti on the bus. Ever hear of that rule, no food or drinks on MARTA? I can see sneaking a chip, or a closed coffee mug (I have been known to do such a thing, that 7 AM commute is a tough one!) but a fricking plate of spaghetti! That's ballsy!

I will have to say that was the most entertaining bus ride I've ever had. It may have been the tired delirium from just getting off Amtrak after catching the train at 6:15 AM after packing up a camping site, but these people were crazy. I think the 110 on Sunday mornings may be where it's at. A drunk couple got into a fight (yes, at 8 AM on a Sunday), and some young couple decided to head off with spaghetti couple to smoke some. This was after I got to listen to this woman talk about how she'd take off her cast and break her arm again to kick someone's @$$. I'm not sure whose, hoping it wasn't mine.

Crazies always come out in the off-peak hours.

Some more amateur shoots

2010-04-07T14:58:00.002-04:00

So I got the stills off this camcorder. Not the videos themselves, but the stills none the less.

They told Bob to pretend to be a pilot. Bob is a retired pilot, so it must have been easy for him.

They weren't taking my picture, so I wondered away. This is Ken, he retires in 24 days. He's awfully friendly. And very happy to be retiring.

The tacky token sign. Just taped up there all hapazardly. Tsk, tsk!

Airport Photo Shoot

2010-04-07T11:41:00.000-04:00

Today was our first MARTA photo shoot at the airport. We meet at 7 AM (yuck!) to work in the optimal lighting. That meant I was up at 5:30, after a night of phone calls at the shelter.

I kept having fun posing with my Breeze card in all sorts of fun pictures, but the photographer, Dan, kept telling me those weren't the sort of pictures they were after. But it was loads of fun and I'm looking forward to the next shoot Sunday.I'm thinking that for this one, we need to have fun and be goofy. We're supposed to revamp MARTA's image, right? I think we need photos of the Boob Tap, people posing silly, and the like. Who's with me?

Until I get the DVD of the shoot and unload my video ( ie figure out how to upload my video) here are some pictures from this morning:

PS the photographer who's donating his time to the studio is Dan at Studio 7 Photography. Their stylist/ producer is Charlene. Check them out!

Do you GEAN?

2010-04-06T16:27:00.001-04:00

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then head on over to the Georgia Environmental Action Network and sign up today! The end of the legislative session draws near and nothing has been done to alleviate the transit funding situation.

The GEAN puts out Action Notices for various issues that allow you to send e-mails to your representatives. Right now there's a transit funding Action alert up. All you have to do is sign up, put in your information, and click yes and the system will send a lovely pre-populated letter to your reps. And I say lovely because I helped write and approve it. So I can verify it being the kind of thing we need.

Our representatives need to know that we care about MARTA. Getting letters, e-mails, and phone calls from their constituents lets them know that these issues are important. So pop on over there now and be heard!

Down on Ponce

2010-04-06T15:23:00.000-04:00

One loaned me a book to read, one I had never heard of but sounded fun. And it wasn't even a train book or planning or none of that nonsense, it's a fiction book! An actual fiction book. I think it's one of three he owns. And I gave him one of the others.

It's a book called Down on Ponce by Fred Willard, and it takes place in Atlanta. That's right, the Ponce referred to is our own Ponce de Leon. Published in 1997, the book features the Clairmont, Lil Five, Lanier, and even gives a shout out to MARTA!

Video Blogging

2010-04-06T14:26:00.001-04:00

Seemed like an awesome idea at first, but when I got to Kensington this morning and started filming myself, I felt like a flake. Like a big ole dork. We had a lot of fun at lunch goofing off with the camera, so hopefully as I get used to it, I'll feel less like an idiot. But I definitely need to learn how to use video editing software! MARTA needs high quality videos, right?

You should check out their YouTube site here:

itsmartanews channel

And this is a really cool video on their channel:

So check them out, and when I get some videos done, ya'll will be the first to know!

Continuing Transportation in Clayton County

2010-04-05T11:14:00.001-04:00

This weekend my parents were in town, which means that I got drug all over the greater Atlanta region, even down to the outlets south of the city.

I hate outlets.

But, on the way there, we had breakfast in Jonesboro (Clayton County) at a Waffle House. Yum. I had a pecan waffle, of course. And posted on the door of the Waffle House was this awesome sign:

This company, Continuing Transportation, is providing commuting options to Clayton County. I know nothing about it, but I think it's great how the community is rallying together. I also heard that churches were trying to provide service as well, using their own vans.

You can find out more about Continuing Transportation and their schedule on their blog. The apparently only run in during rush hour times and at designated stops, but their website says that they will pick up at bus stops if they're not full and they see someone waiting.

Who's still waiting at bus stops?

Check them out at: http://atwtransport.blogspot.com

And if anyone's used them, let me know. I might try them for the heck of it sometime.

Happy Easter MARTA!!!

2010-04-04T10:29:00.012-04:00

I'm starting to get disappointed in you, Atlanta. You're letting DC get the better of you, and how am I going to look to all my friends, like Metro Man? I always use WMATA as a comparison as to how awesome MARTA is, like WMATA had another bus wreck last weekend. I don't know when the last MARTA bus wreck was, but since I don't remember it, I'm gonna say it's been a while. I keep up with these sorts of things. And MARTA's not derailed in like, this century, I think.

Anyways, for all the awesome MARTA is, the Washington Post sponsors a Peep Diorama Contest. And that, my friends, is pretty much the coolest Marketing idea ever. Next year, I think it's time we peeped it up.

Happy Easter!!!

Photo is Unsuck DC Metro's contribution to the contest. Peeps cramed in a tin can. Metro fail, MARTA win.

Tokens in a down econmy!

2010-04-03T13:59:00.000-04:00

MARTA is running the following campaign:

Which is quite awesome. Turn in your old tokens for trips! Yay! I have two tokens, given to me by MARTA, in cute little cases. I could crack those bad boys up and save myself $4, but I like them. They're shiny, and were gifts. Therefore, we'll keep those.

On the other hand, not too long ago I did a search online to buy tokens. I wanted some to make myself and the Accidental Commuter MARTA necklaces. I also was going to have a couple made into a pair of cufflinks for One, because these seem like the sort of thing he needs. Yes, I am that much of a dork. I found a lot of tokens, 100 tokens for $55. Plus $4 shipping. So, I figure, out of the 100 tokens, I need 4, 5 tops. That leaves me with 95 tokens I could turn in for trips on MARTA. This is a cost savings of $143.95.

I think this makes me fiscally conservative, which helps offset the shopping trip I'll post about soon :)

No, I'm not really going to do this, because that would be ripping off MARTA, which is wrong. So don't get any bright ideas, either. But I am probably going to start selling MARTA jewelry soon. :)

WMATA One Upped MARTA

2010-04-02T15:39:00.002-04:00

AGAIN! First they get pets, now they give their bloggers Jobs.

Hey MARTA, thanks for letting me do the photo shoot and video tape and all, but when do I get to be VP of something?

PS - One of those bloggers mentioned is actually from Atlanta and went to Tech for his undergraduate degree. He's now in DC getting a masters in transit planning. You can visit his blog here.

I went shopping!

2010-04-02T10:53:00.002-04:00

OMG a girl goes shopping. SO blog-worthy.

Actually, I bought myself a camcorder. I was going to get one of those Flips, but when I went to look at them, I found an incredibly awesome JVC HD 60 GB hard-drive camcorder with all sorts of fancy bells and whistles on clearance for the same price as the Flip, so guess what I now own? It's amazing, and blue, and pretty much the coolest thing ever.

So why am I blogging about a camcorder on a transit blog? Cause MARTA gave me full access to film in and on and around MARTA. As a part of my being discovered by for my awesomeness and adoration of all things MARTA, someone suggested I be able to film my misadventures. Now I get to pretend I'm some sort of special and post to the MARTA YouTube channel. I have no idea what I'm doing, but this awesome camcorder features one touch uploads to YouTube. So at least whatever I do will be easy.

Yay!

The Georgian Terrance

2010-04-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

Mr. 10B, who rides the bus with me in the afternoons when our schedules permit, answered The Accidental Commuter's call for the elusive Georgian Terrance sign. He has now won her undying affection and can consider himself an official Transit Misadventure Rider :)

Thanks Mr. 10B!

For those of you who read the blog and don't live in Atlanta, that is supposed to say "Terrace," which is why we're ammused. Now it's funny. Laugh.

Our problems are part

2010-04-01T17:23:00.001-04:00

of a national epidemic. However, MARTA was featured in USA Today:

In a fiscal pinch, transit agencies offer less for more

And I hadn't thought about but it, but it makes sense:

Job woes reduce transit ridership

It's going down in Florida!

2010-04-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

It's always fun to see videos of people going crazy on the bus. Why do people like to make fools of themselves? And in case you didn't know, buses do have cameras. Generally, when there's an accident, the driver slams on the break, or when the driver pushes a button, the cameras record and save 15 minutes before and after said incident. So they may not catch everything, but if the driver's paying attention, then you wind up with footage like this.

I hope this dude gets caught, so then we can laugh at him.

Clayton County Should Start Rioting

2010-04-01T13:54:00.001-04:00

It is official, CTRAN is DOA. I'm curious as to why the news covered it all day yesterday, but I haven't seen anything on today. AJC, 11Alive, you have failed me. I want a story about who went to work today and who didn't. How many employees were no shows at the airport?

Last night the news covered how churches were rallying to offer rides to folks and how Chariman Eldrin Bells, the only commissioner to vote in favor of CTRAN, rode the last 503 bus out of the airport last night. The 503, from Hartsfield-Jackson into Clayton, was the first route for CTRAN. The airport abounds with low-paying jobs, the type of which bus riders favor.

I wonder how the airport might suffer when it's employees can't get to work in the wake of CTRAN's shutdown and MARTA's cut backs? And why hasn't the airport come out in support of our local transit services?

What'd you call me?!?!

2010-03-31T12:08:00.000-04:00

Straphanger!

You heard me, I called you a straphanger.

Straphanger is a nickname given to commuters on public transit. It originates from the late 1800s and stems from folks standing on the subway or bus, hanging on to the straps overhead. For you young'ens, those are now metal bars, except for some of the Atlantic Station shuttles, they still have straps.

“No sane man,” said a North-sider yesterday who has been a strap-hanger for years, “expects the street car lines to furnish seats for every passenger during the rush hour morning and evening.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 22 Feb 1896.

C TRAN Countdown

2010-03-30T23:12:00.000-04:00

We're at t-minus 24 hours til the end of C TRAN service and the AJC has run the following article:

C-TRAN reaches end of the line

I have to agree that it seems like Clayton County is trying to rid itself of its poor. Clayton is known for its poor, that's where they flocked to when they couldn't afford to live in the city any longer. And it makes it that much more disparate when you compare it to GRTA's service, which services 7,500 suburbanites who probably have cars a day while CTRAN serves 8,000 of the working poor, 65% of whom don't have access to cars. The articles states that "For [GRTA riders] transit is a matter of choice, not economic survival. Where 60 percent of C-Tran riders said their total household income was less than $25,000 a year, 49 percent of Xpress bus riders reported a household income of $75,000 or more, according to ridership surveys." Why does this matter? Because GRTA is state-subsidized. It falls under GDOT and therefore is the only state funded transit system in Georgia. Disparate impact much?

One More Bill

2010-03-30T16:41:00.000-04:00

Apparently I left a bill out of my transit rant from yesterday. Another viable option is still SB 39, which would amend Chapter 8 of Title 48 to provide a 1% sales tax to fund transportation projects in special transportation districts. AKA TSPLOSTs.

MARTA Facebook Fan Page

2010-03-30T16:16:00.002-04:00

Did you know that MARTA has a Facebook Fan Page? You should find her, and be her fan (yes, MARTA is a girl. My declaration makes it so.)

I have this extreme urge to comment on everything people post on there, like this dude who doesn't understand why MARTA doesn't run 24 hours and why are there problems if MARTA gets revenue from ads "and other things." I feel this compulsion to explain to him that transit isn't paid for at the fare box or with those ads and that no system is self-sufficient and in order for it to go 24 hours it needs funding from the state, like every other major system out there. And that while they try very hard, it just isn't possible.

And I want to post my suspicions that they found that tourist attraction article on Examiner.com after reading my post from this morning.

And I want to find that idiot who asked if MARTA was going to give out letters to riders for being late to work on Ride MARTA day and smack him. Hard. Five times. With a baseball bat.

But I feel like I should refrain myself so people don't think I'm that crazy MARTA girl (yes, we all know I am, but if you're reading this nonsense, then obviously you've accepted it). Also, I feel like if I comment on everything, I loose credibility. And thirdly, it's the very nice people at MARTA's job to respond, not mine. And I'd hate to offend them, because I love them so.

And I *may* just have a really high affinity for MARTA, too.

MARTA Blogs

2010-03-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

So the other night the other night the Accidental Commuter and I were talking, as usual, when she said, much to my horror, "Did you know there's another MARTA blog out there?"

"A what?!?!"

Aw heck no! I have cornered the market on MARTA blogs, this can not happen. I even thought I knew of all the MARTA blogs, that group consisting of this blog right here and JV over at That's MARTA! There's also some dumb one that we won't mention, in part because it's dumb, and in part because it hasn't been updated since 2005, therefore making it both dumb and dead. And since JV and I are cool, and, you know, she had a blog way before me, we're cool. I'll let her keep her blog. But what's this other MARTA blog nonsense?

Apparently there's some chick named Sara writing a guide book to Atlanta using MARTA, like how to get around; she also writes on MARTA for the Examiner.com. I have no clue who this chick is, but what she's doing is writing how to get around on MARTA, to get to things like a Braves game or the World of Coke. You can check it out at MARTA Guide.

Transit Funding - Again!

2010-03-29T12:31:00.002-04:00

Yup, it's time for me to get back up on the transportation funding soapbox. Last Friday was cross-over day, the day when a bill, if it hasn't crossed over from the house to the senate or vise versa, it dies. So, let's take a look at the funding playing field now.

House Bill 1218, Governor Perdue's laughable attempt at a transportation funding solution is a casualty of last week. It relieved MARTA of it's 50/50 restriction on tax dollars from Fulton and Dekalb counties, but it didn't offer much else. After hanging out in the House, a MARTA exclusion had been tacked on, and due to some revisions, GP had even said he was going to veto it in its current form. So that now leaves us with HB 277, HR 206, and, I believe, SB 120 is still out there.

HB 277 - House Bill 277 amends Title 32 of the Official Code of Georgia to create a 2020 Transportation Trust Fund Oversight Committee which will determine what to do with funds that would in part be gained from an additional 1% special transportation use and sales tax.

HR 206 - House Resolution 206 that does, in essence, the same thing with less fanfare, proposing an amendment to the state constitution to create a Transportation Trust Fund to levy a 1% sales and use tax and determine the use of those funds.

Also, Friday gave us HB 1393 which lifts the sales tax cap on Clayton County, allowing voters to pass a 1% sales tax to fund transit, much like Dekalb and Fulton counties do now. This could be a save for C-TRAN, which is desperately needed. A lot of people don't realize what a reduction or total loss of service of transit means. I've had this discussion with a coworker and she says people got along fine without MARTA 30 years ago. Well a lot of things have happened in those 30 years, and they still had buses which offered a level of service. Clayton County will have no service as of Wednesday.

So what?

Well, in a survey published by www.11alive.com, most C-TRAN riders will loose their jobs. See, a few years back, Atlanta razed all the projects in the name of progress and sent those people to Clayton County. Therefore, Clayton County is full of working poor. The working poor are those on minimum wage, and fall below the poverty line of $11,201 a year. These are people who have jobs, but can't afford cars. These are the people I work with at my shelter. So out of the 500 riders surveyed, 75% said they may loose their jobs and 52% may have to quit school. These are people who are trying to make their lives better, but are being forced to continue the cycle of poverty because of funding. People who went to school when they were laid-off. 61% use C-TRAN to get to work, 12% own a car. 54% of those riders are between the ages of 16 and 34 and 23% of them make less than $10,000 a year. 41% have some form of college education and 91% said they'd support an additional 1% sales tax devoted to transit. 92% are black.

Remember, though, that MARTA can't go into Clayton County because of it's charter, they actually were a vendor to the county for C-TRAN. How could they afford to operate in another county, anyways?

And just so we're clear, because I had to have this conversation this weekend with someone who I thought would know, transit is not paid for at the fare box. Period. It's not that MARTA is mismanaged or that enough people aren't riding, no transit system is self-sustaining, not MTA in New York or WMATA in DC, that's why they're all funded by the state, o, well, except for MARTA.

There are additional transit funding sources that are readily available out there. Things like TSPLOSTs, but those won't help soon enough, and the removal of the 50/50 stipulation is, while necessary, no longer enough to fix the problem. There's also the 1% sales tax on motor fuel which currently goes to the General Fund. I know, they need that money too, but it can help. As it stands, however, these moneys are only available for roads and bridges, and this would need to be changed so that all transportation purposes qualify.

And while I don't have the full scoop on this, apparently Dr. Beverly Scott, CEO of MARTA, also has proposed to sell MARTA property, like the rail yard, to the state, giving MARTA an instant source of cash. This could also make the state a share holder and giving it some of the control it seems desperate to have. I think it's actually a good plan.

So that's where we're at, best I can figure.

Best GDOT sign ever

2010-03-29T10:39:00.001-04:00

So One and I were driving home from the movies last night and saw the most awesome GDOT sign. I couldn't get a picture of it, I just wasn't prepared and I'm pretty sure he wasn't going to like stopping in the middle of 75 south in the Grady curve to let me get my camera out. I'm going to keep an eye and a camera out for it, but in the meantime, here's by best attempt at transcription, 12 hours after the fact. Have y'all seen this?

Census Form Due April 1
Help Georgia get its share of Transportation Funding

MARTA loves TMiATL

2010-03-26T11:54:00.001-04:00

I've been on my deathbed for a week, sorry for not posting. (Thanks AC for keeping up some!) I had the most wicked flu/ bronchitis I've ever had, I'd say it was worse than the time I had pneumonia (but that was like 15 years ago, so I'm not really a good judge), and I totally blame MARTA for this brush with death. Apparently MARTA has been passing around a particularly nasty virus and I caught it. We're not going into how, just know that I know people who know people and those people like trains. And they have a really fun nickname.

But the death flu isn't the only thing that MARTA has given me recently. Apparently he-who-shall-not-be-named-carrier-of-diseases has passed around this here blog a time or two to MARTA. And it caught on. And some folks in Marketing really liked it. And they invited me to come to Headquarters to hang out. And they gave me cool things that my own personal grim reaper is a little disgruntled over, like an awesome photo of an old bus and tokens. What can I say? MARTA likes me more. :)

But the MARTA folks were so nice and really excited about meeting little ole me; I felt like a celebrity. I'm not going to lie, though, it still cracks me up that the post they remember the most is The Boob Tap. I'm really excited to have met everyone, but they also made me a deal I couldn't refuse. They're looking to revamp their stock photos now that they have fancy new buses, bus shelters, and that ride-store wrap down at the airport. The kicker? They want me to bring my transit loving buddies and we get to be the star subjects of said photo shoot! I've drafted the Accidental Commuter and That's MARTA! but MARTA said something about diversity and three hot white girls in the 20 to 30 something range probably doesn't qualify. So we're gathering our diverse yet MARTA knowledgeable friends to join us for a photo shoot. I'm opening this to you, dear readers, but you should own a Breeze and ride MARTA more often than when I have a pub crawl. ;) MARTA wants people who know how to use the system. So if you're interested, and particularly if you're not a young, hot, white girl, leave a comment and we'll talk about making you a MARTA star.

Bad Spelling Scavenger Hunt

2010-03-23T14:52:00.008-04:00

I have an idea. I just posted something on our Facebook fan page (be a joiner!) about really wanting someone to take a picture of the sign that reads "Georgian Terrance Hotel" at the North Avenue MARTA station. I can't do math, I was born without a sense of direction and I don't do technology very well. But I can spell and that sign cracks me up. How many people do you think saw that thing before they hung it up at the station? You know those stupid emails that get passed around that say something about you can recnogzie tihs wrod bacuese it has all of the same letters as the intended word and because the first and last letters are in the correct place your brain automatically decodes it? The premise is that we don't actually pay attention to every letter of the words that we read everyday. That's a load of crap. If it were true then we wouldn't be able to recognize misspellings. We process every letter of every word that we read, we just do it at such an incredibly fast rate (milliseconds) that we don't know we're doing it. Anyway, I would love for someone to get that picture and post it on here (can they do that CCT Girl? This world of blogging and camera phones and the interwebs is still so strange and confusing to me). I would try to do it myself since I have my new kick-ass phone that can take pictures and do my taxes and fold my laundry but that would involve getting off of the train at North Avenue, making sure that I am on the correct side of the tracks (which I can promise you would totally not happen), taking said picture, and figuring out how to transfer it from my phone to my Mac to this blog. The probability of me being able to handle just one or two out of these four steps is highly unlikely, much less being able to carry them ALL out successfully. There are probably actually more than four steps but I just didn't count them up right.

I know that the subject line of this includes the term "scavenger hunt" like there is a prize or something. This should be intrinsically rewarding. Or we could promise to really like you. Personally, I already like you for reading our blog and for taking an interest in saving the world through public transportation. So in my book, you're already a winner. I just need you to take a picture for me.

Your Weekly Transit Photo Blog!

2010-03-19T11:55:00.002-04:00

To begin this week's transit photos, let me introduce you to The Preacher.

The Preacher may be one of MARTA's most notorious crazies because he is a rush hour commuter crazy. This fella doesn't hide in the obscure hours, oh no, he's on the train during prime time to tell you all about how no one can judge you but God and that God will take care of you and give you jobs you don't deserve if you trust in Him. The Preacher is always dressed colorfully and talks non-stop. If all else fails, he is consistent!

Spotted on the side of Ponce, while waiting on the Number Two. Pretty sure it's part of the old Streetcar lines. One says it's a guy wire for an electrical pole. I'm think I'm right.

MARTA has taken a stance on population control, and I'm proud of her for it. Myself, I'm more into the zero-population growth theory, but I have to give MATRA props for coming out in support of the idea none-the-less. *

Y'all know I'll buy anything kitchy and train related. It used to be that I bought these things for One, sort of as my way to thank him cause he has this impeciable ability to not let me pay for anything. Ever. Then I just started buying it all for me. So the other night, Two and I went to Octane on the Westside and a local artist, Brooke, has an exhibit of collages up. They are adorable. Then I saw the train and immediately had to have it. But it was sold. Of course. So I took a picture of it on my phone and e-mailed it to her begging for one of my own. So, of course, Brooke was so willing to oblige. So this is my custom made Loco Train, which I think is very fitting for me. Sorry for the craptastic photo, it's my cell. But head on down this weekend to check out her show, there are some great pieces (like an adorable sloth) and you should e-mail Brooke for your own awesome train. Support local artisits!

* I know MARTA's not really pro-population control. I am, and this sign makes me laugh. Particularly after riding the Number Two after a drink or two.

More Busking

2010-03-19T08:25:00.002-04:00

I would give these men all my money.

Newfound Faith

2010-03-18T16:16:00.004-04:00

Looks like MARTA doesn't *kill* the pigeons, I was wrong. Sorry for conspiring to hold a pigeon rally, MARTA. I'll also ax that petition and Facebook group to save Atlanta's pigeons. Guess I need to get back in touch with PETA, too, call them off.

Maybe my feathery commuter is out there, somewhere, eating another poptart and waiting for his big break on Mike Tyson's new show after all.

I miss you, little pigeon dude.

Words to Know

2010-03-18T10:22:00.001-04:00

As we continue on with our series of words to know, we're going to diverge for a moment and hop an imaginary plane over to Asia to examine how the Chinese think about transit. For those of you who don't know, following a scholarship program and a year of Mandarin courses in college, I went to China to hang out for a little while, try out my new language skills and all. Now, many years later, I talk to myself in Chinese so I can retain these mad language skills. I feel like knowing Chinese is a useful skill, and don't want to loose it.

That being said, last night, as I was talking to myself, I realized something. I realized that the Chinese like trains. A lot. A whole lot. Now when I was over there, I did take trains quite often around the country. In fact, my first trip in a sleeper car was from Shanghai to Guilin. They rely much more heavily on transit than we do in America, much like the rest of the world. But why do I say the Chinese love trains so much?

Because the Mandarin word for "go" is 去. Yea, I know that means nothing to most of you. But the pin yin for this character is "qu", which for you Americans is pronounced "choo." So in China, if you want to go somewhere, it's by choo choo!

March MARTA Musings

2010-03-17T20:03:00.007-04:00

So CCT Girl recently pointed out to me that it's been quite a while since I posted anything. I would really love to say that it's because I'm so busy with school, and that's partly it but it's mostly because I have recently found other ways of channeling my proclivity to procrastination. For example, I have a test tomorrow which is going to cover quite a range of information. But CCT Girl bought me some very fancy-pants eye makeup for my birthday (complete with lesson performed on the back of her hand). That was on Sunday and I have yet to properly apply said makeup and let her know how it went. I think that's on the list just above cracking a book. And then there's my new phone. It takes pictures and you can send them to other people like right away. I don't really need a phone that does this, but apparently the Jitterbug is the only device on the market without this feature.

The other, bigger reason why I haven't posted much lately is that CCT Girl is a responsible blogger who keeps herself informed on all things MARTA and strives to disseminate her acquired information to others. I don't really have the drive, the contacts, and the time to stay in the loop like that. She has a lot to say and I just like to bitch. About Breeze cards, why MARTA hates pigeons, why I still don't have any street cred despite commuting to Five Points four days a week, people making out on MARTA, how men on MARTA talk to each other about women and how we "all are" right in front of me like I'm some kind of asexual cyborg, and why the Mansell Park and Ride needs more publicity so that I don't have to be a one-woman shuttle for family members who need to get to the airport (don't worry, I still totally make their asses take the train from North Springs, but it would've been cool if I had known a while ago that I could tell them to use the Park and Ride).

Please understand that I care about the issues. I think that the fact that Clayton County will no longer have bus service is really sad and I feel for all of the people who depend on that system to get to work, get their kids to the doctor, do their grocery shopping, etc. But I can't remember what Clayton County calls its transit system and I don't like to take a stand unless I have all of the details. (Yeah, I'm taking a stand but I got a chance to point out my ignorance first, which makes it ok). I think that the budget deficit is very frightening but my political views are a complete 180 from most of the folks who blame the State of Georgia for MARTA's financial woes. I don't like getting into arguments, especially of the online, anonymous nature. It's like road rage. People can get crazy-rude whilst commenting on blogs.

Finally, I have a tendency to ramble and lose my train of thought and completely forget what my point was when I blog. CCT Girl has points. And pictures, videos, stats, charts, graphs and links. So while I'm flattered to be part of this blog, I'm never going to be the kind of contributor that she is. The blog's new fan page on Facebook (if you're not a fan please become one immediately, thx) states that the blog is about two girls who are new to the world of transit. I'm kind of like the blog's flakey older sister who can't remember Mom's birthday and leaves the coffeemaker on all day. I figured that I would clear up some confusion about who the other half (which is more like the other 10%) of the blog is. And deep down I know that I'm not supposed to end sentences with "is" but it just gives me a cheap thrill.

CCTgirl?

2010-03-17T18:23:00.003-04:00

Someone who shall remain nameless said I need to be writing about CCT more, since that is my namesake. When I started this blog I lived in Cobb County, along Cobb Parkway, and rode the CCT more. Part of the name and the initial purpose of this blog came from all the blunders I was experiencing on CCT, like missing the bus because it was early, loosing money in the Breeze machine, learning the hard way that it doesn't run on Sundays, and craziness in general.

Since then I have moved ITP, to East Point to be exact. However, my job is still in Cobb County, so I'm still getting on that CCT express bus *hopefully* in the mornings and evenings. And while I still love my bus and the folks on it, the blog has taken on much more of a MARTA slant. Frankly, I'm on MARTA more now. And also the new bus driver on the 10b in the mornings is awesome. I need to get his name and write CCT about how cool he is. After I had to call him out that one time for not going to my office because, "No one there rides this bus," he and I get along well now. And if I catch him on the evenings on the 50, I'm happy to see him. He is by far one of the most efficient drivers I've met, but I'm not sure I like the fact that he gets me to the office ten minutes early. That's loss of sleep for me. But I'm not getting any good CCT stories because my commutes have been nothing if not perfectly smooth. And right now, I feel like MARTA needs me more to raise awareness of it's funding issues.

We'll have to see what happens to CCT when Sam Olens leaves to pursue his race for Attorney General. I kinda hate to see him leave Cobb County, because frankly, he's been damn good at his job of County Commissioner, and from what I've heard, I'm not too sure how his chances of winning this election are. It seems like he has some good competition. So if CCTgirl seems a little MARTAgirl, I'm sorry, CCT is just kicking my butt. I can't poke fun at a system that runs beautifully (at least when I'm on it), and, as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to have a mission against pigeons.

Proposed CCT Cuts

2010-03-17T17:56:00.002-04:00

We know MARTA is facing some severe cuts from bus miles to service hours and staff, but how are other transit systems in the region fairing? Of course, on Wednesday, March 31st, C-TRAN will straight up stop running, and in a little over a year, GRTA will be all out of funding as well. So where does that leave my namesake, CCT?

CCT seems to be doing a little bit better than most due to it's conservative management. They've purchased some new buses and have added a new route, the 35, which started in January. But that doesn't mean they aren't looking at cuts, either. CCT recently announced proposed cuts to the 40, 65, and 70. They're not going to kill these routes, just reduce the reduce the number of trips in the case of the 65 and 70, and redirect the 40. I can see why they're redirecting the 40, it will actually increase CCT's coverage of Marietta and those areas they are cutting out will still be served by other routes.

On the other hand, the reductions in service of the 70 and in particular the 65 confound me. CCT is proposing to cut the mid-day service to these routes during the week. Out of these two routes, the only one I've ridden around on is the 65, down Roswell Road. This is one of the main roads for Cobb County, and it's the only route that services East Cobb. This is one of my buddy's daily routes to work, and he says that while it won't really effect him, around ten folks get on it with him in the mornings. I guess he won't be making any daytime errands, though.

For the 70, this means that during the day, there won't be any service to the Wal-Mart in Powder Springs, nor the Department of Driver Services or the Cobb County Health Center from 8:30 until 4:00. These seem like crucial service (yea, yea, people need groceries, folks, and medicine). You're still be able to get to the hospital, but that'll require taking the 35, which means, if you live in Cumberland, you'll have to go all the way to the MTC to catch the bus.

There are still community meetings regarding these proposed changes, and you can find out about them by going to CCT's website, but I actually couldn't find them, I had to ask:

CCT Public Meetings

There's also a comment period open until April 27th. You can e-mail your thoughts to the CCT manager, Rebecca Gutowsky. Remember, be nice. The angry people at these meetings who yell and won't listen and aren't constructive drive me bonkers.

What MARTA needs

2010-03-16T14:10:00.002-04:00

is some busking. Let's check out what the interwebs have to tell us about the art of busking.

To busk, a British term, is to entertain by dancing, singing, or reciting on the street or a public place, usually while soliciting money. The word originates from the 1850s and is in part derived from the french term busker to cruise or shift as a pirate, generally looking for prostitutes, and y'all know I like pirates (and prostitutes!).

Some examples, if you please:

Some band called Metro Station (how appropriate) busking on the MTA.

I'm still trying to figure out where the rest of the orchestra is.

Variety!

Lots of famous people have been known to busk occasionally, from Paul McCartney to Sting, Bon Jovi, and Bruce Springsteen. Not too long ago Moby got some flak for hitting up a London tube station and only making 5 pounds (yes, I'm too lazy to figure out how to use that fancy L).

Everyone is familiar with the concept, if not the term. It's the folks who are out in city streets, parks, and subway stations playing music or doing magic tricks or miming with a bucket, hat, or open guitar case to collect tips. I have seen some fantastic buskers, from a 12 piece band in New Orleans to a man being blown away in York, but not here, in Atlanta. And don't you tell me we don't have any creative folks or certainly musicians in this city. So where are they? Don't tell me they're all up in Def Jams working on their albums, or waiting on the next American Idol tryouts.

London and New York have learned to capitalize on busking. They hold auditions and issue permits so that they can guarantee the quality of the buskers, and London has spaces designated for them painted off in the stations (look for them in the videos posted above). (I tried to find out more about the process on MTA's website, but honestly, their site is as about as negotiable as my tax forms, so I gave up. After two minutes, more or less. Go MARTA for usability!) But the buskers on those systems are good and can make that commute a little bit better, since MARTA won't let the pigeons hang out, I need some form of entertainment, and there aren't always crazies around to watch.

Busking isn't illegal, it's a constitutional right, free speech or something like that, and I think it could liven up MARTA's image. People don't realize how awesome MARTA is (I am not biased, thank you) and this could be a draw. They could hold auditions, publicize them, make it a big deal. Then we could get some quality entertainment in the stations. There's SCAD, the Atlanta Institute of Music, Georgia State in this city; there is lots of quality to be had. You could even make Five Points an art gallery and students could have rotating shows. And artists could paint the designated busking spaces for MARTA, too.

So MARTA, if you're reading this (maybe any people from, say, the Marketing department??? ;) I'm proposing we do this. We can advertise it on Facebook, since MARTA has a fan page, and in the AJC or something, and have auditions for permits to busk. I don't know who they'll want to judge, I can imagine they could get some people the arts scene here in the city, like from Woodruff, and have them do it, or I can arrange something for them (I know a thing or two about music. Just two.) It shouldn't cost anything and might just help with that MARTA cool factor. People might even start throwing bras around the stations. Who wouldn't at this dude?

A memorial to my feathery commuting friend

2010-03-16T10:59:00.002-04:00

Dear pigeon friend, I am so sorry I could not save you (and yes, I did run around Five Points chasing pigeons to check out their feet). But I fear that MARTA has already killed you with some tasty poisoned treat and now we will never commute together again. And I had high hopes for us, that we could be famous and beat Mike Tyson.

I will miss you.

Weekly Transit Photos

2010-03-15T13:08:00.004-04:00

Pretend this was posted Friday, on the normal photo op day for me, will ya? I appreciate it!

Dum dum dum - time for your weekly photos! What crazy crap did I see this week? For starters, I have seen some questionably dressed women and a gentleman who apparently couldn't hold it on the train any longer. Someone should tell him the stations have restrooms, and they're actually pretty clean (go MARTA!). But I have decided that I'm not mean, so I'm not taking pictures of people to poke fun of. Only crazies. Or crazy signage, like today's images:

See, this is how the warnings on MARTA trains used to look. Small, concise, don't smoke, or play your radio, or talk to the operator, or bring an uncaged, non-seeing eye dog pet on MARTA. And no train hopping. However, they've gone to sticking big ole sticker up there:

So leave your guns at home, plus all your food, and don't attack a MARTA employee. I guess you can assault other passengers all you want. PS - RADIOS ARE STILL UNLAWFUL. Buy some headphones.

C-TRAN is probably dead because the County Commission doesn't want to save it. They were given options, they didn't care. They suck. But service stops on March 31st, and I feel bad for the people who depend on C-TRAN. Foreshadowing of MARTA's future? Maybe....

A few posts ago I talked about the Number Two, and how along its route is the last remaining street car shelter. The other day I was on the two and attempted to take a picture of said shelter. This is a hard task from a moving bus. However, if you look to the far right, you can see the wooden shelter. This summer, when those bushes are blooming, I will take a real photo. Hopefully before the route disappears.

This morning I commuted with this fellow, who had a poptart for breakfast. Spotted on the North bound platform.

He is not shy, but people scurried from him like he would attack. On the other hand, if you look closely, you will see that his little feet are badly mangled so that he's basically walking on the tops of his claws. There were also a lot of feather lying around, so this little commuter is not doing well. If you see him, trap him, stick him in a box, and call/message me or call Michael at AWAREone.org.

Obsessions

2010-03-15T12:31:00.002-04:00

I have two obsessions, Etsy.com and transit. As a psychologist, I can safely diagnose myself with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, not quite OCD, but definitely show a tendency towards obsessions. (And you are not allowed to use this against me!) As a kid it was any sword-swinging superhero (holla to my She-ra fans!) and Egyptology. Now, as I've matured, it looks like transit is my new thing.

I tell you this because occasionally I go to etsy.com and type in the word train. I find AWESOME stuff there. But the most awesomest, I have to say, are these:

Most rad earrings ever

Therefore, you should buy some for yourself or your woman. Or man. Or buy me the matching necklace. Whatever. Derrick is awesome, give him all your moneys.

And yes, I did have them customized and they totally say CCTgirl. I am SO cool.

PRINCESS OF POWER!

Bus Bridge Awesomeness

2010-03-11T20:36:00.003-05:00

Sometimes MARTA has some track problems that cause them to close a station or a section of track competely; this is no single tracking business at all. They do this for major problems, like flooded tracks, crazy people going for strolls down the tunnels, and suspicious packages (aka bomb imposters). I think they also do this for the MARTA employee picnics, so they can use the third rail for cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. I hear it's a rapid cook sort of deal. Feed the masses in minutes so they can get back in their buses and drive me down Ponce.

But what happens when MARTA closes a portion of the track or when they're hungry? Can you go no further towards your destination of choice, thereby having to call work and call in MARTA? O no, folks, MARTA comes to the rescue with the Bus Bridge.

Now, I've never actually experienced a bus bridge before. The one time it was an option for me, Two got us a zip car instead, totally killing my chances of bus bridging. So I can't say from experience what exactly it is, I can just tell you my understanding of it as a transit novice.

When bridging, the buses ferry passengers to bridge the gap in train service. So when there's a closure on the train line, the train will stop at the furthest most station and the helpful station agents and MARTA police will kindly, and friendly, kick you off. They may not tell you why there's a closure, it's not really their job. They just make you go away. It's an exercise in Rider Herding, and I hear that's pretty close to herding cats. I mean, when we were faced with the bridging awesomeness, Two and I went upstairs, tottled around, played with our phones, and then went back down and got on the train to go south again. We were a herding fail. Sorry MARTA.

Once the passengers hop on a bus, I suppose whichever one is just idling around outside the station, the handy dandy driver takes them to the next station so they can get back on a train to go where ever. I bet it's pretty rad. I don't know if they take a normal route or an extra special bridge route, but I'm hoping for the latter.

So I'm anxiously awaiting the next MARTA picnic or bomb threat or something so I can ride on a bus bridge. But if you're ever faced with it, you shouldn't worry, assuming you don't stray from the herd.

Performance Anxiety

2010-03-10T17:29:00.002-05:00

I don't know how to follow up that last post. It's just daughting. I mean, The Boob Tap got more hits than any other post I've yet to write, followed in close second by me getting attacked by a homeless dude at Five Points. I'm not sure what that says about y'all.

For the most part, my rides this week have been rather uneventful, my buses timely. In fact, the new dude on the 10b in the mornings gets us to work early. I'm not sure this is a good thing. Some bus driver has hit the MARTA number 12 bus shelter at Cumberland. The roof is bent up. The bus last night had some jacked up tires. All in all, a pretty good week so far.

But I have been getting hit on a lot lately. Dudes have apparently not taken my MARTA Dating Advice to heart. I got one fella, Dwayne, who introduced himself. He was nice. But I was reading. One guy who gets points for checking out my tats and asking what they said. And one dude who needs to be taken out back and shot. For real. This old man had the following conversation with me, while I was reading my book, no less:

"You smell good."
"Uh, thanks."
"You got a man."
"Yup."
"Your man black?"
"Ah, no."
"You want a black man?"
"I'm good, thanks."
"I'll be your black man. I'll make you squirt. Your man make you squirt?"

Dude, really? That is not how you pick up chicks. Not at all. I mean, does any self-respecting woman fall for that? Ew. Just ew.

I'm kinda embarassed for posting this. But it happened.

Ew.

The Boob Tap

2010-03-09T11:22:00.003-05:00

Friday night That's MARTA! and I went out on the town. We met at Five Points and walked to the Elliot Street Pub, which is where a bunch of the transit oriented hang out. That's not the point of this post, though, the point is that we got into a conversation which lead us down the path of The Boob Tap.

See, girls will stick stuff in our bras, especially when we are wearing dress pants or skirts and have no pockets. I hate pocket books and they're not a speedy way to store stuff. Bras are. The two main things that go in there are my cell phone and my Breeze card. Among those girls talking at the bar, we all agreed, Breeze cards are best stored via bra. I'm always terrified the thing is going to fall out of my pants pocket so I check it constantly if I stick it there. And I have lost the thing a couple of times. Not permanently, but it's been missing before, for sure. Things stay pretty secure in a bra.

So this led us to discussing the possibility of The Boob Tap. That's right, tapping in or out without removing the card. Well, this morning there weren't too many people hanging around Kensington Station, so I Boob Tapped. It totally works. I'm sure it looks funny as all get out, but now I can use my tatas for the power of transit.

Yup, I stoled it

2010-03-08T15:36:00.000-05:00

But I think it's wildly interesting. So, from the MARTA facebook page, what the heck that logo means:

MARTA’s 3-color scheme of Orange, Yellow and Blue acknowledged Atlanta’s transit history. The Georgia Railway and Power Co. (formed in 1902) owned blue and yellow buses. After the transit strike of 1950, the Atlanta Transit Company took over operations and they owned orange buses.

I love it, and think it's perfect.

New Blog Project

2010-03-08T11:58:00.004-05:00

I'm addicted to blogging. So I've started a new one, to run along side this one, my first true love. Check it:

http://missionplastic.blogspot.com/

Bras!!!

2010-03-04T12:36:00.002-05:00

That's right. This is a blog post about bras. Bras and transit. I'm pretty sure, it might be the coolest blog post ever. At least if you're a transit nerd.

So, how do bras and transit go together? Are train operators like rock stars and girls through their panties on stage (or, uhm, their little box) to them? Is it cool to dangle your bras from the poles on the bus like it's a trashy dive bar?

MARTA might be cooler and more popular if this were the case, and the operators would most likely never be disgruntled, but sadly, no, not really.

But, MARTA's annex offices are housed in an old bra factory. I thought this was a very cool fact. Therefore, I share.

And in other bra/transit news, my favorite bra is the Kennsington by Prima Donna. It may be my favorite bra because it's pretty and it makes me feel sexy, but it's probably my favorite bra because I get on the train at Kennsington Station. It is also a Tube station.

Why yes, I am that much of a dork.

A Memorial to the number Two

2010-03-03T16:57:00.003-05:00

If you weren't aware, MARTA is facing some severe (Draconian!) cuts. (And, if you weren't aware, you live under a rock. And obviously don't read my blog often enough!) The vast majority of these, outside of reducing train operating hours, will be bus cuts. Drastic bus cuts. And the folks at MARTA have thought long and hard about how to organize these cuts so that they're the least disruptive to riders. They're holding forums and taking into consideration what the people are saying. I mean, these planners are really trying.

But they're cutting the Number Two.

The Number Two isn't one of my regular buses. It could be, but they don't actually run at a time that works for me in the morning. But it's a route I do take on occasion and am rather fond of. The Two runs down Ponce from North Ave to Avondale and it is a historical route, it follows the old street car line. In fact, one of the Two's bus stops, down by East Lake, is actually the last remaining street car stop. So I feel a little heart broken.

Don't get me wrong, most of that area will still be served by the redirected Number Six, but the Two is such a fun route down Ponce. All the best parts of Atlanta are down there, Eats, the Local, Green's, the Clermont. All the coolest people ride the Two (like that dude who stared at me while I ate at Eats not too long ago), and some great stories came off that line. Stories like the one about the bus driver who's evening poker game was robbed. The next day, one of the punks who robbed him got on his bus, the Number Two, so the driver took him straight to the police station.

Or Harry, my favorite Ponce story. Harry Brown was a well-known body builder in the 60's, winning national competitions. Well, Harry lived on Ponce, Ponce Place to be exact. One night, as Harry and a friend waited on the bus, the driver just kept on going and missed picking up Harry and his friend. (Like bus driver's ever do that!) So what is a fella like Harry to do?

Harry ran down Ponce and beat the Two to the next bus stop so he could wait on the bus like any nice rider. However, as he boarded the bus, he drug the driver off of the bus and beat him down, on Ponce. Reportedly the driver never passed Ponce Place again.

Now what other MARTA bus line is that cool?

(Thanks to my buddy LN for the stories :)

Today's blog is brought to you

2010-03-02T11:47:00.003-05:00

by the letter S. S is for single tracking.

MARTA has seen a lot of single tracking lately, particularly on the south side, between Garnett and Oakland City. Guess where I get on the train?

So what is single tracking? I had to learn this one as a transit newbie, and since this blog is to share all my transit wealth, here I am to tell you all about single tracking.

MARTA is a two track system, meaning one track is dedicated for trains going north bound and the other is dedicated for trains going south bound (or, you know, East and West. Just pick a direction). This allows for more trains to be going at once and for less wait time. Simple concept, right? Not all subway lines are double tracks, like parts of the Tube (London, folks).

So when MARTA is single tracking, that means that they have closed one side of the track in that direction. For example, they close the South track and both North and South bound trains have to share one track. Therefore, they have to wait for one another to pass and it adds on to commute time, as you hang out on the train.

Now don't ask me what they're doing on the other side of the tracks as they close them. Supposedly it's to repair the track. I'm pretty sure it's to build snow men that they can then run over with trains. That or they're having parties. Maybe a combination of both. But it makes people stir crazy when you trap them in a metal box and then don't move the box.

Supposedly you can check the MARTA website to see if they're single tracking. I wouldn't know, cause I like to gamble with my commute. I just show up, get on a train, sometimes even the right one, and see where I end up. It makes transit that much more fun!

(and yes, I totally spazzed out at Avondale last night because there train with a sign for Indian Creek on the other side of the station and I thought I had gotten on the wrong platform. The operator just parked it there. To mess with me, I'm sure.)

Monday Morning Commute Thoughts

2010-03-01T10:21:00.001-05:00

Why do people sit there and keep trying to use a Breeze card that Xs out? Seriously, people. Walk over to the machine and put more money on the darn thing.

MARTAgeddon

2010-02-26T13:52:00.004-05:00

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

Politicians and MARTA

2010-02-25T11:22:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-25T11:06:00.002-05:00

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

Cell Phones and Breeze Cards

2010-02-24T15:57:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-02-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

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!

MARTA Community Forums

2010-02-23T14:35:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-02-23T14:31:00.002-05:00

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.

All I have to say is WOW

2010-02-19T15:55:00.001-05:00

Weekly Transit Photos

2010-02-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

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.

No Streetcar :(

2010-02-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

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?

Cabbies

2010-02-16T12:27:00.002-05:00

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?

Snowpolozia 2010 Part Duex

2010-02-15T12:28:00.000-05:00

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 :)

Time for this week's Transit Pictures!

2010-02-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

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!

I'm disappointed in you, MARTA

2010-02-11T17:59:00.002-05:00

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

Transit Funding Soapbox

2010-02-11T16:40:00.007-05:00

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.

2010-02-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

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?

The Lavender Line, for all those Gays in Midtown!

2010-02-10T14:56:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-10T12:11:00.002-05:00

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?

Soapbox

2010-02-09T16:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-09T13:20:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-09T12:55:00.003-05:00

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.

Mansell Park & Ride

2010-02-06T18:00:00.005-05:00

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).

This week's transit pictures

2010-02-05T11:38:00.001-05:00

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

To GoodManRenting

2010-02-04T15:53:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-02-04T11:25:00.001-05:00

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!

Updates

2010-02-01T12:59:00.001-05:00

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?!?!"

MARTA Dating Tips

2010-01-27T12:10:00.001-05:00

For the final stretch of my ride home Monday night, I hopped on the train at Avondale, post a stint at the Corner Pub with One and Two, to Kensington. One stop. At 10pm, my normal commute time. Except that night, there was crazy all up on that train and it had it's eye on me.

See, there was this dude sitting across the aisle from me. We were in the capper seats facing one another (there were, indeed, no cappers present requiring said seats, thankyouverymuch) and I plopped down and leaned back while discussing with my bud Steph about my tenure at the shelter via cellular phone. I mentioned that I had been there one year when crazy dude pipes in with a whole, "Girl, why you been staying in the shelter for a year?" I explained that I'm the manager there, it's my job. See, but that was my mistake, don't engage the crazy.

I leaned back again and continued my conversation when I feel something on my boot. Sure enough, crazy was playing with my foot. On the train. Who does that? I shake him off and continue with said conversation. Then he does it again, and when I look at him, he licks his lips. Ew. Just ew. So I continue to ignore him. Once more, my toes are squeezed and he says, "Hang up". It's about this point, in my bad day, that I proceed to tell him to stop touching me. This gets him going, "You crazy not to talk to this good looking man." No, you crazy, hitting up on some chick on the train when she is obviously not into you at all.

Fellas, I'm not saying to not talk to a girl on the train; I know Two's dream girl is car free like him, so MARTA might even be a good place for him to meet such a lady. But you've got to do this one right, because the creep factor can be super high if you're chatting up someone on transit.

So I offer you my dating tips, as verified by the Accidental Commuter.

First. DO NOT TOUCH. Especially feet. I mean, really. Most girls have this whole "Transit = dirty" stigma. There are a lot of people on that train everyday, and this means germs and general ickiness. So don't spread anymore ickiness. And most people just don't like being touched without provocation.

Second. If it's a weeknight and it's 10pm, this is not the time to engage someone in conversation. Only crazies do that. A safe time to engage girls in conversation is generally 10:30am to around 8pm, unless its the weekend, when you're safe up til close to midnight. This is because people don't want to chat it up usually during the morning commute so you're just annoying. Unless she's a super crazy morning person, and then she just may well be annoying. But in the AM, she's reading her newspaper, still a bit groggy, and not looking forward to that 9 to 5. However, during lunch or daytime errands, or the commute home, this can be a good time to hit it off with the girl of your transit dreams. But after 8, you get into that latenight-creepy factor, and she's had a long day and is trying to get home, so again, I'd stay away and let her come to you if she's so inclined.

Third. If someone is on the phone, leaning back, has their eyes closed or is anyway not paying attention to you, do not talk to them, this is not a bar. Only engage with someone if they look at you. And I mean LOOK at you. This look should either a: be eye contact lasting longer than three seconds, b: result in a smile, or c: be followed up with a second look. You should be looking for some sign of interest. And if she's reading a book, she doesn't want to talk to you.

Fourth: So she looked at you, twice, and she smiled. Now what? Does she have a seat? Do you? Offer her your seat or the one next to you so that she's close enough to engage. But what do you talk to her about? Talk about some crazy person on the train, there's usually one. Maybe the curly headed blond girl I always run into, or some joker selling something. But don't make fun of them, talk about how they make the commute more entertaining. Or you could talk about the ads, like how you were thinking about getting those blue jeans for curvy girls or hair extensions, or how that Troy map got you lost one time. Be fun, have humor. Transit girls like humor. We also like dorks, so it's a safe bet to make fun of yourself. Don't try to be cool or slick, cool turns to creepy too fast. And please don't ask her where she's going. If she wants you to know, she'll tell you. Unless she has luggage and is heading to or away from the airport, then you can inquire about her trip.

Fifth: You've engaged her in some light conversation, and she doesn't seem to be annoyed. Great! Seal the deal, but do it quickly. You never know when she'll be needing to get off. But how do you do that without being all creepy? I would recommend some cutesy strategy, like suggesting you two meet up again on the train. If it's Tuesday night and you're both headed home from the office, suggest that you do the commute again tomorrow. Saturday night? See you at on the way to brunch for some Hangover hash! If she laughs, drop it. Then it's not like you awkwardly asked her out and she declined, laugh along and pretend it's a joke. If she says sure, give her your business card with an e-mail address. Then she has the option to follow up if she cares to.

If you never hear from her and you see her again, just smile. She may come talk to you. She may ignore your existence. She may write about you in her blog. Us girls tend to get hit on more than you think on the train, so it's a fine line to tow if you get on that ship. You could even make fun of creeps who hit on girls on transit. But the best MARTA dating tip I have, is for pete's sake, help any chick you see on the train who's being harassed by a crazy. Pretend you know her, make said crazy go away, and you will be forever endeared to her.

Monday Afternoon

2010-01-26T12:23:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I wonder why the heck do I ride transit. I own a car. It's quite a nice, efficient, economical one, too. 35 miles to the gallon. And I love driving. By driving, I mean back mountain roads like in Virginia, not this nonsense they refer to as the Perimeter. And having your own car lends itself a degree of freedom. But I'm doing this to be environmentally conscious and support our lovely MARTA and try to by humble and put myself on the same level as the ladies that I live with at the shelter. And I get to nap on the hour long bus and write this blog. But then Monday afternoons hit, and I really second guess why I deal with this.

See, last night I had a meeting at the Sierra Club office, which is rather far from my day job up here in the burbs, CCT territory. I know transit can be a gamble, but it was the RAIL committee, and really, you just can't drive to the RAIL committee. So I hauled butt out of my office to catch the 50 to get the the CTC, and this would get me to the office at 6:46, or so the scheduling goes. Of course, the 50 was 3 minutes late, but that's actually really good for it, no lie. I mean, that's really on time in CCT land. So I'm riding along merrily on the 50, playing my jewel game on my phone (no one should have ever invented that, it's a total time suck, and I'm addicted) and as we pull up to the CTC, I start to hear the groans begin.

The 10 pulled away as we pulled up.

It left.

Early.

It pulled away three minutes early with the connecting 50 pulling up to the transfer center.

Really? I mean, what the hell, CCT? And to make matters worse, the next ten was late. So was the 10b, which I ended up getting on, so I didn't even make it to Arts Center until 6:45, to catch the 6:50 train south, to my 6:45 meeting on the east end of the line.

Thanks, CCT.

I drove today. I have another meeting at 6:30 tonight and I'm just not going to gamble on it, because you will just hose me. And I hate you, CCT.

Not a Street Car

2010-01-25T11:19:00.003-05:00

Ta-da! The light rail car that I have a hard time wanting to call a street car. I know it's not a street car, but don't forget, I'm not really a transit geek, I'm just surrounded by them. So I know the difference, kinda, but street car's easier to say.

Anyways, like a good little transit geek, I went to Centennial Park in the cold to check out the CATS S70, on it's way from the Siemens plant to its new home in Charlotte. And I took some photos (using my Olympus Stylus Waterproof camera, because I care more about durability on the river while kayaking than quality, so if you want quality (and quantity, heaven knows, check out the photos at Atlanta Transit on Flickr taken with a fancy smancy camera. We, at Transit Misadventures, are not so fancy smancy. Or crazy, for that matter ;).

Isn't it lovely? Maybe one day. But it was awfully nice of them to tease us with that cute Peachtree St sign, though.

You can read more about it on the Saporta Report.

Mondays!

2010-01-25T10:55:00.001-05:00

It always seems like Monday mornings are the most adventurous times on transit, at least for me. My day started off great. I woke up, got everything squared away at the shelter, turned in my two weeks worth of time sheets, made coffee and was out the door, looking cute I might add! I even made it out the door with enough time to stop and get some french toast sticks at Burger King, my newest obsession.

Got to Kensington and made it on my regular, 7:30 train, which put me to Five Points for my usual train north. Got to Arts Center, and there was no 10b. In fact, there was an out of service CCT coach just hanging out in it's usual spot. The 10b showed up at 8:10, and of course, our usual driver, Denise, wasn't there. Denise is punctual.

So we loaded on the bus, some woman got my preferred front seat, darn her! So I made my way to the back for a nap. But some Cathy Chatterbox chicks had to go at it the whole ride. I swear, one of them said "like" four times in two minutes. Don't they know this is a bus for sleepers? Maybe they just seemed so loud cause everyone really does sleep.

Anyways, made it up to Cobb County, I woke up somewhere on the back end of the 75 circle, and anxiously awaited my bus stop. However, it never came.

Remember how I said replacement driver. Well, she went straight at Powers Ferry, rather than turn. She missed my building. So I told her I'd just get off and walk the rest of the way, since she couldn't turn around. I tell you what, it is never fun to walk up a Mount Everest sized hill when you just woke up.