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Alternatives

Welcome!

The Alternatives below were presented in 2021 to get public feedback on priorities. The public engagement on the alternatives is now over and the MARTA Board has set a policy direction. The information here is available as background to the ongoing study.

To help the public think about about priorities, we drew the two contrasting images of how the network could look, depending on what is most important to people and what the public’s priorities are.  

 

Both concepts assumed that MARTA can run the same amount of bus service as it did in late 2019, just before the pandemic.  We can’t add more service, so we have to make some hard decisions about what’s most important.

How should we design our new network?

It depends on our goal

The Ridership Concept’s goal is to be useful to more people, so that more people ride.  Right now, we have lots of routes, but most of them don’t come often enough to be useful to most people. This concept would run higher frequency where there are the most people and destinations, but with a fixed budget, that would mean it couldn’t go everywhere that service goes now.


The Coverage Concept’s goal is to provide some service to as many as people as possible, including all existing riders.  This requires spreading service out, but spreading it out means spreading it thin.  When we run so many routes, we can’t afford to run the service very often, and because of that, fewer people find the bus system useful. 

Why do we have to make this choice?  We explain it more fully here.

When we plan for ridership, we get the following benefits:

  • Most people can get to more jobs and opportunities sooner.

  • We help mitigate pollution and congestion.

  • We get more money from fares, so that we can afford more service.

When we spread out our bus service (coverage) we get:

  • Bus service near more people’s homes and jobs.

  • Expansions into new areas on the edges of the region.

  • Lifeline transit access for everyone who needs it.

The two concepts show how we could design the new network depending on which goal is more important, using the same budget we have today. Your opinion will help us understand what to do when we design the final plan.

You can compare these concepts to the pre-pandemic network, which is here.

The concepts are not proposals. We will design the final plan later this year based on your input.

Coverage Concept

Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less

Purple lines arrive every 16 - 24 minutes

Blue lines arrive every 25 - 30 minutes

Light blue lines arrive every 31 - 60 minutes

This concept expands the network to cover more area, but because there are so many routes, MARTA can’t afford to increase frequencies very much. Ridership will be lower because most people won’t tolerate the long waits.

Click the map to open the full version

Concept.png

OUTCOMES

  • The average resident can reach 7% more jobs by transit in 30 minutes.

  • The average resident can reach 2% more jobs by transit in 60 minutes.

  • These numbers are probably similar for other destinations, like school, shopping, etc.

  • 30% of all residents are within 1/4 mile walk of any transit service, compared with 28% now.

  • 5% of all residents are within 1/4 mile walk of frequent transit service, which is unchanged.

  • Slightly more people have access to transit near their homes, because the network expands into more neighborhoods on the edges of the MARTA service area.

Ridership Concept

Red lines arrive every 15 minutes or less

Purple lines arrive every 16 - 24 minutes

Blue lines arrive every 25 - 30 minutes

Light blue lines arrive every 31 - 60 minutes

This concept connects the busiest parts of the region with the best possible bus service (every 15 minutes or better). On average, more people can get to more places sooner with this concept, so ridership will be higher.  But it’s not good for everyone.

Click the map to open the full version

Concept2.png

OUTCOMES

  • The average resident can reach 36% more jobs by transit in 30 minutes.

  • The average resident can reach 20% more jobs by transit in 60 minutes.

  • These numbers are probably similar for other destinations, like school, shopping, etc.

  • 20% of residents are within 1/4 mile walk of any transit service, compared with 28% now.

  • 12% of residents are within 1/4 mile walk of frequent transit service, compared with 5% now.

Want to know more? Download the concepts report at the library.

Public Engagement on the Concepts is Complete. The Draft NextGen Bus Network is now available.

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