4 Responses to “This is Embarrassing…”

1. michael on November 20th, 2009 2:52 pm

   The MARTA is an expensive, heavy rail transit system – for that reason, and the fact that most counties surrounding the two counties in which Atlanta city limits reside, opposed having MARTA service mainly because of rascism (you know, blacks coming out to the burbs and stealing televisions), is why you see that system stagnated. Those surrounding counties are now clamoring for service, but few have the population centers in place to justify such an expensive system.

2. Paul on November 22nd, 2009 10:05 am

   Blast, Michael stole my thunder. I lived in the ATL from the mid 80s to 2000 and he’s accurate: the system is heavy rail and quite expensive per mile. Some planners developed in the early 60s a map of where the system should reach. But the ignorance of those exurbanites (have you ever heard of a burglar riding the bus with his loot?) kept it bottled up inside the city beltway for years. And the lack of a centralized system and easy freeway dollars allowed suburb to suburb commuting to become common, rather than suburb to urban center.

   Like seattle, Atlanta had a strong streetcar network in the downtown area but that disappeared after the war (thanks, national city lines and your trackless trolley). Now so many cities — Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles — have to recreate all that.

   The irony of both Seattle and Atlanta looking at new York city in envy is that both had their opportunities to build these systems. I suspect Boeing could have become a player in this area.

3. Richard on November 30th, 2009 4:29 am

   Great video. @Webadmin – Your URL lacks an ‘M’ in embarrasing. Perhaps this might affect people finding your site here?

4. paul on November 30th, 2009 8:56 pm

   Thanks Richard, Its been fixed.

   -Paul

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