I have maintained throughout this blog, that one of the main, lesser known reasons that people do not choose MARTA, is that once they get off the station -- summer heat and humidity aside -- that walking on the sidewalks is a miserable experience. In January of 2018, I dedicated an entire posting on Ten Ways Midtown Torments Pedestrians and I can say that in the last 18 months there has been no improvement and with the addition of e-scooters to the streets and sidewalks, the experience is even more unpleasant. Crumbling sidewalks, deafening loud construction, closed sidewalks, vodka trucks stopping on sidewalks, motorists cutting off pedestrians, crosswalks with either faded or no paint contribute to the dysfunction. Making it even worse are those futuristic depictions that transportation nirvana is just around the corner.
My daily walk along Tenth Street from the MARTA station across the I-75-85 overpass is the lowlight of the shitty experience. ( Georgia Tech has the right idea for providing a shuttle for students and staff.) It was along this stretch that I was knocked to the pavement by an automobile making a right turn.Sometimes I take the 14th street bridge, which is wider, but crossing at Techwood or Spring Street is deceptively dangerous and a work colleague of mine was struck there last winter. He was seriously injured with a concussion to the point that he missed work for several months (but thankfully he has recovered).
Again, public transportation pundits, always like the point to the cost of gasoline as the gating factor to determine ridership in MARTA, but the year the I-85 bridge collapsed in flames, MARTA ridership decreased. Why? My theory is if people rode MARTA maybe it was an okay experience, but if they had to walk anywhere in Midtown that summer they probably felt that it wasn't worth the hassle and opted for even a longer car commute.
A Bridge Too Far? Open House on Proposed Improvements
It's too late for me, but Midtown Alliance and City of Atlanta are holding an open house on Thursday, September 5, 2019 to gather input on some of the proposed conceptual designs for 10th Street Bridge Multi-Modal Enhancement Project. But is it too late? Maybe I should take the train down there for old time sake and advocate for the future.
Below is the proposed vision of MARTA Midtown station and the current Midtown station after a heavy rain.
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