Bus Rapid Transit debuts in Georgia on Memorial Drive

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A new mass transit project, that road advocates see as the answer to rail, is about to launch in Georgia.

Starting Wednesday, bus rapid transit, also known as BRT, will start carrying passengers on Memorial Drive in DeKalb County just outside the Perimeter.

So what makes it special? The buses on the new “Q” routes – the Q Express, route 521, and the Q Limited, route 520 – can trigger green lights as well as special lights that let only the bus go through. At two intersections MARTA and the state Department of Transportation have constructed pull-out lanes only for the buses, where they can get out from behind traffic.

It’s not like the gold standard of BRT, routes like those in Ottawa and Cleveland, which have their own dedicated lanes. That’s because the gold standard costs its weight in gold to build, considering the land that has to be bought and the construction required to create an extra lane.

Instead, on Atlanta's BRT route, in two places the small “queue jump” lanes will allow the bus to get ahead of traffic as it drives along Memorial. That's southbound at the intersection with Rockbridge Road, and in both directions at the intersection with Rays Road.

At those spots, as the bus approaches the intersection with the rest of traffic, the bus goes into the right-hand turn lane along with turning traffic. However, as the turn lane reaches the intersection, it splits. The turning traffic curves right into its turn. The bus, however, continues a few yards going straight, splitting off from the turning traffic, into a short little lane of its own marked "bus only."

At that point the bus is level with the other lanes of traffic headed straight.  However, the bus gets another advantage: the traffic light holds the rest of traffic still with a red light while it gives a special go signal to the bus. That way, the bus goes into the intersection alone, ahead of the rest of traffic, said Johnny Dunning, MARTA's senior director of planning.

Dennis Hinebaugh, director of the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute, approves of the idea.

Considering that a normal bus can wait through two lights at one intersection at rush hour, with a BRT queue jump lane, "Before you know it he saves 25 percent or 30 percent of his travel time just for that alone," Hinebaugh said. It's not clear what the reaction will be from drivers in the other lanes.

MARTA chose Memorial Drive because it's a heavily used route that was also getting a streetscape makeover from the county, so it was "synergistic," Dunning said.

Even more people may want to ride the route, "since service will be more reliable, in terms of first having limited stops, and signal priority and queue jumping," Dunning added.

Both are commuter routes with no weekend, midday or nighttime service. They each have one end at the Kensington MARTA station. The Q Express goes to a 150-car park-and-ride lot at Goldsmith Road, with only two stops in between. The Q Limited has more stops, according to MARTA, and goes to East Ponce de Leon Avenue at North Hairston Road.

The project's preliminary cost including the new park-and-ride lot is $26.8 million, according to MARTA.