Public gets look at I-85 transit options in Gwinnett

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By David Wickert

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett County, which twice rejected MARTA and offers limited local bus service, is taking a fresh look at public transportation.

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Rev. Harriet Bradley (left) listens to Patti Schropp answer her questions at the Gwinnett County public information meeting on the I-85 Corridor Alternatives Analysis Study in Norcross on Monday.

Phil Skinner, pskinner@ajc.com Rev. Harriet Bradley (left) listens to Patti Schropp answer her questions at the Gwinnett County public information meeting on the I-85 Corridor Alternatives Analysis Study in Norcross on Monday.

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Dozens of people attended a public meeting in Norcross Monday to learn about transit options in the I-85 corridor. Many expressed hope that Gwinnett would embrace mass transit.

“This is too big a community not to have viable public transit,” said the Rev. Harriet Bradley of Norcross, who sometimes travels hours by foot, train and bus to reach her church in Smyrna on Sunday mornings.

Monday’s public information meeting was part of a $1.1 million, 18-month study of transit alternatives along the I-85 corridor.

Some 467,000 commuters pass through the corridor daily. The Gwinnett study will examine ways to get some of them off the crowded interstate at rush hour.

Consultant Atkins North America Inc. will analyze the costs and benefits of various transit alternatives, including rail and bus options. It also will study details such as future transit demand and the placement of transit stations.

Ultimately, the study will identify a preferred transit option. Those who attended Monday’s hearing had different opinions on the best way to go.

Steve Ramey of the Founding Fathers Tea Party Patriots said a better bus system makes the most sense.

“A bus system can change routes at any time,” Ramey said. “Once you put rails in, they’re there.”

Dominic Perello of Norcross believes MARTA-like heavy rail, though expensive up front, is the most effective option in the long run.

No matter the method, Perello said Gwinnett needs better mass transit options. He lives about six miles from work and can walk it in three and a half hours. If he uses existing transit options, it still takes two and a half hours.

“This is the future of the county,” he said of mass transit. “It’s got to be done.”

Such attitudes have not always been common in Gwinnett. County voters overwhelmingly defeated a 1-cent sales tax for MARTA in 1971 and again in 1990.

But Gwinnett’s population has more than doubled to 805,321 since that last vote, and traffic congestion has become a widespread concern. According to information provided at Monday’s meeting, the average morning rush hour speed on I-85 in Gwinnett was 37 mph in 2010. It’s projected to fall to 22 mph by 2040.

Atkins North America is expected to finish the study early next year.

The next step: Metro Atlanta voters this summer will consider a sales tax hike that would pay for a host of transportation projects, including $95 million for more detailed environmental, engineering and other studies of a Gwinnett transit project along the I-85 corridor.

Local residents will have another chance to learn about the transit study at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Gwinnett Place Marriott, 1775 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth. For more information, visit www.gwinnettcounty.com.