Home > Opinion > Commutants! > Archives > 2005 > November > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe bottom line on mass transit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m now convinced the hardest part of riding mass transit (other than rushing to make the last bus of the evening to east Cobb) are the seats. Seriously. Marta train seats are hardly comfortable, but the ones on the Cobb Community Transit buses I’ve been riding are killers. By the time the bus pulls into the Dunwoody Marta station, everyone should be glad to get off. Maybe the bus and train seats are designed to discourage passengers from becoming too comfortable. Maybe I’ll try a stadium cushion.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: David McNaughton
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By patrick
November 9, 2005 03:17 PM | Link to this
MARTA provided more comfortable, padded seats in its rail cars when the system was first rolled out, but unfortunately the patrons responded by ripping them apart. After a few years of constantly replacing marked/ripped up padded seats, MARTA threw in the towel and installed the current plastic seating. Make your own inferences about MARTA’s early ridership.
By MC
November 10, 2005 08:22 AM | Link to this
Let’s face it, though—the only subway in the US I’ve seen with padded seating is BART in San Francisco. Normally stuff like that doesn’t work in America, for the reason you stated…which is exactly why Tokyo’s trains are cushioned and ours are not.
By Carmen DeLaGata
November 10, 2005 01:29 PM | Link to this
Re: MARTA seats
Just a few years ago, MARTA actually featured comfortable padded seats.
Unfortunately, they constituted an irresistible slashing target for anyone with a pocket knife, ball point pen, or other (sometimes imaginative) implements of destruction.
The 100s of thousands of dollars MARTA spent repairing/replacing the seats became untenable—the money simply could be better spent elsewhere. Hence, hard seats.
Blame punks, not MARTA on this one, folks.