Commuter buses’ idling causes stir

Each day, more than 100 commuter buses wend through Atlanta streets depositing and collecting suburbanites.

Sometimes, the transaction takes seconds, with little disruption to traffic. Other times, the buses have been seen sitting empty, sometimes idling, for long stretches on Courtland Street, Piedmont Avenue and Peachtree. It’s a situation that has some Atlantans fuming.

“Don’t they have stops? They just stop wherever?” said Page Gardner, an office administrator for a nonprofit, as she stared from her office balcony at two Gwinnett County Transit buses parked in the far right lane of Piedmont Ave., at the beginning of rush hour last Monday.

The buses do have stops, but they’re provisional accommodations: smack in city traffic lanes. The city of Atlanta has just won some concessions from the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which operates many of the suburban commuter buses that arrive downtown.

Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, who appoints the GRTA board, asked if Atlanta advocates would prefer to have all those bus passengers driving individual cars downtown.

When the state put together a transportation project including a major expansion of GRTA’s bus program, Atlanta officials complained that it slated $56 million for suburban park-and-ride lots to accommodate the buses at departure points, but nothing to manage them when they arrive downtown. Under a new deal, the state will pay $99,500 to study the problem, and will apply for federal money to make downtown transit improvements.

Calls to the Atlanta Police Department seeking enforcement information were not returned.

However, Atlanta Councilwoman Carla Smith, who initiated the city’s idling ordinance, said police would have to sit and watch a bus idling empty for 15 minutes before issuing a ticket.

GRTA operates 107 clean-burning diesel buses on 26 daily routes to Atlanta. William Mecke, GRTA spokesman, said most of the buses have automatic governors that shut down the engines after minutes of idling. The buses that don’t have the devices are in the process of being modified, he said, and the drivers are instructed to not allow them to idle for more than five minutes.

“It’s my understanding we try to do what’s best for the coaches and what’s best for the environment,” Mecke said.

GRTA isn’t the only commuter transit operator. Gwinnett and Cobb counties have transit buses running to and from the city.

Cobb Community Transit devotes 45 diesel buses to its eight routes into Atlanta. The agency has a policy that drivers must not allow buses to idle more than 15 minutes. Exceptions are made for weather, traffic, repairs or if passengers are on board.

Gwinnett operates 33 buses on three express routes to Atlanta. The agency devotes 22 buses to its morning routes and 33 for the afternoon and evening runs.

In all, Gwinnett devotes 42 buses to the commuter routes. Nine are clean-burning diesel. The rest run on compressed natural gas, which is exempt from the city’s anti-idling ordinance.

Transit Director Phil Boyd said drivers are instructed to arrive at their downtown destinations about five minutes before scheduled departure.

If excess idling is occurring, he said, it’s because traffic into town proved lighter than expected on that occasion.

“If there’s some excessive idling going on,” Boyd added, “we’ll get right on that.”

Action can’t come quickly enough for Jon Ross of Atlanta.

Ross has made the issue a cause after seeing some of the buses idling for more than 25 minutes, the maximum allowed under the City of Atlanta’s ordinance when passengers are on board.

“They are blocking lanes of traffic during rush hour and polluting our air,” he said.

Ross said he has received assurances from Gwinnett officials that it takes the issue seriously.

“I’m not against commuter buses,” he said. “I think it’s a matter of educating the drivers. Maybe they should hold training sessions in a closed garage.”

Staff writer Ariel Hart contributed to this article.