“Oh, really?”
“How did that go?”
“Glad you made it.”
These were among the surprised responses I got when I shared with people that I took MARTA to work last Monday. I had a 9 a.m. start and was entering the traffic reporting world again, so this seemed appropriate.
I have rail privilege. The Chamblee MARTA station is across the street from my condo, and I was able to slip out of my door and onto the 7:45 a.m. train in less than five minutes.
The 11Alive News studio was the Midtown destination and it’s just over a mile-and-a-half from the Lindbergh Station, which is just three stops down the Gold Line from Chamblee.
I joined 11Alive last week (and major thanks to AJC’s Rodney Ho for spreading the word) to work with Rachel Cox-Rosen in traffic coverage on the morning show. I will ride shotgun in 11Alive’s Weather Impact Truck and patrol the roads, much as I used to in a helicopter. And I will also report on transportation stories, like the ones you read here each week.
Taking MARTA somewhere, besides the Atlanta Airport or a Downtown Atlanta sports event or concert, is that story today. And, at least on this one round-trip, MARTA worked like a charm.
The short Gold Line rail trip had a steady amount of commuters, but the train never stopped for an unusual amount of time. And the trains were fairly on time: my 7:45 a.m. train was set for 7:44.
I did have reservations about taking a bus from Lindbergh to Channel 11. The 809 bus that tracks from Lindbergh to the King Memorial Station stops almost across the street from 11Alive. But those buses leave Lindbergh every 35 to 40 minutes, so a mismatched train trip could mean a drastic time swing.
And the walk from Lindbergh to One Monroe Place would take about 35 minutes. Combined with this near-record Atlanta heat, a walk to work for me would make quite the swampy first impression at WXIA.
Thankfully, Google Maps allows commuters to plan ahead and choose the time they want to leave the next day to create an estimated trip length. I left early to arrive early, hoping to leave plenty of wiggle room for all of that MARTA dysfunction in which many Atlantans enjoy wallowing (though not all actually experience it).
Really, the only small hiccup in the trip to work or home was the northbound 809’s arrival at its scheduled 5:20 p.m. stop at Piedmont Circle and Piedmont Road. I waited in the 95-degree heat for about five extra minutes. No sweat — well, figuratively.
Also, a commuter really has to know where they are going to sometimes navigate MARTA. Stop announcements are muted, and the signage on my northbound Lindbergh train was not clear if it went on the Gold Line to Doraville or the Red Line to North Springs. I had to ask a passenger on board.
The biggest catch in all of this, of course, is that a 15 to 20 minute drive took around 45 minutes on MARTA.
But during those stints of waiting and riding, I got to catch up reading and making social media posts about my first day at 11Alive. Drivers cannot legally do that, nor should they. And I got to relax, prepare and process a head-spinning day in a way that I could not have behind the wheel.
And I put one less car in Atlanta traffic, helping make tiny improvements to both traffic and the environment.
The relative ease of this commute impresses me — which irks me when I think of how Atlantans have resisted transit in so many ways. Cobb County and Gwinnett County voters chose against respective penny sales taxes last November. Those taxes would have funded bus rapid transit — buses largely in their own lanes — and micro-transit to smaller streets. The SPLOSTs would have funded a grand expansion of public transportation networks in two traffic-choked counties that only grow more populous.
But voters looked to the melodrama and malaise that MARTA has been — the dysfunction, the crime, the uncleanliness and the delayed projects elsewhere. Opponents to mass transit ask very fair questions.
“Why would we ride on something dirty and dangerous and overpay for it?”
“Why should we send billions of our dollars to some government pork that might never get built?”
“Why would we ever commute on something that takes longer than our slow drives?”
Heavy rail costs roughly $1 billion per mile and Atlanta’s geography also inhibits it. Many suburbanites are averse to the delays and lack of autonomy with buses. The lack of interest from commuters in using current metro Atlanta transit systems tamps down their funding and, thus, improvements. The feedback loop spins like bus tires in deep Georgia clay.
To help break the cycle, more people who are able should try public transit. Some with less income have no choice but to use it and are seeing a lack of demand gradually dry up their routes.
MARTA has its faults, but it delivered for me. And I wish I could rely on it to work every day in this new chapter of my career.
But, alas, trains do not start early enough for me to arrive for my normal call time. And back to my car will I go. Sound familiar? But that Monday trip sure was nice.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com.
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