To rail or not to rail

Area leaders say a complementary blend of light and heavy rail service will help ease Atlanta's congestion challenges.

Bobby Hickman

January 7, 2008

Is expanded rail service the answer to Metro Atlanta's traffic congestion problem? Well, it's not necessarily the answer. Area leaders say the answer lies in a combination of heavy and light rail service.

In an exclusive interview with Business to Business, Dr. Beverly Scott, who only weeks ago became GM of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), says Atlanta has benefited from tremendous growth, high quality of life and fairly low costs. But the things that are strangling us now are traffic congestion, unfettered and undisciplined growth, and a lack of investment in infrastructure.

"MARTA is an important player in this entire transportation Rubik's cube," says George Israel, CEO and chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is working toward increased funding for transportation issues, including highways and rail service. While more road funds are needed, Israel says you can't just continue to pave parking lots: You've got to get some of that traffic off the highways. Georgia needs rapid rail, either through the Georgia Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA to reduce road use. "MARTA being turned down by some of the other metro counties back in the '60s and the '70s was one of the biggest mistakes ever made," Israel says.

MARTA initially was proposed as a five-county regional system for Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties. But Cobb voters failed to approve a referendum to participate in MARTA in the mid-1960s, and Gwinnett and Clayton citizens overwhelmingly voted down taxes to fund MARTA in 1968. Only Fulton, DeKalb and the City of Atlanta approved and funded the system.

Scott says Georgia ranks fourth lowest in terms of what it puts into infrastructure, with those funds going strictly to highways. In fact, MARTA is the only regional transit system that doesn't get state funding – a fact Scott says is "quite unusual."

Asked if she plans to seek Georgia funding to support MARTA, Scott says yes. "There's no way we're going to remain where we've been if we don't have a turnaround in the investment in transportation. We've got to connect all the dots, and will need to make some significant changes on a going-forward basis."

Scott not only is a proponent of rail systems but of integrated transportation solutions as well. "We need everything in the palette: good roads, top-notch pedestrian amenities, and an extremely good transportation network that includes rail as a platform."

No one system is better than any other, Scott says. "It's making sure we have the right mobility solution for the right location," she says. "MARTA's current footprint for heavy rail is very supportable within the core portion of the region where we've had the extremely high density and the land use that supports that. I do see some expansion of heavy rail, but it's not the solution for the entire multi-county Atlanta region because the density patterns simply do not support it."

Scott expects to see some expansion of MARTA's heavy rail. "[For the region], I expect to see the introduction of light rail," she says. "We've had phenomenal growth in this region but it's extremely low density. As a result, heavy rail as a major extension much beyond the Perimeter is just not going to be cost-effective. And it's really not the right application."

In fact, Scott expects "a quite extensive light rail network" as the solution for such areas as the fast-growing northern suburbs. She foresees commuter rail, bus rapid transit, enhanced bus service, and neighborhood and community circulation systems. The latter systems would funnel commuters into larger transit networks during the commuting periods, as well as provide better access for aging populations during non-peak hours.

"It's not wrong to focus on commutation, because that's related to traffic congestion," Scott says. "However, only one in five trips are commuter trips, so we need to think about solutions the other 80 percent of transportation needs as well. We need to stop thinking modally and parochially, and start thinking about what is the best combination of transportation solutions for a particular corridor."

Instead of looking at a GDOT project or a MARTA project, Scott says we should be building a project that's the best solution for a particular corridor.

Through transportation systems and land use, MARTA's role in economic development is critical. From the standpoint of job creation and employment impact, recent projections show that through 2030, MARTA will have been responsible for $10.5 billion in direct economic development impact. "That's largely because of the catalytic effect we have on development when there is smart and supportive transit-oriented development around our major transportation network," Scott says. A recent University of Georgia study also showed MARTA is expected to create 45,500 jobs in the region by 2055.

Has traffic congestion affected Georgia's economic development? "I haven't seen transportation deter anyone from coming to Georgia," Israel says. "But if the current trend continues, eventually it could have an impact. Most businesses know we've enjoyed rapid growth, which brings complications. So they want to know what we're going to do about it – as a region and as a state."

Much of Scott's time during the first 60 days at MARTA has included reaching out to other leaders in the region. "We aren't an island here in Atlanta; the challenge is how we knit this all together."

She says it would be unrealistic to expect there will be a single provider for area transit. The region must find shared solutions so business travelers, for example, can negotiate the system. "We need things that will make it possible for a person to live in Cobb or Gwinnett or Atlanta to move around the region," Scott says. "The public doesn't need to pull out a pink card and a green card and a yellow card just to get around. If they want to get somewhere, they shouldn't need a glossary of phone numbers. That's the challenge we have in building a seamless system – one that needs the entire region to collaborate on solutions for our common public."