TPB releases new plan details, map
There’s a lot of good going down in regards to transit ideas for Atlanta — let’s just hope the city can find the money to make the best ones a reality. Case in point: the just-released glimpse of what the Transit Planning Board, or TPB, has in store for Atlanta.
It wants mass transit, lots of it — light rail, commuter rail for longer trips, bus rapid transit, the works. MARTA would be extended farther along its routes. Light-rail transit is proposed for a variety of areas, such as the top end of I-285, the well-traveled corridor on I-75 North to Town Center, and from Lindbergh through Emory to Decatur. Click here to view a map of the plan.
TPB planners estimate the project’s $28 billion cost will raise total transit operations in the region to $54 billion through 2030. What’s that come down to per person? Per the agency’s press release:
Assuming a population of 6 million people living in the Atlanta region in 2030, funding transit will cost each metro resident about $1.00 a day, or less than a cup of coffee in most places.
The TPB, a collaborative effort between MARTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Regional Transit Authority, is a relative newcomer to the chunky stew that is transit planning in the region. Mayor Shirley Franklin recently threw her name into the transportation game with the Connect Atlanta Plan, a public-driven effort that’s being touted as the city proper’s first-ever endeavor.
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/files/2007/12/1129-concept-3-release.pdf