DaleRussell's Blog

First of all, the reason why MARTA is a FAILURE is because they (MARTA Authorities) can NOT guarantee thier patrons SAFETY! I'll take my chances on the open road thank you very much! Second, they don't go to alot of the out of the way communities. Why is that so important?... Because there are alot of people who work in Atlanta but choose NOT to LIVE THERE. (Perfect example ...who's running it. I hear Atlanta is up for another TAX INCREASE...what a surprise!)

Marta is ran by the same inept personnel as the Atlanta city government is. If MARTA wanted to REALLY make it what it was supposed to be they would first and foremost have Marta Police on every bus...not necessarily uniformed ..they could be plain clothes ..in europe that is the way it's done and everyone KNOWS a plain clothes authority is on the bus with them..they just don't know who. However, they should start with UNIFORMED Police on the bus to comfort the other riders. NEXT they should start a REGULAR SCHEDULE and POST IT at the BUS STOPS and ADHERE TO IT. What that schedule is for that area will take some time tweaking ...and must have necessary input from the local citizens.

But I'm not saying anything miraculous here. It's just common sense....something Marta and the Atlanta City Government are lacking of.

Who is going to pay for the 1,000+ additional police to be on the hundreds of buses out at one time? MARTA is designed to run at a loss so there is no budget for this.

The massive number of illegal alliens who ride the subsidized transit system are not going to pay. MARTA is set up to be a welfare system with one of the cheapest unlimited passes in the country so that riders can pay for their cell phones, smokes, hair care, and alcohol.

The people who get the unlimited MARTA passes that average paying less than $1.73 per day with a monthly pass so with only 1 round trip per day they pay 86 cents per ride or 43 cents with two round trips per day.

pretty much all mass transit sucks.... But there is NO excuse to leave a bus idle. Nutts come in a bag you cannot by a single nutt Our city officials are basically the same. They flock together and not just in fulton but all over the metro area.

I support mass transit in any way, shape, and form. If we have to have buses, so be it; I rode the buses in Athens for four years and I could get everywhere. But the reason buses work in Athens is because traffic is not a problem. Lawmakers keep whining that people wouldn't use transit, but a big reason is because people don't want to ride buses! Buses are still subject to traffic jams and even if they have their own lanes, surface streets can still be jammed. I've grown up in Atlanta and am trying to rip myself away from it because every sustainable initiative the city tries to make is squashed by conservative state legislators from around the state. Why is transit NOT the answer to our city's sprawl and congestion? I know everyone thinks that commuter rail will bring all sorts of vagrants and crime into our suburbs, but look at Boston, where the commuter rail lines stretch in every direction for 10-20 miles with clean, safe towns all along the line. And why can't we just issue "Rider Cards" where the only people who can board a train from Midtown to Lawrenceville (for example) are people with this card, which is only given to registered residents of the county? By the way, Portland's downtown transit is FREE. We've got a long way before we can mimic them, Perdue.

To afford Marta Police on all buses the answer is simple...raise the price of the Bus ticket.

I would rather pay a higher bus ticket than keep paying the high price of a gallon of gas!

And you don't have to KEEP Marta Police on EVERY BUS forever either!.. You just start that way, then when it becomes expected you slowly decrease the presence of UNIFORMED Authorities with Plain Clothes Authorities....then after awhile when those "rif raf" think they have the run of the bus the plain clothes authority busts' them....soon word of plain clothes authorities will be communicated throughout the 'rif raf' world...then you can start surreptitiously
only doing spot- inspections where the bus stops at a pre-determined bus-stop and the plain clothes authority steps on the bus checking tickets and removing anyone who the bus driver deems a nuisance.

Granted, I agree that the buses should not be left idling if they are not going to serviced in the next several minutes. Nonetheless, I have no sympathy for someone who moves nearby a bus maintenance facility that has been in operation for YEARS and then complains about the noise.

Would you like for your questions and/or comments to be reviewed or responded by a transit specialist who is titled "Transit Expert" among many entities, agencies, and authorities across the nation? Email aquariuslove21@gmail.com with your comments and/or siggestions.

I was very disappointed in this investigation. I'm not a television news watcher, but the radio ad pulled me in. Sadly, this was just fluff. James Gelin (the neighbor) did all the work to get the story. Fox 5 goes on and on, zooming in on exhaust and stating the obvious, "They're burning fuel ... they're emitting pollutants ... and bothering the neighbors." Throw a little EPA angle in (thank you for letting us know that the EPA thinks idling is bad). Then all we get from Dale is a pathetic interview with the head of maintenance. All he could say was that he needed proof. So? Did you give it to him? What happened? Did he have the opportunity to investigate? Did he have a further response? Your conclusion is simply that Marta has done this for years...?

Listen and you can hear the sound of my discontent.

drgb: Do you always resort to conspiracies and name-calling when someone's opinion is different than yours? How about a mature, rational conversation?

Anyway, yes I checked the conditions around my home when I purchased. It's all about being a smart and informed buyer. While bus yards weren't a concern in my area, other noise generators like shopping centers and schools were and I was carefully aware of their proximity when I selected my home. I'm not suggesting that anyone move away. But if you came along AFTER the buses did, you have nothing to complain about. If you were there before, where were you when the parcel was permitted for industrial use so close to a residential area? Someone had to give MARTA permission to build there, knowing how close they would be to residences.

gwalk,

I agree about showing the video. In retrospect, I wish we had.

lala,

Fluff? I hardly see this as fluff. A story about the expenditure of taxpayers money and impact on the environment isn't exactly Britney Spear's summer vacation plans.

You asked about MARTA's investigation. They claim they are investigating. I can't give the results of that before they do it. When they finish, we will let you know.

BTW, we had EPA in the story, because when we started I felt there must be a reason these buses are idling. Oterwise, it made no sense to me. Something mechanical I didn't understand. So, we researched and found that, not only is there no reason, but EPA and EPD are pushing massive nationwide campaigns to educate the public about the impact of idling.