New York’s Congestion Pricing Pause Isn’t the Only News in Cities and Transportation

Transit-oriented.

Since last month when the New York Governor put the kibosh, for now,  on congestion pricing, it has been easy to feel discouraged about the state of public transit in the U.S. To be sure, as one New York transit and anti-traffic advocate mansplained me recently, congestion pricing is about pushing back on cars and their stranglehold over the City. True, but it is also about revenue for needed New York City transit improvements. According to the MTA, revenue generated by congestion pricing would, and perhaps someday will, fund some of the region’s most important transit capital projects, including: 

• Accessibility improvements at over 20 stations

• Modern signal systems on segments of the A/C and B/D/F/M lines for over 1.5 million daily riders

• Hundreds of new electric buses

• Second Ave Subway Phase 2 extension to East Harlem

• Critical projects that keep our system in good working condition, such as structural repairs, power system improvements, and upgrades to bus depots.

Still, there are places other than New York with transit systems and urban innovation and it is good to revisit them from time to time to get a more wholistic perspective on how things are going. So here are some observations, and some evolving thoughts on the inevitability of expanded public transit in the U.S. in spite of its uneven current reality.

First, some thoughts: As the U.S. population ages and cities and suburbs become more congested with more private vehicles and less available land to continue the sprawl model of development, more cities, counties and regions will acknowledge the inevitability of expanded public transit. Think Phoenix, South Florida, Salt Lake City  and Honolulu, places that long-term residents probably never dreamed would have the need to build modern bus and rail systems. Whatever the political environment, the growth and popularity of these regions plus significant congestion and aging populations, got locals, politicians and other civic leaders to a place where expanding their transit systems made sense. This trend will only continue with congestion worsening and a growing percentage of older residents demanding safe, cost effective alternatives to driving.  And it’s not just midsized and large cities that are recognizing the benefits of clean mass transit. Congestion and air quality concerns have driven places like Park City, Utah to expand their bus system.

Ride with Pride, Park City Transit.

Towns and cities that rely on tourists and seasonal residents like some of the Arizonans I met recently who summer in Park City to beat the incessant Arizona heat, won’t keep visiting Park City if they can’t get around easily and enjoy the clean and cooler air.

The light rail from Salt Lake City International Airport to downtown Salt Lake City is also reducing congestion in Utah’s largest and rapidly growing city.

As for the uneven ridership one sometimes sees on the buses and trains on these newer systems, give it time. Going forward, these systems will be the envy of cities like Nashville which foolishly drank the Koch Brothers’ (Americans for Prosperity) Kool-Aid and voted to kill their own past public transit investment. Hopefully the final votes will be different next time around.

Atlanta, MARTA and the BeltLine

It took me far too long, but earlier this summer I also finally made it back to Atlanta (ATL). And what a great visit it was, from the excellent MARTA rail connection at the world’s busiest airport to the work of Trees Atlanta creating an urban forest, to the visionary adaptive reuse of a former freight rail line, the BeltLine, into what is already an exceptional linear urban park that is redefining the city.

New Yorkers would be lucky to have as convenient a rail connection at LGA and JFK as the MARTA station at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. New York, and neighboring Newark, two relative transit meccas, should be ashamed of their poor airport transit solutions.

It spite of ATL’s soul crushing traffic, it doesn’t take much to see why the blue dot in a sea of Southern red is attracting thousands of new residents to the city. About my visit, better late than never, and the delay facilitated my getting to see many urban quality of life and public amenities that were not there five, ten and fifteen years ago.

Of course, not every part of the city hums. When stacked up against more vibrant parts of the city like Midtown, downtown ATL remains a failure, the sort of place that rolls up its sidewalks after dark and doesn’t look much better in the daylight. 

I was all alone leaving the Peachtree Center MARTA station in downtown ATL.

Take for example Auburn Avenue, along the anemic King District streetcar which would do better as a complete street or car-free ciclovía given the snail’s pace at which it operates.

The charming, and empty, Municipal Market in Sweet Auburn, Downtown ATL.

The streetcar itself is also quite sad, reminiscent of LA Metro’s train to North Hollywood from Union Station in the off-peak hours. Not menacing, just sad in a way that will never appeal to the tourists and discretionary riders MARTA needs to attract if it ever hopes to extend the streetcar line and make it more useful to Atlantans and visitors. When I rode the streetcar, no one paid the $1 cash fare at the old school fare box. 

The King District Streetcar stop at the Municipal Market in Auburn in downtown Atlanta.

The streetcar’s circular route is so short and slow and underutilized that it is sending the wrong message to residents and electeds about what light rail downtown and on the BeltLine might do for the city. But then this wouldn’t be the first time that MARTA which has finally approved plans for four new infill rail stations has fallen short or willfully underdelivered. Those pesky strains of the South, and the North, segregation, redlining and racism come to mind.

Waiting for the streetcar at Peachtree Center in downtown ATL, where I exited the MARTA, I spied an ad for sharing Peachtree Street. Making Peachtree Street in Downtown ATL a complete street, welcoming walkers and bikers. What a no brainer! I hope it happens.

Making Peachtree Street a complete street would help breathe life into downtown ATL.

On a more upbeat note, on the BeltLine, I liked the range of uses and the variety of adjacent development that is taking place. One of the planned infill MARTA stations, at Krog Street, will give an important boost to an already bustling, and gentrifying, part of the city along the BeltLine.

At the Krog Street Market along the BeltLine.

Leaving the matter of whether long-promised light rail deserves a place on the BeltLine to more knowledgable local urbanists, I found the linear urban park an enviable urban oasis that dozens of cities would be lucky to have. Rail Trail Charlotte which I have not visited yet is another urban trail that winds through the heart of the city, but at 3.5 miles it’s hardly the game changing 22 mile long BeltLine. When completed, the BeltLine will create an estimated 1,300 acres of greenspace featuring native trees and plants.

On my next visit to Atlanta, I look forward to witnessing the city’s progress on the BeltLine, the MARTA infill stations and The Stitch, a highway cap park aimed at knitting back together downtown and Midtown Atlanta.

As for the private development jumpstarted by the massive adaptive reuse project, I don’t know how many Ponce City Markets and Krog Street Markets the city can support but it seems as though there is plenty of room along the BeltLine, for those major redevelopments, as well as the rising mixed use tech bro and sis hubs that are emerging in the Old 4th Ward plus countless more organic, adaptive reuses of old buildings and underdeveloped spaces along the former freight rail corridor. 

Upscale development along the BeltLine in the Old 4th Ward.

Is the BeltLine contributing to Atlanta’s gentrification? Of course. Is that bad for the city and its poorer residents? Hopefully there is enough space along the “found” green belt for everyone in an Atlanta enriched by the adaptive reuse of the long neglected space.

A popular café along the BeltLine near the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.

The BeltLine is, and can be, an economic accelerant for all of Atlanta. And to this outsider there seems to be enough land adjacent to its 22 miles to build considerable affordable housing free of the historic, racist restrictive covenants and redlining that to this day shapes so much of Atlanta. Nonetheless, as green as the city seems, compared to other major cities, Atlanta remains a city with relatively little parkland; 3.8 percent versus 18.9 percent in New York, 10 percent in LA and 8 percent in Chicago. And according to the Trust for Public Land, the BeltLine’s success has meant that new parkland acquisition has gotten more expensive for the city. Still, to appreciate its potential, just walk or bike it. With all of the new trees in verdant green this time of year one can’t help but feel the endorphins working their magic on everyone’s mood.

As an avid biker and walker in New York what I don’t understand about the BeltLine so far is the seeming lack of any effort to segregate the bikers and scooters from the pedestrians. Segregation is a charged word in this part of the country, but surely there is a better way to keep walkers, including seniors and young couples holding their babies safer than the current anything goes scenario on the sometimes crowded BeltLine. Atlantans are warm people but not everyone biking the BeltLine got the Southern Hospitality memo.

Maybe the still uncertain future about light rail on the BeltLine is keeping the city from spending too much on basic safe pedestrian and bike infrastructure along the linear park? Still, how much would it cost to stencil some lines and bike signage on the asphalt? A nice touch is the spongy path made of ground up tires popular with runners along the side of the BeltLine right of way.

Atlanta’s beautiful BeltLine, a wildly successful and important adaptive reuse project that is creating a 22 mile long linear park through the heart of the traffic clogged city.

While I love the extensive greening of the former freight rail corridor, where are the low-cost outdoor pocket gyms and playgrounds? At least on the stretch I now know best between Monroe and 10th at Piedmont Park in Midtown and Krog Street Market. Yes, I also visited Inman Park but there are more opportunities there too that have yet to be realized. Ping-pong tables, chinning bars, and children’s climbing gyms anyone? Walking the BeltLine, I also saw very little signage detailing the significance of the project, its history and its potential to stitch together racially and economically segregated parts of the city. I hope more historic markers are planned for the project’s next phase.

Getting back to MARTA which in general I loved, the underutilized, aging system reminds me of the ads from when I was a child for the Volkswagen Bug; “It's ugly but it gets you there.” 

Another nearly empty, clean and safe MARTA train, and station.

Absolutely. If you are lucky enough to live along the line or to be heading to somewhere near one of the stations you are golden. The stations and trains themselves are dated and sometimes sad looking but they work. Additionally, with its clunky gates at the turnstiles, MARTA is probably doing a better job combatting fare beating than the MTA. Now all it needs is ridership.

Gates at the turnstiles at the MARTA station in Midtown, ATL. 

I found MARTA’s service reliable and relatively frequent. Most of the trains I rode were likely traveled by no more than 8-12 passengers per car, if that. That's not a lot and at some MARTA stations there seemed to be as many MARTA employees as there were customers waiting for a train.

More recently on a trip to LA, I found painfully low ridership to be the case on the recently opened K Line (Crenshaw Line). Opening new lines in stages may make sense if each phase actually takes people somewhere. The unacceptable delay in completion of the LAX circulator isn’t helping LA Metro’s K Line stats any. Though candidly, until Metro links the K Line with the Wilshire Subway or takes the line north to Hollywood I don’t see that many riders availing themselves of the beautiful new train. Maybe I should have hung around to go to an LA Rams game in Inglewood to see a packed K Line train? Wait, I don’t have a trust fund so that wouldn’t be possible. More on the mostly great things happening at LA Metro soon.

The empty K Line (Crenshaw Line) Leimert Park Station, Los Angeles. 

A fan of elevated trains which let you watch the world go by as you ride, I like that much of the MARTA system, and LA Metro for that matter,  runs above ground. Though MARTA rail lines opened in 1979, there still seem to be a great deal of transit oriented (TOD) development opportunities, beyond parking lots, around some stations. At Lindbergh Transit Center in Uptown for example, some mixed used TOD is reportedly already getting a makeover as Version One wasn’t as successful as it might have been.

Transit oriented development on a beautiful June afternoon at Lindbergh Transit Center in Uptown ALT.

City of Security Guards

It is probably no different in New York where thousands of people work as security guards and doormen (door attendants) but being in ATL I was struck by the number of private security guards all over the place. Perhaps the difference is that in New York there are so many other people around that the guards don’t stand out as much.

There, that felt good. Being a little less New York centric while writing about transit and congestion pricing. Thank you to friends Jodi Lox Mansbach, an Atlanta-based urban planner, and Ross Mansbach and Bob and Sally Cramer for being my Atlanta guides and knowledgable local historians. And thank you to Jack Cramer who politely endured my rant on the terrific DC Metro and how WMATA (the regional transit agency) should operate daily tours for Congress.

What better way to demonstrate that transit is actually nonpartisan and how with more federal support you too could have excellent mass transit in your district.

Yours in transit,

Joel

Joel Epstein is a New Yorker and an advocate for public transit, livable cities and public space.

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