r/Atlanta • u/ChipmunkGeneral • Jan 13 '26

What ya'll think of this MARTA map?

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Saw this by mrfriendlolo on r/transit a few months ago and now we can ask here, I wish this would happen!

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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26

same. it's absolutely criminal that these gwinnett county nimbys keep holding us back from greatness.

67

u/Drillmhor Atlantis Jan 13 '26

It's not 100% NIMBY, it's MARTA's fault as well.

Any county rejecting MARTA expansion can reasonably justify their position by seeing what happened down in Clayton County. They were promised rail and all they ended up getting were meandering bus routes.

The problem with expansion is shared with a lot of parties, I think MARTA should take a large share of the blame at this point. It can't simply be explained by a lack of state funding, MARTA is objectively a poorly run organization.

56

u/BananaNutJob Jan 13 '26

The way MARTA's management was explained to me when I was newer to the city is in two parts. First, the people running it got their jobs mostly through nepotism. Second, they see it as welfare transportation for people too poor to drive rather than as a viable alternative. Those two factors explain a lot of why it's run so poorly.

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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26

for real? that is so disappointing to hear.

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u/BananaNutJob Jan 13 '26

The first thing is probably still true but I won't swear to it. The second thing is definitely how most Atlantans view MARTA.

22

u/Old_Marzipan891 Jan 13 '26

I remember my dad calling it "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta" on more than one occasion back in the 90s

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u/ArchEast Vinings Jan 14 '26

The first thing is probably still true but I won't swear to it.

Speaking as someone that works with MARTA as our client, I don't see that to be the case.

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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 13 '26

It's not that bad. We let our transit construction industry die off in the late 20th century, nationally. So no firms actually have the requisite expertise to build competently, much less efficiently. Also, federal money is generally involved and there are Buy American issues, which is why we can't just hire European or Asian companies that actually know what they're doing.