ATLANTA STREETCAR IN THE NEWS
Click here to view the recent TV coverage Atlanta Streetcar received after receiving commitments of $75K from Atlanta's three districts, Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Saturday, May 22, 2004
GWINNETT COUNTY STARTS BIKE/WALK PILOT PROJECT
According to a May 10th Atlanta Journal-Constitution article,"Parent Lisa Carthy and sons Dylan and Jake walk a half-mile to Mason Elementary each morning, passing a long queue of cars snaking through the school's parking lot and down Bunten Road. They typically beat car-riding neighbors to the school's front door. On mornings when traffic congestion is especially annoying, Carthy often will greet neighbors still idling in traffic on her return trek home. Like a Pied Piper of pedestrians, she tends to attract other walkers on her journey, as harried parents call out, 'Can my child join you?'
"'We have seven subdivisions around Bunten, all within easy walking distance to the school,' Carthy said. 'In the foreseeable future, we'll have nine neighborhoods. It's hard to imagine why families who live so close will idle in traffic for a half-hour or more some morning and afternoons.'...Since January, Mason has piloted the Safe Routes to School program in Gwinnett. On two recent Sunday afternoons, the school sponsored bicycling safety clinics for youngsters, directed by the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign.
Source:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0504/10classfea.html
Archive search: http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/ajc/
Title: "Pilot program encourages walking, cycling"
Author: M. Elizabeth Neal
According to a May 10th Atlanta Journal-Constitution article,"Parent Lisa Carthy and sons Dylan and Jake walk a half-mile to Mason Elementary each morning, passing a long queue of cars snaking through the school's parking lot and down Bunten Road. They typically beat car-riding neighbors to the school's front door. On mornings when traffic congestion is especially annoying, Carthy often will greet neighbors still idling in traffic on her return trek home. Like a Pied Piper of pedestrians, she tends to attract other walkers on her journey, as harried parents call out, 'Can my child join you?'
"'We have seven subdivisions around Bunten, all within easy walking distance to the school,' Carthy said. 'In the foreseeable future, we'll have nine neighborhoods. It's hard to imagine why families who live so close will idle in traffic for a half-hour or more some morning and afternoons.'...Since January, Mason has piloted the Safe Routes to School program in Gwinnett. On two recent Sunday afternoons, the school sponsored bicycling safety clinics for youngsters, directed by the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign.
Source:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0504/10classfea.html
Archive search: http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/ajc/
Title: "Pilot program encourages walking, cycling"
Author: M. Elizabeth Neal
Monday, May 17, 2004
GROWING POPULARITY OF BELTLINE DUE TO IT'S UNIQUE NEXUS OF TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE
It's easy to see why the Belt Line is getting so much attention. Unlike some other transit projects that are too narrowly focused, the Belt Line recognizes the missing links between transportation and land use, a nexus that will become increasingly important as the population growth the city has seen in the last decade continues. A recent study found that Atlanta's core neighborhoods alone will add 180,000 new residents and 13,000 more jobs by 2030.
If the Belt Line is built, officials are confident that the value of the property would rapidly escalate, as it did in the Pearl District in Portland, Ore. The Pearl District attracted more than $1 billion in real estate improvements within five years of the launch of a streetcar line through the former warehouse sector.
City records show that land adjacent to the proposed Belt Line currently has a taxable value of $244.4 million, and transportation studies have found that every dollar invested in transit reaps about $6 in new investment.
Read more...
Source: ajc.com > Opinion
It's easy to see why the Belt Line is getting so much attention. Unlike some other transit projects that are too narrowly focused, the Belt Line recognizes the missing links between transportation and land use, a nexus that will become increasingly important as the population growth the city has seen in the last decade continues. A recent study found that Atlanta's core neighborhoods alone will add 180,000 new residents and 13,000 more jobs by 2030.
If the Belt Line is built, officials are confident that the value of the property would rapidly escalate, as it did in the Pearl District in Portland, Ore. The Pearl District attracted more than $1 billion in real estate improvements within five years of the launch of a streetcar line through the former warehouse sector.
City records show that land adjacent to the proposed Belt Line currently has a taxable value of $244.4 million, and transportation studies have found that every dollar invested in transit reaps about $6 in new investment.
Read more...
Source: ajc.com > Opinion
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Though the ARC removed several rail projects from it's new 25-year transportation plan (except Atlanta - Macon commuter line) that's not necessarily because there's little interest in rail. It's mostly a function of the fact that there are few dollars available to operate it, and no plans yet for any one entity to be in charge of operating the many transit projects planned for different counties in the region. However, there is money to build the BeltLine...
Read more...
Source: The Atlanta Business Chronicle Online
Read more...
Source: The Atlanta Business Chronicle Online
Thursday, May 13, 2004
TAX ALLOCATION DISTRICT FOR INTOWN TRAIL AND RAIL
An independent city of Atlanta panel has been assembled to decide whether a special tax district can generate enough money to pay for a proposed 22-mile transit line and greenbelt looping around the city's intown neighborhoods.
A tax allocation district uses additional taxes from the increased property values caused by development in a certain area to pay for public improvements in that specific area. Atlanta currently has five such districts, including the Atlantic Station megadevelopment in Midtown.
"We're going from 'Boy, wouldn't this be a good idea?' to the implementation phase," said Cathy Woolard, former City Council President and the BeltLine's most ardent political advocate.
Read more...
Source: ajc.com
An independent city of Atlanta panel has been assembled to decide whether a special tax district can generate enough money to pay for a proposed 22-mile transit line and greenbelt looping around the city's intown neighborhoods.
A tax allocation district uses additional taxes from the increased property values caused by development in a certain area to pay for public improvements in that specific area. Atlanta currently has five such districts, including the Atlantic Station megadevelopment in Midtown.
"We're going from 'Boy, wouldn't this be a good idea?' to the implementation phase," said Cathy Woolard, former City Council President and the BeltLine's most ardent political advocate.
Read more...
Source: ajc.com
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS DRIVERS, TOO
It's a perennial debate: On the one hand advocates of mass transit argue that transit is an essential strategy for combating congestion. On the other, road advocates maintain that since only a minority of travelers use transit, we're better off expanding roads that serve most people. What if there was convincing evidence that building transit benefits everybody, whether or not they use the system?
New evidence just developed for the forthcoming book "The New Transit Town" begins to make this case. The catch is that it requires both the construction of a transit system, and an effort by local government to encourage development around stations. When that's the case, everybody wins, even people who choose to live in single-family neighborhoods and drive everywhere they go. Read more...
It's a perennial debate: On the one hand advocates of mass transit argue that transit is an essential strategy for combating congestion. On the other, road advocates maintain that since only a minority of travelers use transit, we're better off expanding roads that serve most people. What if there was convincing evidence that building transit benefits everybody, whether or not they use the system?
New evidence just developed for the forthcoming book "The New Transit Town" begins to make this case. The catch is that it requires both the construction of a transit system, and an effort by local government to encourage development around stations. When that's the case, everybody wins, even people who choose to live in single-family neighborhoods and drive everywhere they go. Read more...
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