DecaturNature1d ago

RE: https://mastodon.social/@RealJournalism/116336708108848365

It seems that the big division over the beltline is whether it should be a park or a street. I was not impressed by the vision presented by the BAT representatives in this GPB story. I don't know if it's a good representation of their arguments, but don't see anything better on their website.

If we want more nature in the city (as they claim), we need to make space by reducing car dependence. Mass transit makes sense when embedded in pedestrian-centered pathways; it's near useless when embedded in car-centric areas. In this view, the beltline serves as an example of how streets can be structured and creates flexibility by reducing car traffic on neighboring streets.

If these guys want to see transit bringing people to the beltline, we need to build out several other pedestrian-centered destinations that are worth connecting to, and reallocate car space to mass transit, without first changing street usage patterns by building beltline rail.

Show threadDecaturNature1d ago

The website for Better Atlanta Transit does not help present them as a serious 'transit' group. I looked at their slick, extensive website for information about their proposed alternatives for transit (contrasting with Beltline Rail), and after about 10 minutes of searching found absolutely nothing.

Here's what they have:
- Top: "Click to Donate"
- Header: A few section links that lead into a maze of pages.
- "Beltline 2.0 - 'click here'": a convoluted way of saying "let's make the path wider, not add a train"
- "Learn More" - a page just showing the people involved in their project.
- BAT Blog. The first story is called "priorities and distraction", which seems promising, but is just a bunch of hyperbole and snark, suggesting that the attention given to beltline rail is the cause for all other transportation failings in the metro area (from dirty MARTA cars to crumbling sidewalks in DeKalb county). Utter and obvious BS.

Digging deeper into the blog I did find some more pro-transit commentary, but I had to use a targeted google search to find them celebrating the idea of MARTA infill stations at the Beltline.
https://betteratlantatransit.org/blog/everyone-seems-to-like-marta-infill-stations

If you dig into the 'resources' section and the 'blog' section, you can find some commentary on transportation systems in other cities, but I still have a hard time getting a sense of how they'd like the beltline to fit into the broader Atlanta transportation system.

https://betteratlantatransit.org/

Everyone seems to like MARTA infill stations<br/> — Better Atlanta Transit

Everyone seems to like Mayor Andre Dickens’ plan to create four new MARTA heavy rail infill stations, with at least one to the Beltline.

Better Atlanta Transit
Show threadDecaturNature1d ago
They'd be more credible if they weren't organized explicitly against beltline rail. By taking this position, it makes everything else they write feel like motivated reasoning rather than weighing the pros and cons of various options.
Show threadMichael H1d ago

@DecaturNature It's a bullshit group just like the Bowers real estate guy funds his group to keep crosswalks off of Peachtree.

They are just rich and entitled assholes that use their money to push around everyone else. And when they don't get their way, they throw money at the General Assembly until they find a legislator wanting to file a bill to ban whatever they don't like.

Show threadDecaturNature
@michael The "learn more" (profiling their members) page did give the impression that BAT is just an influence peddling operation.
Apr 4 at 1:53pmWeb
Show threadMichael H1d ago
@DecaturNature 100%. You got me really fired up over this...haha.
Show threadDecaturNature1d ago
@michael I know I've seen critical commentary about BAT here before... but then I hear about them again every few months and forgot what I'd heard, and need to go look into it again. Quite a waste of time, really.