Atlanta as a Global Platform: International Lessons for Atlanta’s Transportation System – Global Atlanta

Editor’s word: This commentary by Jorge Fernandez, marketing consultant at The Pendleton Group, is printed as a part of the agency’s annual sponsorship of World Atlanta and is the third within the sequence on Atlanta as a World Platform. The primary two installments checked out how firms use the town as a worldwide base and why (in keeping with two ambassadors) Atlanta issues a lot in world relational map. Learn the third and ultimate article beneath.

How usually have you ever or your colleagues complained about Atlanta visitors? Have you ever ever skipped a enterprise assembly since you didn’t need to combat visitors? What occurs if potential traders start to do the identical?  

Whether or not we prefer it or not, financial growth is reliant on efficient transportation methods. And vice versa – well-developed transit methods can encourage funding.  

For Atlanta to proceed to draw enterprise and funding – particularly worldwide enterprise – individuals should have the ability to transfer effectively across the metropolis, from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport, to downtown company headquarters, to suburban places of work.  

Atlanta has a lot to study from different cities all over the world about creating efficient transportation methods that encourage financial growth, and amongst our consultants and inside our worldwide work on the Pendleton Group, we’ve seen sensible transportation planning in motion, each regionally and overseas, that would assist Atlanta speed up inward funding and convey extra of the world’s finest and brightest to our metropolis. 

Atlanta’s transportation evolution 

Some 20 years in the past, components of the metro Atlanta space started work on transportation methods that inspired wholesome financial growth, in keeping with Pendleton marketing consultant and former mayor of the Metropolis of Decatur, Invoice Floyd.  

Decatur started to price its streets, intersections and sidewalks in keeping with ease of use for commuters. The purpose was to make the transportation expertise on native streets as pleasant for walkers and bikers because it was for drivers. The examine additionally included a well being part, striving to encourage new growth that was extra walkable and, thus, more healthy.  

The transportation evolution tales of different cities all over the world have served nearly as good classes for Atlanta, in keeping with Miles Shephard, vp of enterprise growth North America for worldwide engineering and structure consultancy, IDOM.

With one in all its North American places of work in Atlanta, IDOM has suggested Atlanta on the adoption of worldwide developments in designing and working public transit methods. 

“Atlanta is a rising metropolis, and it’s a metropolis with a visitors drawback. Extra might be finished to assist individuals get out of their vehicles and into public transportation,” Mr. Shephard stated.  

Our groups are doing extra. IDOM has been working with Pendleton and Atlanta’s numerous public transportation actors to enhance transit methods within the metro space.  

“Our working relationship with IDOM is invaluable for studying from the agency’s world expertise,” Mr. Floyd stated.  

IDOM has been concerned in a number of the most revolutionary transportation methods all over the world, from Asia (New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam) to the Center East and North Africa (Saudi Arabia, Algeria), from Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Eire, Italy, Spain) to Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador).  

Every of those transportation methods has classes that may be utilized to Atlanta whereas guaranteeing that the character stays “100% Georgia.” 

Lesson #1: Combine various kinds of transit. 

A hit issue for city transportation methods is the mixture of various technique of transport into an built-in community. Cities together with Zaragoza, Barcelona and Bilbao in Spain, Lund in Sweden and Sydney and Melbourne in Australia have applied built-in methods that mix mild rail, metro, buses and bicycles, leading to improved financial growth. 

Bilbao, Spain, house of the Guggenheim Museum, is a very profitable instance. IDOM helped prolong Bilbao’s metro system from the town middle to outlying suburbs, created a tram to hyperlink components of the internal metropolis, linked bus speedy transport (BRT) to all areas and put in biking lanes all through the town to draw the general public to vacationer websites and concrete inexperienced areas.  

Lesson #2: Safely combine transit into city life. 

Bus speedy transport (BRT) and lightweight rail transit (LRT) built-in beside automotive lanes, pedestrian methods and biking lanes can present nice alternatives to reconfigure streets past merely designated lanes for public transport.  

Transportation methods might be built-in into the city material with a sequence of interventions together with inexperienced areas and security measures.  

Secure city transit is determined by streetlight precedence planning and visitors microsimulation to offer sustainable options for congestion and elevated public transport velocity. 

Lesson #3: Use sustainable and environmentally efficacious transit.  

Public transit is a sustainable different for vehicles on city roadways, because it: 

• Reduces noise and vibration 
• Reduces ambient temperature by putting in grass round tracks  
• Reduces air pollution by utilizing electrical automobiles 
• Reduces carbon footprint, as trains emit 3.5 occasions much less carbon dioxide per kilometer than highway transportation 
• Will increase effectivity, as trains require 3.5 occasions much less land per passenger than vehicles  

Lesson #4: Make transit extensively out there. 

Not solely do environment friendly transit methods serve widespread areas, however they will additionally rework less-desirable components of a metropolis, making them extra accessible – and ripe for funding. 

Mild rail has rejuvenated areas internationally, rising property values and common prosperity.  

The Dockland in Portland, Oregon, for instance, has been utterly revitalized as a result of mild rail, as was the docklands space of London within the Nineteen Eighties. For Manchester and Sheffield within the United Kingdom, mild rail has been notably profitable in restoring business prosperity to decaying cities. 

Lesson #5: Introduce mild rail. 

Mild rail development, although costly, is a chance to transform and reprogram Atlanta’s streets as car-less. A rail system would shift visitors from vehicles to public transportation, biking and strolling. 

IDOM is an advisor to main worldwide purchasers for LRT planning, methods design and neighborhood and concrete design outcomes. The corporate has introduced greater than 1100km (about 683.51 miles) of sunshine rail to 55 worldwide cities, plus 350km (about 217.48 miles) of metro rail with 280 stations to 25 cities.  

IDOM has helped cities like Dublin, Eire; Tenerife, and Vitoria, Spain; Naples, Italy; Ayacucho, Colombia and Odense, Denmark, entice financial growth alternatives by implementing LRT into their city transportation methods. 

In Dublin, the federal government tackled the town’s congestion drawback by investing in a light-weight rail system. The Luas LRT is cheaper than a metro system and gives higher service than buses. Journey occasions are diminished as a result of Luas’s tracks are separate from different rail or roads. The electrical Luas can be an environmentally pleasant mode of transport, enormously lowering emissions at avenue degree.  

Lesson #6: Type unified transportation districts. 

Connecting numerous types of transit means crossing jurisdictional traces. A key to a profitable public transit system in Atlanta – and funding it – is creating relationships amongst regional transit authorities.  

Forming a unified transportation district – for instance, from Truist Park stadium in Cobb County to the Doraville MARTA station in Fulton County – is less complicated stated than finished. Every of those locations is in a distinct jurisdiction.  

Peachtree Corners’ expertise park is in a comparable predicament; firms there want transportation to and inside the park, however that may require buy-in from a number of transit authorities. Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, a public-private partnership that draws expertise startups and different firms, has been experimenting with concepts for autonomous shuttles and different transportation improvements that may transport individuals for the “final mile” from public transit stations to and inside the park.  

The identical problem exists for the so-called “Prime-end 285,” a transportation hall that cuts by way of Fulton, Dekalb and Gwinnett counties, connecting the cities of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs and Norcross. Planners might want to provide you with a funding mechanism that serves the mutual pursuits of all districts concerned. 

MARTA’s progress and altering perceptions of transit

If Atlanta learns from the experiences of worldwide cities and follows the recommendation of worldwide consultancies, it might grow to be a mannequin for transportation effectivity that promotes financial growth. 

MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Speedy Transit Authority system comprised of heavy rail speedy transit, mild rail and buses in Fulton, Clayton and Gwinnett counties, is a serious benefit as a result of it’s an present, high-capacity metro system.  

MARTA understands its function in worldwide growth in Atlanta and continues to help in transit-oriented growth (TOD) round present and potential new stations in expanded areas, in keeping with Mr. Floyd, who serves on MARTA’s board of administrators.  

Atlanta has plans for streetcars and a BRT system referred to as the “Subsequent Era Bus Venture” that can use designated avenue lanes and feed into the MARTA line. MARTA is already planning BRT in numerous components of the metro space, together with Summerhill, Campbellton and Clayton County. 

A current trial run referred to as “MARTA Attain” used a small connector bus, which could possibly be accessed by way of an app, to move riders to the closest transit rail station.  

MARTA’s greatest efforts at the moment are in making the “final mile” shorter. MARTA is concerned in ongoing discussions with Uber and Lyft about methods to contain these providers in reference to transit. 

These and different packages will assist decide the way forward for on-demand transit in Atlanta, Mr. Floyd stated.  

Atlanta’s success with public transit, nevertheless, in the end is determined by altering individuals’s perceptions of public transportation, Mr. Shephard asserted.  

“From our expertise, it’s vital to vary the picture of public transportation. Transportation is for all, and good design may also help convey all members of the general public collectively, bettering mobility to all components of the town,” he stated. 

Atlantans should embrace the idea of public transit and be keen to get out of their vehicles. If we are able to create an city transportation system that works, we’re sure they are going to. 

Contact Pendleton Group to study extra about our work to reinforce financial growth in Atlanta and all through Georgia. 

For extra on our transportation initiatives, contact Mr. Floyd at bfloyd@pendletonatlanta.com or Mr. Shephard at miles@idom.com.