Atlanta has come too far to stray from the proven choice that will connect 45 neighborhoods with high capacity transit.
This is part three of a five part series on why I believe Beltline Rail and in particular starting with the Streetcar East extension is crucial for the city’s future.
| Part One | Density |
| Part Two | Connectivity |
| Part Three | Congestion |
| Part Four | Equity |
| Part Five | Timeline and Economics |
| Part Six | Ensuring Success |
If you’ve been on the Eastside Beltline on a nice weekend day or even weeknight at the this point, as you can see in my video – it’s crowded!
It doesn’t matter if you’re walking, jogging, rolling, or biking – you won’t be able to do so with any sort of pace and will have your head on a swivel. Listen, it’s a great thing! There’s a reason Atlanta is one of the of the most active cities in the Country.
While some other ideas such as pods, BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), and separating the path into bike and pedestrian zones will not provide the safe, accessible, equitable, high capacity transit that rail will.
Pods will only be able to move 6-12 people at a time and will not be able to navigate the trail at peak times unless another paved path is provided. They are also often times not accessible.
BRT will require a fully paved dedicated guideway and would transform the Beltline from a trail to a suburban feeling road with a side path. While a great option for many of our urban roadway corridors, it’s not a good fit for the Beltline.
Separating the Beltline into two paths – one of bikes and one for peds seems like a good idea at the surface, but does nothing connect more people to more places and still requires more pavement.
Many of the arguments against Beltline Rail are about having to pave over the landscaped area which is ironically what just about any of the alternatives have to also do. At the end of the day, rail will have less of an impact than the other floated options and can utilize grass tracks.
Come back tomorrow for part four.
To learn more about Transit on the Beltline visit: https://beltline.org/learn/progress-planning/transit/beltline-transit-study/
To support the fight for Beltline Rail visit: https://beltlinerailnow.com/
To read all my Atlanta articles visit: https://philveasley.com/atlanta-articles/
Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.
My goal is to create cities that are safe and effective for all people to move about outside of cars. To achieve that we have to focus on creating equitable, dense, and vibrant cities full of walkable neighborhoods with a various mix of housing choices, schools, restaurants, transit, and services. We cannot have safe multimodal infrastructure without the density to support it and we cannot have equitable density without safe multimodal infrastructure. Outside of designing safe streets, my passions are sketching ideas for infill neighborhoods, floor plans, urban photography, and exploring our cities on foot or bike. Please check out the menus above for all of my ideas and also check out my YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.
Opinions and insights are my own and are not representative of my employer or any organization.
Phil Veasley 
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