A plea for transit from the Atlanta suburbs

Micromobility isn’t just an important ingredient in the transit solution for the inner city.

A Chamblee planning official writes in today’s AJC that suburban mobility could extend its reach by making transit more accessible to foot and bike traffic.

One of the major obstacles is the “last mile” of public transit: getting to the station or stop. Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is crucial to getting people out of their cars, as is, in limited cases, adequate parking at suburban transit stations. Rental bikes or scooters at bus and train stops, safe bike storage, protected bike lanes and safe walking paths have been proved to reduce road congestion.

We couldn’t agree more with the author, Garrett Keith Shan, who serves as city planning coordinator for the north DeKalb suburb. Shan points for an example to his own 23-mile commute from Milton to Chamblee.

If I lived within half a mile of a bus or rail transit station and had a 30-minute commute to work, the potential reduction in carbon emissions, traffic time, fuel costs and maintenance expenses would be significant. And by taking my car off the road, other commuters would get to their jobs faster, meaning less congestion, pollution and other effects.

The full post is worth a read here. While we intown folk continue to struggle over the best ways to spend the city’s More MARTA sales tax, it’s easy to forget that more than 90 percent of the metro area’s population lives outside Atlanta. Improvements to transit and improved access to transit in those areas – where trips tend to be much longer – can over the long haul do more to reduce pollution, congestion and the region’s sad dependence on automobiles.