Box 4, Folder 15, Document 56

Box 4, Folder 15, Document 56

ROUGH DRAFT

By Allan K. Sloan

ATLANTA -- RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PHASE IT

We have three basic recommendations to make for Phase II of the CCT
program. These proposals have been discussed with various officials and

leaders in Atlanta and have received positive response.
@ that the CCT consortium team should operate under the aegis
of the Policy Committee of the Atlanta Area Transportation

Study during Phase IT;

e that CCT should assist MARTA in planning an experimental bus-

way connecting one of Atlanta's neighborhoods with downtown;

@ that CCT should also assist the joint City Planning Commis-
sion — Central Atlanta Progress study in developing a de-
tailed plan for downtown circulation.

The following is the rationale behind each of these basic recommendations:

1. Organizational Structure -- since the AATS Policy Committee is



emerging as the prime policy making body in transportation, we recommend
that CCT's Phase II work be done under the aegis of this committee. This
should insure that the CCT project will operate within the mainstream of
transportation policy making in Atlanta. The AATS Policy Committee repre-
sents the kind of transportation policy making body that the federal go-
vernment has been wanting to create in metropolitan areas for transporta-
tion planning purposes. The Technical Advisory Committee of AATS
represents the technicians of the various participating agencies and is
generally the group that initiates proposals to be taken to the Policy
Committee. The Citizen's Advisory Committee is now being established to
review the Voorhees plan and is expected to be the main link to the com-

munity in gaining understanding and support for transportation improvements.

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The CCT's Phase II work should be guided and reviewed periodically by the
appropriate committees of the AATS. At this time some sort of subcommittee
structure is being planned for AATS and its advisory committees. It may
be that there will be appropriate subcommittees to which the CCT should

relate more directly at some future date.

To implement this recommendation, some exchange of letters between the
Urban Mass Transportation Administrator and Mr. William Maynard, Chairman
of the AATS Policy Committee, would be in order. This should happen on

the initiative of UMTA once Phase II policy is set.



2. Nature of Phase II Work -- in Phase II, CCT should act as a sup-
plement to, not a substitute for, the planning work of the specific agen-
cies responsible for transportation or developmental planning. CCT should
not be the sole planning agent for a particular project or program, for
this is properly the responsibility of the local planning and operating

agencies.

Our specific work in Phase II should be designed to supplement the tech-
nical work of AATS and MARTA in refining and detailing the basic trans-
portation plan now under consideration and taking steps to implement it
and CAP-CPC as part of its planning of downtown circulation improvements.
Within the work programs of these agencies, we recommend that CCT concen-

trate on those aspects of the planning that are:

a. oriented toward action programs that have a short term

(3-5 year) time frame for implementation;

b. oriented towards programs which UMTA can use as a basis

for developing its national programs.

The two projects we recommend for detailed work in Phase II meet both of

these criteria.

Arthur Zh. tittle, Inc.

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3. The Busways Experiment -- without doubt, the planning and
developing of a part of the busway system on an experimental basis will
be the most important transportation development affecting downtown At-
lanta in the next few years. It will also be the most important new pro-
gram for which federal aid will be required. While AATS and MARTA will
have prime responsibility for the further planning work on busways both
in the short and long run, the CCT project could help considerably in this
work. By so doing, UMTA could have the direct benefit of some on-the-
ground planning experience with a system concept which may have wider

application nationally.

The following are the specific kinds of work’ that CCT could help perform
as a part of the process of setting up the specific experimental program

for busways that Atlanta wants to develop:

a. Provide some of the technical analysis required for the
AATS and MARTA to select a suitable segment of the overall busway plan

for first stage experimentation. This is a critical decision. It will



involve a careful balancing of engineering, operating, and market ing fac-
tors with the political realities of »resent day Atlanta. This work will
involve an analysis of the current characteristics of the people living
within patronage distance of the various busway routes, an assessment of
the market within these areas for new busway service (coverage, frequency,
etc.), an assessment of the feasibility from an operating point of view
of providing busway service on the particular routes, and an analysis of
the overall costs and benefits of selecting one of the routes for first
stage experimentation. This would be a major part of CCT's work in Phase
II, in which it would be taking program guidance and direction from MARTA

and working closely with their consultants.

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b. Provide specific studies needed to implement a selected
busway project. Once a route is selected for experimentation, there are
a number of other work projects in which CCT might be able to assist sub-

sequently, including:

@ specific studies of the market for and the character-
istics of the busway services to be provided on the se-

lected route;

@ studies of the impact of the busway on the neighborhoods

and land areas directly adjacent to the proposed route;

e studies of costs, funding requirements, and sources of

funds for an experimental project;

e studies to determine the best way to monitor the perfor-
mance of the busway service, once operating, from a pa-

tronage and financial point of view.

4. Downtown Circulation -- the future of internal circulation in
downtown Atlanta will depend almost entirely on the nature of the overall
plan the AATS and the participating agencies finally adopt. There are a
number of work projects in which CCT could participate in order to help
the responsible agencies reach these important decisions. Most of these
are included in the study program that the City Planning Commission -
Central Atlanta Progress joint team is now developing. The revised appli-
cation of CAP to UMTA to fund this program reflects these projects. Our
recommendation is that CCT participate in this planning program in a way
that would provide additional assistance to the work that is already
planned. The CCT team has been meeting with CAP to determine what kind of
participation this should be. The following work projects are potential

candidates:

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a. Assistance in designing a system to monitor trends and

changes in downtown development. The future of downtown Atlanta is key to



all plans for future mass transit to, from, and within the central area.
This planning will require more knowledge about what is actually happening
in the downtown area in terms of changes in employment (who is now working
in downtown Atlanta by skill and location of residence, how this has been
changing in the short run, what mode of travel is used to get to work),
changes in investment in new and existing space of various kinds (what
functions are requiring new space downtown, what costs, what volume of
workers per floor area, what kind of investments are being made in new
and rehabilitated space), changes in traffic generation and parking in
various sections of downtown, and others. Currently all planning starts
from the assumption that employment in downtown Atlanta will double by
1983, an estimate that was made by the Atlanta Region Metropolitan Plan-
ning Commission in 1963 before many of the current growth trends were

' statistically evident. Since downtown growth is the reason for mass
transit, both Atlanta and UMTA have an important stake in finding out

more about the dynamics of this downtown situation. This work would ini-
tially involve setting up some continuing. system to pull together at

least annually existing data on a whole series of these change factors.
This knowledge is required before CAP and the other agencies will have a

good basis to proceed with specific planning of downtown improvements.

b. Assistance in planning immediate transportation improvements
in central Atlanta. The CCT project could assist CAP and various respon-
sible city departments in planning immediate improvements for downtown cir-
culation pending decisions on the basic long range plan. These might in~

clude:

1) helping the City Traffic Engineering and Planning De-
partments undertake a systematic study and evaluation
of existing arterial and collector street patterns with-

in the center city. Study should result in a plan for

smoother flow through:
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3)

- reduction of abrupt and acute corners
- use of unified one-way street system
- use of reversible lanes

- selective street closings

- more coordinated intersection controls

studies of the use of existing streets for higher
intensity bus usage through exclusive or reversible
bus lanes, exclusive bus streets, signalling to fa-
vor buses, as part of the planning for a busways

experimental project.

analysis of current goods movement problems in downtown

Atlanta.

c. Assistance in longer range planning for downtown circulation.

CCT could help in planning the basic downtown circulation system. needed to

go along with the Voorhees plan or any alternatives to it. It could pro-

vide some of the urban design, traffic engineering, economic, market, and

cost analysis inputs to supplement the work that the CAP-CPC joint team

and its consultant will be doing. It could include:

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helping plan circulation facilities to supplement the
central subway in downtown, if the decision is made to

go ahead with it. These might include:

- study of pedestrian accesses, concourses, malls,

and building connectors in connection with design

of the subway stations

- study of methods of connecting peripheral parking
areas with subway stations and facilitating cross-

town distribution.

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- study of the design and operation of the transportation
center if built as part of a basic subway-busway

plan.

Nales 2) studies of alternatives to a central subway in downtown
Atlanta, if the decision is made not to build a central
subway as part of the basic plan, including: studies
of parking and bus circulation systems in connection

with new expressways

3) studies.of new internal circulation systems to connect
f major traffic generators in the downtown area (special
vehicles, people moving system, etc.) as suggested by

CAP.

- connections between Cousins air rights, Rich's,

Government Center, Stadium, and parking lots.

- connections between Peachtree Center, Civic Center,

and Cousins air rights.
- others
To implement these recommendations, the following steps should be taken:

e The recommendations should be reviewed and accepted by UMTA

after being transmitted by the consortium team of CCT.

e A decision should be made on how much of an effort there will
be in Atlanta on Phase II in terms of money, man-hours, work

emphasis so that priorities can be selected from the projects

listed above. :

Arthur A Hittle Inc.

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ea After these decisions are made and the scope of Phase II

determined, follow-up meetings should be set up with

- the AATS Policy Committee through its Chairman to re-

view Phase II program and operating procedures.

—- MARTA through its Executive Director to discuss the bus=—

ways project.

- the CAP-CPC project through its Executive Director and

staff to discuss downtown planning assistance.

The technical and operating details of Phase II would be worked out at

these meetings.

Arthur DAittle Ine.

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