Other issues like lack of bus lanes, delays in traffic, etc. It might also be beneficial and provide more flexibility to move a bit away from the model where nearly all bus routes act as feeder services to the rail network. But, if they go to more destinations people want to go, at higher frequencies, I see it as a net positive. The option of leaning towards frequency likely means fewer routes, as MARTA has a famously kneecapped budget.

That inconvenience becomes overwhelming and further causes people to opt for alternative means of transportation. His firm likens the lack of frequency to a gate at the end of your driveway that only opens once every 30 minutes/hour/etc. I'm hoping there is improvement in that regard with Jarrett Walker's potential changes to the bus system (though I'm apprehensive that driver shortages and the death of Jeffrey Parker may have affected this quite a bit). People aren't going to take the bus over driving when they have to time their trip once every 30 minutes or every hour. I'll echo a lot of what's being said - the biggest issue holding MARTA buses back as it stands is frequency. The route I most frequently do take is the 102, as it hits a lot of locations I like to go to, like L5P & Ponce City Market. I live next to a rail station, so I don't take the bus as often as I otherwise might. And of course their app sucks and the bus tracking doesn't work half the time. If even 1 bus in the rotation is missing on a minor route, you're gonna be sitting at the stop for nearly an hour waiting on the next one. It just sucks because they're reliable on major routes but some of the minor routes are extremely unreliable.

I think the buses make the overall MARTA system make sense, obviously the rail won't get you anywhere but the buses will finish the job. Now that I'm more familiar with the system I use the buses pretty frequently. MARTA needs to do a lot of work to make their bus route maps clearer, make the schedules clearer, and make their app better. But basically the only people that know how the bus routes work, are people that rely on them. Pandemic didn't help things either completely throwing people off of schedules and routes they had followed for years. At first I would just use the trains, I didn't bother with the buses because tbh MARTA's maps and schedule designs suck ass.

Marta bus big bear