ATLANTA TRANSIT (Marta, Beltline, Peachtree Streetcar, LovJoy Commuter, etc...)

[Julien]

Bummed my right knee a couple of weeks ago so haven’t been “around” much. Was out for a little test 10 mile walk/run and saw 2 Waymos at an Electrify America near the Ansley Park mall and the 2 drivers standing there. So I stop and stuck MY BIG nose in their business. Got some juicy bits of info too. The drivers are Waymo employees from Calf. Said they started with 15 cars here and have added a few. So there are over 15 still here. Said they HD Map and test L4 drive (in driver’s seat) every day. I asked if ATL was going to be on of Waymo’s next expansions and one said “can’t say but” [paraphrase] it would look like that is happening.


Also then saw another in Midtown on West Peachtree St.

[RocketSurgeon]

Been seeing those Jags almost daily around Midtown. A little glimpse of the future

[Julien]

Originally Posted by RocketSurgeon

Been seeing those Jags almost daily around Midtown. A little glimpse of the future

Yeah I keep seeing them. Have a friend who believed there were only a couple at most but I keep seeing them over and over and over and..... Now knowing there are over 15 explains why I keep seeing them.

Here is just yesterday and Tuesday. Hope we have active service before the World Cup.

So far it is active in San Fransisco and Phoenix with testing in LA and Austin. Hope ATL is number 5.

I'm signed up on the Waymo app for free test rides if/when then they start.

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

https://discover-atlanta.v5.platform...nsit-authority

The sundance presentation claims that MARTA will have new fare gates within five years that will be able to pay directly at the gates using mobile wallet, and debit/credit cards (I assume using contactless).

[Julien]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeanuts

https://discover-atlanta.v5.platform...nsit-authority

The sundance presentation claims that MARTA will have new fare gates within five years that will be able to pay directly at the gates using mobile wallet, and debit/credit cards (I assume using contactless).

Not sure if you use MARTA or not but that is waaaay outdated. We have had contactless payments for over a year now. There are even 2 ways of doing it. You can use Apple Pay/Wallet (I use Apple Pay and think you can use Google Wallet too) or you can use CC in the App and scan a QR code on your phone at the turnstile. The QR reader is on the top and the NFC?Apple Pay reader is lower down.

EDIT: I'd post a picture of the App on my iPhone but the Postimage site is down. Here is a video of each:

Apple Pay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsRkEgmnsRo

QR code
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ToLYdKZhWo&t=8s

[Julien]

Post I made in a different forum and great news for ATL.

Took pic and wasn’t going to post because it would be just another boring Waymo charging pic………BUT: As I took pic noticed 3 people in the car so I had to know what the hell was going on. I’m signed up for test rides and if already stated I was going postal. There were 2 in the back and driver. So stuck my big nosey head in the passenger side window to talk to driver. Oddly she had an ATL accent. [every thing is paraphrased] Asked if she was from SF and were they giving test rides and were they drivers too. She said she and one person in back were local and newly hired Waymo trainees and the other person was the Waymo director of driver training. So had to talk to him (he is getting out of the backseat as I took pic). Said they were replacing the SF Waymo drivers with local employees so they are NOT pulling out of ATL.

He said that the plan was for ATL to be announced as the next expansion city. Said HD Mapping was basically complete and it is mostly test driving now. Even told me to download the App and sign up (which I had already done). Asked about car storage and charging. He said that they didn’t have any infrastructure yet but while not his department was under the impression that Waymo was acquiring a depot location.

Also I asked about Zeekr (new L4 Waymo van) and even volunteered that he understood they would start replacing the Jags and send the Jags to Austin and ATL. He also indicated we had gotten more cars than the original 15 here.



Also here is a pic from July 27th

[MarcusSi26]

Originally Posted by Julien

Not sure if you use MARTA or not but that is waaaay outdated. We have had contactless payments for over a year now. There are even 2 ways of doing it. You can use Apple Pay/Wallet (I use Apple Pay and think you can use Google Wallet too) or you can use CC in the App and scan a QR code on your phone at the turnstile. The QR reader is on the top and the NFC?Apple Pay reader is lower down.

EDIT: I'd post a picture of the App on my iPhone but the Postimage site is down. Here is a video of each:

Apple Pay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsRkEgmnsRo

QR code
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ToLYdKZhWo&t=8s

Didn’t realize that was a function in the breeze app, thanks for sharing! However, I believe the presentation is correct, MARTA is updating the gate system to accept NFC payment without the breeze app installed (directly from your CC in your mobile wallet, like in NYC). The current machines are not able to do that (my assumption is they accept nfc but the breeze app must be open to “phone home” and charge your CC). That has a bunch of benefits, for instance, iPhone enables tap to pay for transit when your phone is dead (saves enough battery for a few hours of this).

[Julien]

Originally Posted by MarcusSi26

Didn’t realize that was a function in the breeze app, thanks for sharing! However, I believe the presentation is correct, MARTA is updating the gate system to accept NFC payment without the breeze app installed (directly from your CC in your mobile wallet, like in NYC). The current machines are not able to do that (my assumption is they accept nfc but the breeze app must be open to “phone home” and charge your CC). That has a bunch of benefits, for instance, iPhone enables tap to pay for transit when your phone is dead (saves enough battery for a few hours of this).

That makes sense. I was just reading contactless was coming which we already have. While opening the App is not too big of a deal actually using direct Apple Pay will be an added plus.

I was just so happy when they replaced the original Breeze Mobile app with the Breeze Mobile 2 app and finally added Apple Pay (and QR code) contactless.

Added benefit of using direct Apple Pay is using your Apple Watch and not needing to even pull out your phone. Although has anyone actually witness someone walking without a phone in their hand and looking down?

[shivtim]

It's beyond frustrating that GDOT is planning a $9 billion expansion of top-end 285 while drastically gutting express bus service.

ATL board approves next steps for reduction of Xpress bus service

Reducing total daily trips from 197 to 94 trips. Of those, 48 trips would end at MARTA stations—either Civic Center, Dunwoody, H.E. Holmes, College Park, or Indian Creek.

Reducing the current total of 27 park-and-ride lots throughout the region down to 18 lots.

Reducing stops in downtown, midtown, and perimeter from 55 down to 12.

"For Maria Herbert, a transaction accountant at Cushman & Wakefield who has been taking the Xpress bus from Douglasville to her office in midtown for 17 years, the adjustments could mean opting to drive into the city more often. Her redefined route would drop her at H.E. Holmes MARTA station, requiring two train transfers and a longer walk to get into midtown rather than the seven-minute walk from the current bus stop to the office."

[mohaas05]

I don't like the drastic cuts to Xpress service, but terminating routes at MARTA stops isn't a terrible idea. Makes sense to make use of that existing infrastructure instead of duplicating it with bus routes directly into Midtown and Downtown.

[montydawg]

Originally Posted by Julien

That makes sense. I was just reading contactless was coming which we already have. While opening the App is not too big of a deal actually using direct Apple Pay will be an added plus.

I was just so happy when they replaced the original Breeze Mobile app with the Breeze Mobile 2 app and finally added Apple Pay (and QR code) contactless.

Added benefit of using direct Apple Pay is using your Apple Watch and not needing to even pull out your phone. Although has anyone actually witness someone walking without a phone in their hand and looking down?

Using NFC on the turnstiles was a game changer here in NYC compared to the old magnetic cards. It is so easy to pull out your phone or credit card and swipe on the machine. The credit card companies don’t even validate with Face ID with Apple Pay since it is a small amount of money, so it is that much faster. That breeze app was clunky at best/ I bet most people won’t go back to that. This is a great improvement to Marta.

[Julien]

Originally Posted by montydawg

Using NFC on the turnstiles was a game changer here in NYC compared to the old magnetic cards. It is so easy to pull out your phone or credit card and swipe on the machine. The credit card companies don’t even validate with Face ID with Apple Pay since it is a small amount of money, so it is that much faster. That breeze app was clunky at best/ I bet most people won’t go back to that. This is a great improvement to Marta.

Again the Breeze 2 App does use NFC. You just need to have the Breeze 2 App open for NFC to work. Now doubt Breeze 2 was a HUGE update over the clunky (original) Breeze App and cards but will be even nicer not to even need the Breeze 2 App open, though it is good to see schedules, stations and routes.

[Atlurbsandspices]

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/b...isqus-comments

Beltline rail fights continue in earnest.

Dickens continues to waffle on mode.

Beltline Rail Now has been doing more organizing and hung a banner this past weekend along the trail in Reynoldstown. Doug Shipman spoke at the rally in favor of light rail, and 3 other city council members have spoke in favor.

HDR completed their study to MARTA, and their report is very complimentary to a grass railbed

[smArTaLlone]

https://www.semafor.com/article/08/2...tem-in-atlanta

Silicon Valley autonomous transportation company Glydways has won a contract to build an experimental mass transit system that shuttles travelers the 10 miles between Atlanta’s convention center downtown to its airport, the company told Semafor exclusively.

Backed by venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Glydways plans to make small, electric-powered autonomous vehicles that travel along a fixed path. Executives say its compact AVs can move people at rates comparable to rail at a fraction of the cost.

Its shuttles are more narrow than traditional vehicles — about 5 feet wide compared with 8 feet for a Ford F-150, allowing it to shrink the footprint of mass transit. The transport system requires dedicated lanes, such as elevated platforms, and uses small, diagonal pullouts for loading and unloading. The company says Glydways’ infrastructure is less of an eyesore, in part, because it takes up far less space than large parking lots or train and bus stations.

[testarossa50]

Sounds great and all, but any sort of a traffic-separated system running between the airport and the convention center will be immensely complex and expensive. Not really a pilot project, but an actual gargantuan transit initiative (that would be redundant to MARTA). Makes me question the seriousness of the whole enterprise.

Want an actual pilot project that will have lasting value? Connect the freaking domestic and international terminals at the airport.

[Street Advocate]

FWIW, the plans from the actual company proposed a route from GICC in College Park, not GWCC Downtown.

Also lol at only being able move 1-4 people. How impractical.

Click the media kit and ATL
https://www.glydways.com/press.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XRo...TdKetqxeW/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aPv...76Fv1vO1d/view

[Julien]

Originally Posted by testarossa50

Sounds great and all, but any sort of a traffic-separated system running between the airport and the convention center will be immensely complex and expensive. Not really a pilot project, but an actual gargantuan transit initiative (that would be redundant to MARTA). Makes me question the seriousness of the whole enterprise.

Want an actual pilot project that will have lasting value? Connect the freaking domestic and international terminals at the airport.

Yeah CRAZY complex engineering and building completely segregated lanes is insane. This would be super expensive and take a decade or more to complete. By then there will likely be MANY L4/fully autonomous vehicles (including vans) that will drive on the regular highways, roads and streets negating this service before it could be implemented.

Also while connecting to the Georgia World Congress center is important WHAT about everywhere else? This is the worst aspects of a train (can only go to a dedicated station) combined in an expensive faux car package.

Just for reference in Phoenix Waymo just started service to the airport last month. Also Waymo just started taking delivers of a Zeeker 7 seater which are ADA compliant. We have Tesla about to make a robotaxi announcement in Oct and Cruse is back testing. Plus there is another interesting compony named Zoox that uses vans (also ADA compliant) and is testing in Las Vegas. So I conceder the Glydways to likely be outdated before it could make its first ride here and a dumb, expensive and disruptive to build idea.


Here is what the Waymo Zeekr will look like (likely going into service before end of year). And below is the Zoox.

[Street Advocate]

Decent looking minivan there by Waymo.

[Julien]

Originally Posted by Street Advocate

Decent looking minivan there by Waymo.

....and I'm willing to bet doughnuts to dollars that ATL will be the next Waymo test city. Here is one L4 drive testing Saturday (driver's hands in lap).

[testarossa50]

Originally Posted by Street Advocate

FWIW, the plans from the actual company proposed a route from GICC in College Park, not GWCC Downtown.

Also lol at only being able move 1-4 people. How impractical.

Click the media kit and ATL
https://www.glydways.com/press.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XRo...TdKetqxeW/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aPv...76Fv1vO1d/view

Makes much more sense from a practicality perspective. (I even double checked the article to make sure it said convention center downtown before posting!)

But there’s already ridiculously good train service between the airport and GICC too!