I've wanted to try out some of the county transit systems for the past few years. It's ironic that my first trip on the Cobb Community Transit system (CCT) was to pick up my automobile from a garage in Mableton.
The garage was located on Veteran's Memorial (the old Bankhead Highway) about midway between Oakdale Road/Discovery Boulevard, and Floyd Road/Mableton Parkway (Veteran's Memorial seems to be the dividing point for a number of name changes of roads).
My original plan was to cycle to the train station, ride the westbound train to the Holmes station, and cycle to the garage. But the car was ready a day early, and I'd taken the train to work with no bike. So I got the brainstorm of trying to make connection with the CCT. I knew absolutely nothing about the routes, fares, or schedules of the CCT, so I hit the CCT website.
So far so good. The website indicates that the CCT actually wants people to ride the system. I don't know what made me think they wouldn't. I then hit the link to the system map. Hmmm...
Weird. One would think that a route straight out Veteran's Memorial would be a natural, since it would run through the center of Mableton and Austell. But the closest route was the 30, which departs from the Holmes MARTA station and intersects Veteran's Memorial where Mableton Parkway becomes Floyd Road, very near the Mable House. I checked the map legend, and determined that if I got off there the walk would be two miles at the most. Good enough. I then
phoned the CCT to find out how to transfer from MARTA to the CCT. I found that transferring from
MARTA to the CCT at the train station was no extra cost with my monthly Breeze ticket.
So I walked the half mile from my workplace to the Georgia State MARTA station at about 3 PM on a Friday. I took the westbound train to the Holmes Station, and asked one of the MARTA staff the location of the CCT stop. He pointed it out to me. When the bus arrived (about fifteen minutes later) I boarded and asked if the Veteran's Memorial stop would be announced. The driver said yes. The bus was crowded at around 4:30 PM, the stops were frequent along it's meandering route with people both boarding and exiting along the entire route through South Cobb.
The woman seated next to me, who'd overheard me ask the driver about the stop, let me know about two stops in advance that my stop was nearing.
I disembarked, crossed Veteran's Memorial, and walked to the garage. The sidewalks along my path to the garage were smooth and walkable, although needless to say the overall streetscaping along Veteran's Memorial is dismal.
The entire trip, from boarding at the Georgia State station to arriving at the garage took about an hour and twenty minutes. I could probably have cut the time by calculating the connection schedule better. But all in all that wasn't too shabby.
I intend to explore the CCT more thoroughly over the next few months. But overall my first experience was very positive. I generally evaluate public transit routes based on how good they are in getting me from East Atlanta to some useful or interesting destination. Looking at the CCT's system map there are routes to the Mable House/Barnes Amphitheater, the Silver Comet Trail, the Marietta town square, Kennesaw Mountain, and a route within walking distance of Smyrna's well designed town center. The question is how efficiently the CCT can get me there.
I'll keep you posted.
I do intend to contact the CCT and request that they consider a route running straight out Highway 78 (Veterans Memorial). One of my longstanding notions is that the towns formed by the railroad to Birmingham would be a logical extension of the westbound MARTA rail line (Mableton, Austell, Powder Springs, Douglasville, Villa Rica). Since Cobb doesn't have a rapid transit system yet, at least they could fill in that gap with a bus line within their own boundaries.
I've ridden CCT pretty often, mostly the 10 (from Art Center to Vinings) because my parents live near Vinings and pick me up there when I come into town. It seems to work pretty efficiently. The only downside was that, until recently, there was a stretch of Northside Parkway between West Paces Ferry and the Cobb County Line that wasn't served by either MARTA buses or by CCT. However, MARTA recently fixed that problem.
Posted by: Mike Lewyn | February 19, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Hi, Mike. Very long time no see!!!
I haven't been very active in New Urbanist circles lately (nor have I been updating the blog here as often as I'd like), but I've been shifting my focus from cycling to public transit lately (for no particular reason except I've gotten a bit bored with writing about cycling).
Looking over the transit maps of the countywide systems surrounding Atlanta
the most useful and interesting one seems to be the CCT. If you'd like to do a guest article here on your own experiences with the CCT I'll post and publicize it.
My own reason for spending time in Cobb County is that my fiance lives in Mableton (very close to the river).
Posted by: atlantalarry | February 19, 2008 at 09:43 PM
The CCT was probably intended to serve Cobb residents, but it's interesting that it makes sense for intown residents as well.
Thanks for this post.
Posted by: Jett | February 21, 2008 at 07:35 PM
Larry, I'm just happy you're posting again.
Cheers,
Posted by: K Lynch | February 23, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Larry,
Long time, no speak. BTW - great review of your experience riding CCT. Didn't realize it made a stop at the Silver Comet Trail. This spring we'll have to take our folders on the bus out to the SCT do a little touring like we did this past fall. Hopefully the weather will warm up soon!
Posted by: Joseph | February 26, 2008 at 09:31 PM
Hi, Jett. It is indeed interesting. Because of the bus to train transfer my trip was a bit time consuming, but no worse than making a similar trip on MARTA (where I have to change modes, and am covering a considerable distance).
Most of the CCT's routes seem to focus north of the East-West Connector. It'll be interesting to figure out if those routes will be useful for me. If I lived near the Arts Center or Midtown MARTA stations' they'd almost certainly be very useful.
Posted by: Larry Felton Johnson | February 27, 2008 at 06:54 AM
Hi Kevin! Thanks! I've rearranged parts of my life so I can write more, so I hope to keep the blog lively and moving along.
Posted by: Larry Felton Johnson | February 27, 2008 at 06:57 AM
Hi, Joseph. I've felt bad about losing touch with the folders' group over the past few month. Maybe we could do a ride in April.
The CCT to the SCT would be a good trip, but we have to either check out if the bikes (even folded) could be taken on the bus, or stagger departure. The racks only hold two bikes per bus.
I'll get in touch with you though. I'm slowly starting to re-engage with Bike Forums.
Posted by: Larry Felton Johnson | February 27, 2008 at 07:01 AM
Hello again Larry - when I worked downtown I often would meet my wife near her workplace near Cumberland Mall. I found the trip to be pretty easy to take by taking the express bus from Arts Center & riding up I-75 to their transit station at the mall. Also - free, I never had to pay (not sure I was supposed to).
Posted by: brad | March 05, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Hi, Brad. My fiance lives in Mableton and has an office in Symrna (near the town square area). I'm going to be experimenting with various trips. The Cumberland Mall bus might be one to add to my list of things to try.
I think the trips into Cobb off MARTA train stations are always no extra charge. That's how the customer service person for CCT explained it to me, and that's what happened on my trip.
Posted by: Larry Felton Johnson | March 05, 2008 at 02:20 PM