MARTA

I forgot to mention my most recent Atlanta experience. I tried out MARTA for the first time this week and it's not bad at all. If it goes near where you need to go, it's on a par with the Bay Area BART.

People have been talking up the benefits of using MARTA to get between the airport and our building in midtown Atlanta for some time now and I finally had a good reason to try it out. If you know what you're doing, it's convenient and quite easy. If not, you get to stumble around a bit.

Sadly, our corporate intranet has zero information on this (that may not be correct but if you can't find it, it doesn't exist). I spent about 10 minutes looking at things and guessing Saturday night and finally ended up calling a coworker from LAX on Sunday morning to learn that I was all wet (aka completely lost).

For starters, the station at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is just west of the baggage area (toward the other ground transportation). Tokens are $1.25 $1.75 and there are token machines just inside the entrance area which accept denominations of $1, $5, $10 and $20 (both coming and going). I think they take coins, but my attempt at exact change lost me a quarter.

Coming from the airport (S7), you can use either line (right or left) and you'll want to get off at the Arts Center Station (N5). That's where things get interesting for the naive and geographically challenged. Had I known ahead of time which station I was going to, I'd have been much better prepared, but I didn't and I ended up being abused by the Peachtree proliferation. I walked out the wrong exit thinking I was on Peachtree, saw lots of buildings that I recognized off in the distance and nothing else and became quite confused. Worse, I couldn't get back in without paying for another token.

If you come visiting our offices in Pasadena, you might become dizzy dealing with our Madre, Sierra Madre and Sierra Madre Villa street confusion. It's a real problem for people on occasion. However, it doesn't hold a candle to the insanity of Peachtree in Atlanta. Even the folks who live in Atlanta acknowledge that there are far too many streets named Peachtree, often very close to one another.

Anyway, back to the Arts Center Station.

What you want to do is to go up two levels and exit toward the Arts Center (toward Lombardy Way). From there, head left (north) to 16^th street, and right (east) which runs out to Peachtree Street NE. Go left, walk about a block and you're there. If you screw up and depart on the second level, you'll find yourself outside on Peachtree (West Peachtree Street NW) on the opposite side of where you want to be. Turn right (north), go to 17^th and hang a right. Cross Peachtree and you are there. The last thing you want to do is what I did, turn left (heading south). You'll get there (assuming you pick the right direction on 15^th [or worse, 14^th]) but it's the really long way around.

If you hit 13^th street or Peachtree Circle, call a cab, you are officially lost.

Going back to the airport via MARTA was simple and even with lots of mid morning (shortly after 9 AM) riders, took less than 30 minutes.

Update: Thanks to Frank Steele, I've corrected the pricing information.