Transportation
Atlanta's transportation infrastructure comprises a complex network that includes a heavy rail subway system, multiple interstate highways, the world's busiest airport, and over 45 miles of bike paths.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) provides public transportation in the form of buses, light rail, and heavy rail. Notwithstanding heavy automotive usage in Atlanta, the city’s subway system is the eighth busiest in the country. MARTA rail lines connect many key destinations, such as the airport, Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, and Perimeter Center. However, significant destinations, such as Emory University, Cumberland and Turner Field, remain unserved. As a result, a 2012 Brookings Institute study placed Atlanta 87th of 100 metro areas for transit accessibility. Amtrak, the national rail passenger system, provides service to Atlanta via the ‘‘Crescent train’’ (New York–New Orleans), which stops at Peachtree Station. Of the five Georgia stations served by Amtrak, Atlanta was the busiest in 2011, boarding or detraining an average of 315 passengers daily.
With a comprehensive network of freeways that radiate out from the city, automobiles are the dominant mode of transportation in the region. Three major interstate highways converge in Atlanta: I-20 (east-west), I-75 (northwest-southeast), and I-85 (northeast-southwest). The latter two combine in the middle of the city to form the Downtown Connector (I-75/85), which carries more than 340,000 vehicles per day and is one of the ten most congested segments of interstate highway in the United States. Atlanta is mostly encircled by Interstate 285, a beltway locally known as "the Perimeter" that has come to mark the boundary between “Inside the Perimeter” (ITP), the city and close-in suburbs, and “Outside the Perimeter” (OTP), the outer suburbs and exurbs. The heavy reliance on automobiles for transportation in Atlanta has resulted in traffic, commute, and air pollution rates that rank among the worst in the country.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest airport as measured by passenger traffic and aircraft traffic, offers air service to over 150 U.S. destinations and more than 80 international destinations in 52 countries, with over 2,700 arrivals and departures daily. Delta Air Lines maintains its largest hubs at the airport. Situated 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown, the airport covers most of the land inside a wedge formed by Interstate 75, Interstate 85, and Interstate 285.
Cycling is a growing mode of transportation in Atlanta, more than doubling since 2009, when it comprised 1.1% of all commutes (up from 0.3% in 2000). Although Atlanta’s lack of bike lanes may deter many residents from cycling, the city’s transportation plan calls for the construction of 226 miles of bike lanes by 2020, with the BeltLine helping to achieve this goal.
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