Taken for Granted

By Juan Viera-Dimarco

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is a landmark of our city’s progress. Although it is not perfect, it is the most efficient way to get around the inner city. In my opinion, MARTA is extremely underrated. Growing up in the suburbs, I rarely rode MARTA as a kid. Now as a Georgia Tech student living in midtown, I have come to fully appreciate its presence. Regardless of its simple north-south and east-west routes, MARTA has essential stops that everybody who lives in Atlanta has traveled to at some point in their lives.

It is five in the afternoon. The sun is still out, and you have just finished all of your classes. All of a sudden, you receive a text from a relative telling you that a very close family friend is in the hospital and needs to undergo surgery. Your stomach is in knots as you quickly imagine all the possible outcomes regarding your friend’s hospitalization. This actually happened to me last week. My mother sent me a message telling me to go to Northside Hospital and visit my sister’s best friend, whose family I have known since I was born. I put my books in my room and head to my readily available and trustworthy mode of transportation, MARTA.

Medical Center is located a mere four stops away from my Midtown location. It contains three hardworking and lifesaving hospitals: Northside Hospital, Scottish Rite Hospital, and St. Joseph’s Hospital. All it takes is two and a half bucks to reach the center of all the medical care you would ever need. Although people often complain that public transportation is uncomfortable and dangerous, MARTA contains the spaciousness of a car without having to worry about maintenance or paying for gas. Also, unless you are traveling alone late at night, MARTA is very safe.

Medical care is not the only benefit of MARTA. Let’s say you have a plane to catch in the morning. You wake up on time, finish packing all of your clothes, and leave your house with plenty of time to spare. You have done nothing wrong—the only problem is that it is rush hour, and I-75 is congested with loads of traffic. Because it runs from 4:45 am to 1:00 am and does not have to deal with traffic, the only solution to catching your flight is to drive to the nearest MARTA station. Whenever my family had this problem when I was a child, my parents would drive to the Sandy Springs station, everyone would grab a suitcase, and we would head on our journey to the airport. If we had driven to the airport, it would have taken two to three hours, my dad would have had to put us on a later flight, and we would have had to deal with the hassle of parking. MARTA took us directly to the airport in under an hour.

People take MARTA for granted. Many people do not even recognize the vivid orange, yellow, and blue striped MARTA signs near their homes. Some have never even heard of MARTA’s buses. Others have never had the opportunity to sit down, relax, and gaze at the beautiful surrounding landscape on a MARTA ride. All in all, people should at least be informed of MARTA’s two most important stops, Medical Center and Airport. When emergencies occur, people can depend on MARTA for a cost effective and efficient way to reach their destinations.