Monthly Archives: March 2016

Road Trip Through The Heart Of Atlanta

Date
Posted by
Comments0

The piece of transportation that I chose to do my research on was the Atlanta Street Car which is located in downtown Atlanta. The designers of the Atlanta Street Car began construction for their new project February 1, 2012 and opened to the public December 30th, 2014. Upon moving to the city of Atlanta I had never seen the Atlanta Street Car before. I remember driving through the city one day and looking in my rear view mirror and seeing this gigantic dark blue train-looking object coming at me at a fast pace. Of course, I panicked a little bit and swerved out of the way. I did not realize until later on, that the Atlanta Street Car is meant to drive on the road with other cars.

IMG_2607

To go along with my new experiences with the Atlanta Street Car, I wasn’t aware of where you had to go to get onto it. Later, I finally figured out that the Atlanta Street Car has 12 stops that it makes at different locations. I got onto the Atlanta Street Car at the Woodruff location which is located right beside the 25 park place building. As soon as i got on, the first thing I noticed was how plain the interior was. This plain interior reminded me of my experience with riding Marta. One thing that that separated riding the Marta train and riding the Atlanta Street Car is the fact that Marta has an old-fashioned type of feel to it and the Atlanta Street Car feels more modernized and new. The air that I experienced while riding Marta was a dingy/musty type of smell and the smell that I experienced while riding the Atlanta Street Car was the smell of newness.

IMG_2631

IMG_2610

The majority of people that I saw riding the Atlanta Street Car were mostly middle-aged lower class minorities. This makes sense though, because to ride the Atlanta Street Car it costs only one dollar and that just started January 1st, 2016. There was an interesting statistic that was reported by WSB-TV that said that since the one dollar price hike, ridership has fallen by almost two-thirds since last year. In January 2015, there were 64,448 riders and when the price went up in January 2016, only 21,818 riders rode the Atlanta Street Car.

The Polar Express or Atlanta Street Car

Overall, I enjoyed my experience riding the Atlanta Street Car. My advice to people reading this would be despite the perception that the Atlanta Street Car may give off, to not be afraid to ride on it. I was in that same boat when I was first thinking about getting onto the Atlanta Street Car and I ended up being just fine. Although I had a mainly positive experience, I would definitely recommend that the Atlanta Street Car try to be more inclusive to middle class people and younger people if they want to be more profitable. The Atlanta Street Car is a fantastic tool to navigate your way throughout the city and it should be beneficial to all people.

Atlanta Street Car 5

Date
Posted by
Comments0

The Polar Express or Atlanta Street Car

This is a video of the Atlanta Street Car cruising through the city. Unlike Marta trains, the Atlanta Street Car travels on the main road with other cars. A similarity between Marta trains and the Atlanta Street Car is that they both run on tracks. The Atlanta Street Car has tracks that are embedded into the streets of Atlanta that help guide it throughout the city.

Atlanta Street Car 3

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Road Map Through The Heart Of Atlanta

Road Map Through The Heart Of Atlanta

 

This picture represents the routes that the Atlanta Street Car makes in its trip through Atlanta. Like Marta, the Atlanta Street Car has many different stations where you can get on and off from. If you are a student at Georgia State University, you have probably seen the Atlanta Street Car every single day as it frequently runs through the campus.

Atlanta Street Car 2

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Hop on fast or get left

Hop on fast or get left

 

Here is a picture of one of the many stops that the Atlanta Street Car makes. There are twelve different stations that the Atlanta Street Car makes in its trip across the city. This stop that is shown in the picture is located at Woodruff Park.

Atlanta Street Car 1

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Atlanta's New Transportation

Atlanta’s New Transportation

 

The Atlanta Street Car began construction for their new project February 1, 2012 and opened to the public December 30th, 2014. The Atlanta Street Car gives rides an inexpensive way to navigate throughout the city. In 2015, the Atlanta Street Car was free, but in 2016 it costed one dollar to ride.

 

Annotated Bibliography #2

Date
Posted by
Comments0
Volokh, Eugene. “When Does Your Religion Legally Excuse You from Doing Part of Your Job?” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 4 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
In this article that was published by The Washington Post, it talks about how there is a lack of accommodation in our country. For this particular article the author explains how there is a big accommodation problem in the work place due to religion. The big question that the author raises is should you be exempt from doing a certain task if it goes against your religion? Under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, it claims that employers are required to accommodate to employees that refuse to do something because of religious purposes. As simple as this may sound it is not very simple. Despite the law most employers do not accommodate for these types of people which gives the employers only a few different options which are go to court and face a  lengthy trial, do the task that the employer asked, or refuse to do the task and get fired. The problem here is that all of those options could have been erased if people would just accommodate. This is a nation-wide issue and also happens in the city of Atlanta where I am doing my research. I chose this source because Washington Post is very credible and I enjoyed reading this article, but it made me raise the question of how far is too far for accommodating for religious purposes? Should a hardcore Christian refuse to hand out same sex marriage licenses just because it goes against the religion? Good article.
Grasgreen, Allie. “Students with Disabilities Frustrated with Ignorance and Lack of Services.” Students with Disabilities Frustrated with Ignorance and Lack of Services. 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
In this article by Grasgreen, she talks about how for many students with disabilities, transitioning from high school to college is a rough experience. According to her article, roughly two-thirds of college students with disabilities do not get the necessary accommodations that they need. This could be because some professors are not trained to deal with disabilities or the college does not know about the disability. Grasgreen says that many times students with disabilities have to go out of there way to get the necessary help and even then sometimes it is not enough. Grasgreen suggests that colleges begin to accommodate for students with disabilities by having an active disability office, disability training, and having all of the necessary tools in the classroom that every student needs for success. Like an article I recently read called “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating'” to people with disabilities it feels like they are the only ones doing the accommodating and that us not fair. Although this issue is happening around the country, the author mentions that this is especially a big problem in small community colleges. There are many small community colleges in the Atlanta area where I am conducting my research and I believe that we are in a point in society where everyone deserves an equal opportunity and that includes people with disabilities.
Goldman, David. “For Stressed College Students, a Doggone Good Way to Relax.” USATODAY.COM. 13 May 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
In an article that I recently read called “Recognizing College Landscapes as Learning Spaces“, it talked about how in order for a student to relieve stress they needed to surround themselves with nature. Well, in this article by Goldman, he claims that having therapy dogs on campus is a big time stress reliever for college students. Research has shown that human to pet interaction is much more effective for relieving stress than human to human interaction because of the amount of endorphins that are released when a human sees a pet. Goldman goes on to say that Kathleen Adamle, a nursing professor from Kent State hopes to continue to bring her “Dogs on Campus” program to many different universities in hopes of providing a mental break for stressed students. This article took place at Emory University’s law school where a lot of the law students felt overwhelmed with finals coming up. The author tells a story about how an Emory law student that never really showed signs of happiness came into a professor’s office and saw a dog and it immediately brought a smile to her face. The reason I chose this USA Today article is because for a lot of schools such as Georgia State, there is not a lot of nature on the campus, so I wanted to explore the alternatives to being able to relieve stress.