Another Peachtree Road Race Done, Another Year I Wish We Had Beltline Rail
I know this is maybe stretching things, but, to me, the PRR is the perfect case for why rail transit would be a slam dunk.
As it stands, you have ~55,000 exhausted people dumping into Piedmont Park, and then just kinda scattering. There are MARTA shuttle buses to Lindbergh, which you will be waiting on in a line, but it's good they're there. You can also go to Midtown, but then you have to walk an extra mile and a quarter back up the hill along a non-closed 8th St., so you're fighting cars there the whole way. Seriously, this is what I do every year and it's the worst part
The other options are basically to wonder into the surrounding neighborhoods until you can get to a place where someone you know, or a ride-hail, can pick you up, but even then you're fighting traffic for a mile+ in all directions around the race area.
But... like... the Beltline is right there. If we had transit in place, both north and south, a big chunk of people could hop on the train at Piedmont park to ride north to Lindbergh that way, or south to either a transfer to the Blue / Green Lines, go into Downtown to Peachtree Center, or just keep riding south if that's an option. Even better if we also had, say, North Ave. BRT in place giving more options for people to get out of the park and to transit without crowding out Midtown Station or waiting on the bus shuttles.
This is a long-term thing, sure, and given the way summers are going, who knows if we'll even still have the PRR by the time routes are built out, but even if we were just talking about Streetcar East being able to divert a portion of people away from the Midtown Station Crush, then that'd be something. Not to mention there're all those other events in Piedmont Park that also bring thousands and thousands of folks in for, and for whom Beltline Transit would benefit.