![]() ![]() The county would also offer vans to the Atlanta airport, connect more bus routes to the ends of MARTA’s rail system, and offer a few routes into adjoining counties.Ī vote scheduled this week would send the plan for review by the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority, which controls federal funding for local transit projects and provides state oversight. The plan would also redesign existing bus routes, make buses run more frequently, and give buses priority at traffic signals. And microtransit would provide the Sunday service now missing. The county’s on-demand microtransit service would be expanded countywide by 2033. It would create a bus rapid transit system from the northeast end of MARTA’s rail system in Doraville to the county seat in Lawrenceville. Most of the money would go to hire new employees and pay operating costs, although it would also pay for new buses and stations. "It’s important that we incorporate their needs.” Indeed, the cuts to MARTA were especially painful because the agency carries 94 percent of transit passengers in the region, though it accounts for 68 percent of regional service.County officials say the sales tax would generate $17 billion over time. “The people who have felt the burden of this reduction in service are the people who depend most on it," said Simon Berrebi, head of the advocacy group MARTA Army. New demand-response services in the suburbs offered by ride-sharing companies like vRide also fill gaps, but they serve very few people per vehicle compared to buses or trains. Those service cuts have been somewhat but not fully restored in the past few years. Because of a constitutional amendment, state gas tax revenues must be spent on roads and bridges only, and the state legislature has chosen to distribute virtually nothing through its general fund to transit (though it has spent some money on capital improvements recently).Īfter reaching a peak in 2009, MARTA transit service was reduced substantially. Transit agencies in the Atlanta region receive no significant state funding for operations and until recently were hamstrung by the inability to raise additional funds. As the following maps illustrate, the region’s developed area has sprawled out dramatically across the counties surrounding Atlanta, onto previously undeveloped land (shown in gray). Today, a system designed for the scale of the populated parts of the Atlanta region in 1970 has been overtaken by suburban growth. While the transit system slowly expanded until 2000, and suburban Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties added bus service, a truly integrated regional transit system never materialized. Funded by a 1-cent sales tax, the new agency would operate buses and lead the construction of a rail network with support from the federal government.įoreshadowing future problems, the referendum was dogged by scare tactics from racist suburbanites, and it failed in Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, which were excluded from the system from that point on. In 1971, residents of Atlanta and DeKalb and Fulton counties voted to support the creation of MARTA. A troubled history of transit investment and sprawl But as we'll see, there's a big mismatch between the region's employment centers and its bus and train networks, and access to convenient all-day service is limited. In this post, which kicks off our "Getting Transit Right" series, we'll examine the quality of transit service in Atlanta - what shaped the current transit network, and how well service patterns serve the needs of residents.Ītlanta transit does have some significant features going for it, including frequent rail service and an integrated transit card.
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