All Together for MARTA

A PSA FROM CNU ATLANTA

MARTA Train

When trains are delayed, busses don’t show, or service is limited during major events, MARTA receives the full fury of the public. We understand why, but we also know the agency faces longstanding constraints that most peers do not contend with, competition from rideshare services, and new challenges from intensifying gentrification. Rather than rehash all of these challenges, this is about what we as a community can do now to uplift our embattled transit system.

MARTA already anchors daily life in ways we often take for granted. It connects major job centers, universities, neighborhoods, stadiums, and the airport. The lion’s share of Atlanta’s major points of interest are within the rapid transit shed and all of our major points of interest within the city, are within the bus network. The system generally keeps big events moving, gives thousands of Atlantans an affordable way to reach opportunity, and gives many commuters a traffic-free choice for their journey to work.

Ultimately MARTA enables connectivity and an urban lifestyle not readily found throughout the South. As the only other public transit system outside of Miami, to provide heavy rail service in the Southern United States, MARTA is a key asset in separating Atlanta from its Southern peers.

Despite headwinds, MARTA continues to move the region, delivering heavy rail ridership that has outperformed systems in other metros for over a decade. That tells us something simple: when we invest in practical fixes and better connections, Atlantans ride.

With the region growing and competition for talent, especially global talent, intensifying, practical upgrades that improve reliability, legibility, and first and last mile access will pay off fast. If Atlanta wants to compete to be a landing spot for top tier talent, we need rapid transit, walkability, and a welcoming public realm to feel normal, not exceptional. That is how most of the world evaluates cities, and it is how we should judge ourselves.

Domestically, we see that top talent consistently chooses cities with these three attributes. This trend is reflected even stronger within talent from abroad. Talent from Cairo, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, Paris and many places in between don’t just view a vibrant public realm enabled by rapid transit as a nice amenity, but as baseline requirements for the cities they want to live in. More likely than not, they have lived their entire lives in environments like this. The ability to garner top talent from all over will make or break cities over the course of the next century. This means any hopes of elevating Atlanta’s global standing will require MARTA’s elevation as well.

For us, the path forward is clear. First, let’s extend a bit of grace. Every public transit system experiences delays, staffing challenges, and security issues. This does not mean we have to excuse missteps or lessen the need for accountability and transparency. It does mean we should put challenges in proper context and resist setting a bar that even the best resourced and most utilized systems cannot meet.

Secondly, we must work to pilot, measure, and scale innovative solutions that maximizes MARTA as a strategic economic asset and elevates it to provide a richer urban life for Atlanta’s residents. So let us channel the energy that usually goes into criticism into concrete, near term steps. As for our part on this effort, below are a few ideas that could significantly enhance MARTA’s image, utility, and sustainability. 

Ideas 

Magnify the public education campaign 

An effort that is seemingly underway already. MARTA must do all that it can to normalize and demystify transit, even if it is just letting people know that they can track trains in real time on their app or utilize the Breeze card app to avoid visiting the fare machine. Throughout the South, anti transit is deeply entrenched but with consistent and persistent targeted messaging, mindsets can shift. Tell the story. Bust the myths. Normalize transit as universal, global, and economically empowering.

Go all in on last mile connectivity + micro mobility

Invest in secure electronic bike lockers to be placed around and within the stations: Bike lockers could not only increase ridership but also be a source of revenue. An electronic pay system could operate much like public parking for cars. The City of Burnaby, Canada has rolled out such a system through its Parks Department and Translink, metro Vancouver's transit network has installed several at key transit nodes. These secure spaces for lightweight personal transport vehicles could be critical in capturing potential riders who are outside of the "comfortable to walk to" range of our stations.

Credit: Burnabynow // TransLink

Bring in the Pedicabs: E-bike pedicab service providers could connect residents and visitors alike to areas just outside of the walking shed of our stations. With our terrain and climate this is critical. By offering licenses and stalls to operate, MARTA could provide a reliable, affordable, and more comfortable way to get from stations to points of interest nearby. If said points of interest also installed stalls for the licensed cabs, a reliable connection to and from the stations could be established. 

Turn stations into civic centers

Stations should be places of culture, commerce, and community, not just transit nodes. Let us activate them with art, music, markets, and public life. While some efforts have been made, MARTA should scale these efforts significantly via partnerships if the capacity does not yet exist in house.

Atlanta Beltline’s Marketplace program offers the blueprint for incorporating micro enterprise into public space, and many other metros including London’s tube, New York’s MTA, and others have pop up programs for small businesses. Leipzig Germany probably demonstrates what the fusion of the public realm into transit stations looks like at its best. While achieving that level of integration may be improbable, certainly leveraging our cathedral like stations as space for civic gathering can pay dividends for the system and residents. 

Main Hall in Leipzig, Germany's Central Station

Conclusion

None of these ideas are perfect or a silver bullet and would all need to go through their own gauntlets of vetting and analysis, but they are a start and could help elevate not only MARTA, but Atlanta’s urban experience.

MARTA needs us all to overcome its challenges and Atlanta needs MARTA to reach its full potential. Together we can figure out this key puzzle piece to our economic, urban, and global future. Let’s begin the work of building a better city of tomorrow, today.