After an exciting midterm election and a tight race to the finish, Atlantans are warn out from negative
attack ads, canvassers knocking on their doors, and weekly phone calls from political phone banks. It's a lot for a city where our politics has remained fairly consistent over the last few years. And while progressive candidates unfortunately lost to candidates who favor moving Georgia backwards across the board, Clayton County citizens made a progressive statement of their own this election. Clayton residents voted to expand MARTA service into their county, and this measure passed with a whooping 72% yes.
What this means for Clayton residents is that by passing a 1% sales tax, Clayton County will join the MARTA system which already services Fulton and DeKalb county. Starting in March, MARTA will start servicing limited bus service to Clayton County, and starting next year, MARTA will provide full bus service throughout the county. The rest of the sales tax will go into a fund for either commuter rail or bus rapid transit. By 2020, MARTA is hoping to get the permission and have the funding to start construction on Clayton's commuter line.
Alternative forms of transit in Clayton has had a bumpy past. Back in the 1960's when MARTA was forming, the predominanty white suburb voted against joining the transit agency because they were afraid of crime coming to Clayton from the inner city. Over the years, the demographics of Clayton has changed causing the county to become more diverse. Eventually county officials started C-tran, a transit agency that provided bus service and handicap service to Clayton residents. Due to funds, C-tran was never able to fully service all of the county. In 2010 though, county commissioners decommissioned C-tran due to massive budget shortfalls. This left thousands of Clayton residents stranded in an urban county without access to public transit. Residents dependent on C-tran to get to work were left in the black due to the effects of the Great Recession. This year marks a turning point for alternative transit there though. Over the summer, county commissioners approved allowing MARTA to service their county and this previous Tuesday, Clayton residents voted yes on receiving MARTA service for their county.
While this doesn't seem like such a major development for Atlanta, I believe this signifies a new trend in Atlanta transit. People are tired of high gas prices, lots of traffic, and cars everywhere. It doesn't matter whether you are a wealthy Alpharetta resident or a lower income resident in Jonesboro, people across the metro desire more walkable, livable communities. Driving everywhere is just no longer a feasible way of movement, and by supporting MARTA expansion in Clayton county, residents are demanding an alternative to what they have always known to be the norm.
For MARTA, this is the first major expansion since it's conception. This means several things for the 9th largest transit service in the country: 1) more ridership from Clayton commuters now traveling in town, 2) more funds from an expanded service base, 3) innovation through new forms of transit (eventually commuter rail or BRT) and making transit effective in a suburban landscape, and 4) more advocacy for expanding the service throughout Metro Atlanta. It's crazy but true that this is MARTA's first major expansion in over 40 years, and it's first expansion into a new county. Transit services in Washington DC and San Fransico started at the same time as MARTA have added over a 100 miles of rail to their service. MARTA on the other hand has collectively only 42 miles of track, and they haven't added any rail since the 1970's. But Atlantans now have the chance to change this by buying into public transportation and voting yes on SPLOST and transportation measures in upcoming elections.
MARTA as a result of this election now faces many challenges on how to implement effective public transportation in the sprawl of the Atlanta suburbs. The agency needs to ensure premium services and effective routes to provide the most for Clayton residents and their local economy. MARTA has the ability to kick start more development around bus routes and transit hubs in the county, so their routes have to be effective and beneficial to its citizens. Adding circulator bus routes around the town centers and major residential centers is one possible solution to the sprawl since it will kickstart local economies by adding more connectivity and cohesion. Another option MARTA can look into is implementing the huburb concept to its stations in Clayton. The University of Toronto and Toronto's transit has applied this concept they created to their city's sprawl, and it has allowed the city to provide beneficial transit across their region. This clustering of development, education, and business has attracted Torontons to use transit more.
While there is little precedent about how MARTA should handle implementing public transit to a suburban area with so much sprawl, I trust in their leadership and Atlanta innovation to provide the most for Clayton citizens. MARTA realizes it has the ability to change transportation not only across Atlanta, but also other Sunbelt cities with how they service Clayton County. There will be a lot of positive change coming from Clayton's monumental vote.
