MARTA and its possibilities on the Atlanta campus

By Xavier stevens Emory Life Editor

As most students venture to other areas of Atlanta beyond the bubble of Emory University, they discover the MARTA, the city’s public transportation authority. The discovery of this service begs the obvious question of why the MARTA is not on the Atlanta campus.

Bus and rail routes proposed by MARTA could change life in and around Emory — one of Atlanta’s largest concentrations of employment at the University, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the VA Hospital remain without direct access to mass transit and interstates. The public transit would benefit those who commute to campus or work, alleviate heavy traffic and expand a student’s ability to explore a sprawling Atlanta.

The inquiry into the possibilities of the MARTA in Druid Hills started over a decade ago with a proposed light rail transit (LRT), such as a streetcars, through campus called the Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative. The initiative’s routes start at the Lindbergh Center Transit Station in Buckhead and travel southeast, making stops at Briarcliff Road, the CDC, Emory campus, Clairmont campus and ending either in the heart of Decatur or in Avondale.

The Clifton Corridor became part of a referendum (known as T-SPLOST) among metro Atlanta voters in 2012 for a one-cent sales tax that could support $7.2 billion in several transit projects. Voters rejected the tax and referendum by a convincing margin of 24%.

The transit initiative remained fro- zen for years before regaining momentum again in 2018 with bus rapid transit (BRT) on the table as well as light rail. Over the past five years, the MARTA Board proposed several plans. With help of citizen feedback, they narrowed down 10 options into two BRT routes and one LRT route that the board will choose from this spring.

Betty Willis, Emory government and community affairs senior associate vice president and president of the Clifton Corridor Transportation Management Association, touted the line’s use for employees and students commuting to campus in 2018. For upperclassmen and graduate students living off campus, the MARTA could cut significant time off their commute and expenses such as gas and parking.

But the vote from 2012 signals a worrying lack of public support, and more critically funding, that could halt the Clifton Corridor again before any construction starts. The resounding “no” stems from the history of the MARTA and its relationship to a growing Atlanta.

The MARTA started in 1965 through a similar vote of minimal increase to sales tax and gained funding to construct a bus and rail system.

Jackson McQuigg, a railroad historian and a vice president of the Atlanta History Center, believes that the conditions were just right for this move.

“We were visionary, at least at the local level in 1965, when the sales tax was basically implemented or passed by the voters, and the referendum was approved,” McQuigg said. “It also helped that the [Feds] were doling out big money in the ’60s and o’70s for urban mass transit because of the oil crises at the time.”

The MARTA capitalized on the sales tax implemented by most of metro Atlanta in 1971 and federal support during the 1970s energy crises to build their bus and rail systems within the decade. Both start in the heart of downtown and expand past it in the cardinal directions. Although visionary, the new public transportation soon saw a diminished reputation for its inability to serve Atlantans.

As the city grew in the ’60s and ’70s, many residents, especially the white population at about 160,000, left the city and MARTA’s reach. The solution became rapid highway construction that notoriously split up Bblack neighborhoods, tarnished public transportation’s reputation as an unreliable source of transit and created a city dependent on streets.

The stereotypical connection of public transportation and crime also deterred many from using the MARTA. Residents of Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties, which were overwhelmingly white at the time, voted down the initial public transportation referendum. Gary Wolf, president of Atlanta-based Wolf Railway Consulting, worked on MARTA line projections for the Gold Line built to extend to Chamblee and Doraville. He said that MARTA made several promises about the increased population and economic benefits in those areas that fell through.

“[MARTA] has had these huge predictions of development,” Wolf said. “They said, ‘Oh, Chamblee is going to boom, and Doraville is going to be a boom center. When they built it out east, we were going to have these big office projects around East Lake and Decatur. Well, guess what? Ironically, when they put MARTA in development, people moved away from MARTA.”

Wolf, a Druid Hills resident, said that he “doubts” Lindbergh to Emory “will ever happen” because he believes that neighborhood residents might push back if the Clifton Corridor reaches a point of construction.

“There would be huge protests coming into my neighborhood,” Wolf said. “We’ll see where it goes, and when you really get down to it, you can put a really good bus system in for about a fraction of the price of rail.”

He finds it more likely the BRT routes of the Clifton Corridor will be approved. Other MARTA proposed LRT routes in Clayton County and the Beltline transitioned to BRT routes after lack of funding and public support. The Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative estimates the light rail system would cost $3 billion and be built in eight to 10 years.

“Politicians get hung up on rail systems, and the cost of building rail is just so escalated today,” Wolf said. “You could never afford to build MARTA today what you built it for in the ’70s with all these environmental statements, impact studies and all this stuff. It just bogs it all down years and years.”

Efforts for the MARTA at Emory seem bleak to the Druid Hills community. Yet MARTA continues through the public pushback and decades-long process and plans to finalize a route this spring for the Clifton Corridor. It projects service for up to 1,100 residents per hour — a significant step forward for anyone’s ability to get to and from campus, work and their families. For now, students face the limitations of the shuttle service, resort to Uber and sit in the heavy traffic that defines Atlanta.

— Contact Xavier Stevens at xsteven@emory.edu.