Transit Now A Statewide Focus
This week’s Courier Herald column:
While most of Georgia’s political attention was given to elections over the past few months, some have remained working diligently if not somewhat quietly on policy matters. A lot has occurred to advance Georgia’s transit options, both for metro Atlanta and the rest of the state.
In Atlanta, the governing board of The ATL – the metro region’s new integrated transit oversight agency – has been appointed. Sixteen people, chaired by Georgia Power’s Charles Sutlive, are charged with developing and implementing a seamless system among various transit providers within the 13 county Atlanta region.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is the highest profile name elected to the board. Her inclusion is significant as Atlanta is embarking on a $2.7 billion transit expansion at the core of MARTA’s existing network. Bottoms was focused mostly on assembling her cabinet as the underlying legislation creating The ATL worked its way through the legislature. Her election is a very public statement that the city will continue to have a seat at the table as transit adds a suburban focus.
An equally important inclusion on the board is signified by the election of Cobb County’s Earl Ehrhart. He is a retiring Cobb County legislator and longtime MARTA critic. As only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only Ehrhart can bring rail or bus rapid transit to Cobb.
Other board members are a cross section of commerce, government, and academia. They include such names as Comcast’s Andy Macke, mega developer Mark Toro, Lawrenceville City Manager Chuck Worthington DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond, and Clayton County Commissioner Felicia Franklin Warner.
That’s the Atlanta story. Transit is now a story told in Georgia with three parts. Legislation for the rest of Georgia has been the focus of the same study committee that produced The ATL ‘s legislation. The group has further divided their solution sets into other non-Atlanta metro areas (think Savannah, Macon, Columbus, etc) and rural Georgia.
The thought process of the division was relatively simple. Atlanta was an incredibly complex web of logistics and turf battles. A “one size fits all” piece of legislation for transit affecting the entire state would likely confuse the issue further by bringing others to the table that didn’t have Atlanta’s issues nor as direct stake in a solution.
That said, the transit issues facing the rest of the state are real, and need their own solution set. The same principle applies to non-Atlanta metro areas and rural Georgia. While “transit” is an all-encompassing name, the structure of metro and rural transit agencies invites a comparison between apples and oranges.
Rural transit includes such services as non-emergency medical transport, van pools for workforce and workforce development, and senior services, among others. The state currently operates many of these services within existing agency silos. Breaking down the barriers between agencies and centralizing these functions where possible is among the chief priorities of the task force looking at how to improve mobility for rural Georgians.
Work will continue to find an organizational structure that works to allow local input on transit and transportation needs yet consolidates state oversight into one agency, or at least eliminates duplication of existing services among agencies. Think of it as a “getting more bang for the existing buck” starting point.
From there, the committee is preparing to present to legislators more comprehensive solutions to expand mobility in the rest of Georgia. Proponents don’t want the message to be about transit, per se, but more about improved health care delivery, education and workforce options, and ultimately, improved economic development for rural and non-metro Atlanta parts of Georgia.
It’s all about keeping Georgia moving forward. To do that, all Georgians need the ability to move about. It’s not just mobility, but upward mobility – for Georgians and Georgia.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Nice to hear forward-progress type of news on the 1st day back after a break.
One thing confuse me, though- you said “yet consolidates state oversight into one agency.”
I know the DoT is historically politically volatile, but wouldn’t that be the logical agency?
Or are there too many institutional challenges for that?
In this case, no. GDOT is more of an infrastructure agency. Rural transit is a bundle of services currently being done under multiple state agencies (think, DCA, DCH, TCSG, etc). You’re more likely to see something akin to a centralized service administrator than to put it under GDOT.
Just for the record, GDOT applies for and then manages the Federal Transit Administration’s 5311 program for rural transit services. Local groups apply for the funds statewide and then operate the service, usually combining with other funding sources such as Medicaid and Medicare by DHS. GDOT could do more, but it does administer transit funding for rural systems as well as those in urbanized areas under 200k such as Albany.
Good info, gt.
The vision is clearly for some “Inter-Agency” group, or “Joint Task Force” or “Center for Rural Transit” or whatnot. In those cases, the governance would be by a Board of reps from relevant agencies who administer the various programs. Then you just have to park it somewhere for administrative purposes. As long as the governance is independent from the agency to which it is attached, you just go where there is the most efficiency. That could be based on the size of the various programs, or who has the better administrative structure– like an agency which already has regional offices in rural areas.
So, I guess we’ll get a bill next session?
It’s great to read about GA’s continued focus on transit. Being raised in middle Georgia, I can only hope that rural transit will include rail to Atlanta for increased job opportunities. I know that may be a long time in the future but I hope to see it in my lifetime – I’m in my mid-40s now. It sounds like there may be more immediate needs though, like van pools or other type services, for rural GA.
If anyone is interested, here’s the link to the Study Commission’s website including all presentations given to the committee both this year on rural transit and last year when the focus was on metro Atlanta.