The city of Atlanta recently gained a windfall of transit funding revenue in the form of a half-cent sales tax. The question now becomes whether the city can maximize the $2.5 billion investment.
Yonah Freemark provides in-depth analysis of Atlanta's planned $2.5 billion investment in the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) system, as enabled by a half-cent sales tax approved by Atlanta voters in November 2016.
Freemark evaluates the potential of that funding by exploring a few key decisions still looming for Atlanta residents, politicians, and planners. For instance, Freemark asks, "What can the new revenue fund?" (The list of potential projects would require a lot more than $2.5 billion to fun.) To recommend some metrics for considering how to prioritize the potential projects, Freemark examines the density of residential and commercial along the proposed transit routes, along with demographic data, the politics of rights-of-way, and the future of infill development in the city.
Freemark's assessment at this point in the process is mostly positive, deciding that the city will "beef up existing bus and rail service and build new lines in central areas with good concentrations of people and jobs."
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