Transportation

Each of MARTA’s 1,500-odd bus drivers has a unique badge number. The lower the number, the higher a driver’s seniority; a new recruit might be assigned, say, Badge #1480. That makes Coy Dumas Jr., Badge #1—who just celebrated 50 years behind the wheel—something of a transportation sensation.

These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on civic leaders, government and politics, transportation, and utilities.

The next time you watch a MARTA bus driver make a squeaky-tight turn with ease, you can thank Howard Harris, who teaches novices to navigate Atlanta’s labyrinthine streets.

In 1992, the Federal Railroad Administration first pitched the idea of five high-speed rail corridors around the country, including an initial Southeast route from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina; later in the decade, the FRA added Atlanta and Savannah to its plans. So: On its 30th anniversary, how are plans progressing? Slowly.

Like the vast majority of Atlantans, I don’t live in walking distance to a MARTA train, a useability issue that transit experts refer to as the “first-mile/last-mile problem.” To address that problem, MARTA has piloted a creative solution: an on-demand rideshare system dubbed MARTA Reach. Similar to Uber or Lyft, the service takes passengers on short distances around town, generally from a stop near their house to a MARTA station or bus stop. I decided to test out the system's pilot program to see how it works.

These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on civic leaders, government and politics, transportation, and utilities.

MARTA announced Saturday morning that its General Manager and CEO Jeffrey Parker has died at age 55.

A short stretch of downtown’s Peachtree Street is going on a diet—the kind of diet that slims down the notoriously car-choked corridor from four lanes to just two, freeing up space to provide pedestrians some much-needed breathing room. 

Should MARTA buses come more frequently or should they serve more people? The agency hopes to answer these questions to make a more robust system.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for public-transit agencies across the nation. Even when the pandemic does end, it’s possible that our work and travel patterns will be disrupted permanently. Then, there’s the economic impact of the pandemic and its corresponding effect on tax revenue, a major source of funding for many transit agencies, including MARTA.