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Beltline Rail IV: The Great Urban Gamble

The Most Important Decision Atlanta Will Make in the 21st Century. Advocates and community voices weigh in on Atlanta’s Beltline rail debate, contrasting BRN and BAT’s positions, examining Mayor Dickens’s role, and highlighting neighborhood perspectives on the proposed project.

By  ,   and  Myles Fogle ,   and  James Grenade
26 min read

RESURGENCE: The Arguments for and Against Mass Transit on the Atlanta Beltline

This is Part IV of IV of the Georgia State University Law Review’s series analyzing the legal, political, and social debates surrounding Beltline rail in Atlanta, Georgia. With this installment, we bring our examination of Beltline rail to a close. In addition to interviewing advocates Matthew Rao, Walter Brown, and Ken Edelstein, we spoke with the chairs from Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs): W, D, M, and E. We sought their insights to provide the perspectives of leaders from neighborhoods adjacent to the Beltline and where the proposed rail would go. We also contrast Beltline Rail Now (BRN) and Better Atlanta Transit’s (BAT) arguments, explain Mayor Andre Dickens’s role, explore context from NPU leadership, and present our own conclusion. To read the first part, Setting the Scene—Nimbys and Yimbys Take on Atlanta, click here.

Part IV

A. Micromobility

This is the most important decision Atlanta will make in the 21st century.

In May 2024, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece authored by an “active” Better Atlanta Transit (BAT) supporter said:

Politicians are often accused of shifting stances in accordance with the prevailing public sentiment. On the other hand, sometimes their positions evolve because of what they actually believe is the right thing to do. That takes courage—and that’s what Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens seems to be doing in deciding whether or not to put a streetcar on the Beltline.[1]

Indeed, although Mayor Andre Dickens has affirmed his goal to build transit along the Beltline, exactly what kind of transit he aims to build remains unclear.[2] Mayor Dickens has mentioned autonomous vehicles, bus rapid transit, and other solutions as potential alternatives to rail.[3] Talk of autonomous vehicles, pods, and other forms of micromobility on the Beltline is new from Mayor Dickens.[4] With his announcement of the four new infill MARTA stations, however, Mayor Dickens has made clear that transit must at least connect to the Beltline.[5]

Micromobility includes “human-powered or electric-assisted vehicles such as bicycles, e‑scooters, and e-bikes.”[6] These small, low-speed vehicles are intended for personal use and have the potential to increase the total “number of transit trips taken by expanding the reach of multimodal transportation.”[7] Micromobility has become popular in the United States.[8] As of 2020, cities have adopted more than 260 micromobility systems, such as docked and dockless bikeshare and e‑scooter systems.[9] The largest shared systems are expansive, with hubs for dockless and shared devices able to support several thousand devices.[10] According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, American and Canadian riders took 130 million total trips on shared bikes and e-scooters in 2022, up 40% from 2018 and 3,500% since 2010.[11] Atlantans took over two million micromobility trips in 2023, with the highest ridership segments including the Beltline’s eastside trail, 10th Street Northeast, and Techwood Drive Northwest.[12]

B. BAT Alternatives

BAT strongly supports micromobility efforts as an alternative to light rail transit, often citing successful endeavors in Europe as touchstones.[13] Members of BAT even made an “inaugural pilgrimage” to Amsterdam last summer to visit Europe’s most bike-centric country.[14] BAT sees a guiding star in countries like the Netherlands, crediting their successful integration of cycling culture to innovative and sustainable transportation strategies.[15] Dutch policy likewise includes traditional pro-transit initiatives like subsidies and tax benefits for individuals and businesses buying electric bikes.[16] The Netherlands has aggressively pursued this transportation shift, cooperating with state and local municipalities to build twenty-five “cycle superhighways” around the country.[17] These bicycle highways act as corridors linking workspaces to residential areas where riders rarely have to stop for cars—let alone compete for space with them on the road.[18] Started in 2006, the bicycle highways have now completely changed how the country travels.[19] Today, Dutch cycling infrastructure includes almost 1,000 miles of express cycle paths.[20] These cyclist-exclusive routes have resulted in quicker commutes, eco-friendly alternative transportation, and safer travel.[21] Imagine telling an Atlantan they could commute by bike from College Park to Downtown and it made more sense than driving.

Unlike Amsterdam, where the country’s intricate and well-maintained network of bike lanes allow for up to 70% of commuter trips made by bicycle,[22] Atlanta is still taking baby steps to establish dedicated cycling infrastructure on the city’s major roads.[23] In January 2024, the Atlanta City Council set aside $1 million for an e-bike rebate program to boost e-bike usage among Atlanta residents, with 75% of funding reserved for individuals earning at or below $54,000 per year.[24] BAT is pushing the Atlanta City Council to enact more of these Euro-flavored transit policies.[25]

Indeed, shortly after returning from the BAT pilgrimage last summer, Walter Brown authored a blog post titled 8 Micromobility Lessons from Holland.[26] In it, Brown quickly admits that Amsterdam and Atlanta are not physical copies of one another.[27] And he concedes that as a whole, the Netherlands’ environment is flatter and relatively cooler than Atlanta’s hot, humid, and sprawling landscape.[28] But Brown sees the Beltline as a rare opportunity to have bikes drive urban planning rather than being an “afterthought” in how Atlantans travel.[29] He argues that the Netherlands’ “well-developed solutions do apply” to the Beltline because it is “where we can quickly create the kind of safe, grade-separated, flat connectivity that is so emblematic of modern cycling in Holland.”[30]

Brown witnessed what many Americans experience on their short, expensive trips abroad—a major city deprioritizing cars so space is reserved for bikes, people, and nature.[31] Brown recognizes the new effort to do so in Atlanta, but at the same time acknowledges the city is still playing catch-up to places like the Netherlands and other major cities in the United States.[32] The Atlanta metro region has “grossly” under-invested in transit for generations, he argues, and must devise creative policies such as forming alliances with regional stakeholders to produce a faster implementation of bike infrastructure.[33]

C. Mayor Andre Dickens

Mayor Dickens’s newfound caution towards Beltline rail signals a shift from his campaigning as a staunch advocate of Beltline transit to now listening to both sides of the argument.[34] The former city council member sprang into office by running on progressive goals like making public transit free by 2030.[35] Upon his ascension from NPU-R chairman to Atlanta City Council, the Georgia Tech-trained engineer arrived at city hall to realize Atlanta had no transportation department.[36] In early 2017, Mayor Dickens introduced legislation that would eventually create the Atlanta Department of Transportation which would “design, operate, manage and maintain the City of Atlanta’s transportation system and transit projects and infrastructure.”[37] Having his eyes then set on becoming Atlanta’s top executive, Mayor Dickens, by then the Chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, won over urbanists with calls for strong leadership to propel an accelerated transit delivery to Atlanta.[38] While campaigning, he advocated for harnessing the Beltline’s “power” to transform the city, using it as a tool to fight the city’s income inequality and transportation woes.[39] Mayor Dickens even scored an “A” on BRN’s mayor candidate scorecard by stressing that MARTA needed to build the Beltline streetcar extension at least two years earlier than its original timetable.[40] Combining his reform-minded campaign with endorsements from power brokers like former-Mayor Andrew Young,[41] in 2021 Mayor Dickens became the city’s sixty-first mayor in hopes of restoring the “soul of Atlanta.”[42] Voters in the neighborhoods along the Beltline, too, believed in Mayor Dickens’ message enough to support him over his opponent Felica Moore.[43] While Moore performed well with voters in northern neighborhoods like Buckhead, Mayor Dickens dominated the transit-hungry Beltline neighborhoods around Southwest and Eastside Atlanta.[44]

But in a July 2024 interview, Mayor Dickens played his transit cards a little closer to his chest than light rail advocates would have preferred; uncertainty dominated the conversation rather than Mayor Dickens presenting a clear plan for Beltline rail.[45] Reacting to the mayor’s take on Beltline rail, BRN’s subsequent blog post called the interview a “[s]preadsheet of reasons why the project may not move forward” with the project’s financial cost leading the charge.[46] Even though the mayor insisted that he was pushing for the Beltline streetcar’s construction, his verbiage began to echo BAT’s stance that perhaps the status quo is sufficient: ‘“[W]hat we have right now with the Beltline’ [is] ‘phenomenal.’“[47]

Notably, the mayor also pointed out the infrastructural realities Atlanta faces compared to other cities. “We have New York hopes of transit,” he said. “[B]ut New York State supports the New York transit system.”[48] Indeed, Atlanta’s transit-financial obstacles lay at the crux of the issue: the State of Georgia does not contribute any funding to transit in Atlanta.[49] MARTA’s $654.5 million dollar 2025 operating budget includes zero funding from the state.[50] Meanwhile, the City of Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties shoulder the financial load for a transit system that serves the urban core of the state’s economic heartbeat.[51] To make matters worse, Georgia is also the “most expensive state in the U.S. for ‘hidden’ costs of owning a vehicle” in the country.”[52] Meanwhile, Georgia lawmakers and Governor Brian Kemp recently approved state spending plans with an extra $1.5 billion for highway and freight construction but none allocated toward public transit.[53]

D.   BRN Arguments and Neighborhood Feedback

Third parties and consultants have also weighed in on the situation. A 2019 study jointly prepared by InfraStrategies and Deloitte highlighted that for Beltline rail to be successful, frequent, and reliable, service to stations must be spaced out between one and a half miles served by a street car in intervals of five to seven minutes and maintain competitive capital, operating, and lifecycle costs.[54] Importantly, the study found additional funding and financing options were needed to continue the work made as the initial More MARTA investment would not be enough.[55]

Beltline rail is not the only project funded by the initial More MARTA vote.[56] Given wings by the Georgia General Assembly through Senate Bill 369 in 2016, the City of Atlanta voted to include the MARTA referendum measure on that November’s ballot.[57] The vote’s sweeping victory hinged on the fact the project would be the region’s largest transit investment in decades.[58] Yet rather than a celebration of progress made on transit projects, a 2019 Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece co-authored by Rao instead called for more creativity and better planning.[59]

Rao was absolute in his advocating for MARTA to be more “aggressive” in turning proposed plans into “concrete and steel” so that more Atlantans could move around the metropolitan core of the city.[60] He argued that out of all the projects, it is imperative to add light rail to the Beltline first, and to do so by 2030.[61] The “Beltline runs through more than [forty] neighborhoods on a right-of-way that is separated from stop-and-go-traffic,” he said, which would activate new development while stitching back old neighborhoods that had been “split apart in the past.”[62] Moreover, not only would Beltline rail intersect at all four points of MARTA’s existing heavy-rail lines and roughly three dozen of its bus lines, but it would also expand transit “to far more destinations, boosting mobility in a city that’s in desperate need of alternatives to one-person, one-car commuting.”[63]

This is what many of Atlanta’s neighborhoods have continued to support.[64] To discern whether Atlanta neighborhoods’ opinions on Beltline rail had changed since the passage of the More MARTA referendum that greenlit transit on the Beltline six years ago, BRN conducted a grassroots examination of sixteen NPUs across the city.[65]

Neighborhoods responded.[66] Residents in NPU-S, hailing from areas such as Oakland City and Fort McPherson,[67] delivered a different interpretation of the trail’s purpose than most eastside visitors currently see.[68] They said without transit, the Beltline will only ever amount to “an elongated park,” functioning as an amenity rather than an asset.[69] Moreover, while restaurants and businesses are hiring in increasingly dense eastside neighborhoods like Inman Park, a Southside resident cannot use the Beltline as an opportunity to go get a job there.[70] This sentiment falls in line with every single NPU along the southern side of the Beltline, as each voiced its support towards Beltline rail in written letters from residents expressing a sense of urgency needed by the City and MARTA towards the project.[71]

In a November 2024 interview, NPU-W Chairperson, Sky Hassan said that the NPU “still support[s] Beltline rail.”[72] NPU-W, comprised of neighborhoods beginning to feel the approach of the Beltline like Grant Park and East Atlanta, believes in the vision of Beltline rail being the city’s future.[73] “Most of the vision of the Beltline is rail and transit connectivity for as many intown neighborhoods as possible,” Hassan explained.[74] When asked about micromobility alternatives to Beltline transit, Hassan believed those would not suffice.[75] Telling someone “to take a bike from . . . the West End all the way up to Ponce” is not equitable, he continued, “[the goal of the Beltline is] not supposed to be personal autonomous transport.”[76]

NPU-M chairperson Forrest Coley, who represents foundational Eastside Trail neighborhoods like the Old Fourth Ward, has been a part of the NPU system for over twenty years and was “part of the groundbreaking of the Beltline.”[77] Coley, who has lived in this area since 2000, before the Beltline-attributed density explosion, explained that he understood that “rail was always a part of the plan.”[78] Coley reaffirmed NPU-M’s support of rail on the Beltline.[79]

NPUs across Atlanta have reaffirmed their support for Beltline rail, with both the growing Southside neighborhoods and the city’s wealthier communities, to an extent, doing so.[80] NPU-E, in particular, represents what BRN calls a “Tale of Two Cities.”[81] That NPU—an area including Midtown, Ansley Park, Home Park, Atlantic Station, Brookwood, Sherwood Forest, and others[82]—has experienced vast change in the last decade.[83] Midtown alone represents less than one percent of the city’s land area while accounting for over 82,000 daytime workers and 24,000 residents, but this apparent vibrancy is not the full story.[84]

In a November 2024 interview, Chairperson Courtney Smith said NPU-E was “supportive of transit on the Beltline” and “[o]pen to exploring what it looks like.”[85] While NPU-E neighborhoods like Sherwood Forest and Ansley Park are “all predominantly single-family neighborhoods,” NPU-E overall is made up of roughly “50% single-family focused neighborhoods and 50% multi-family neighborhoods,” Smith explained.[86] The impressive development around the NPU’s dense neighborhoods like Midtown are a part of the “Improvement District” whereas the “Garden District” is mostly houses.[87] In a recent survey, Rao and others witnessed that the more populous urban NPU-E neighborhoods like Midtown, Georgia Tech, and Atlantic Station all supported Beltline rail.[88] Older residential areas like Ansley Park were not ready to commit, however.[89] Those residents expressed fears that Beltline rail would erode the buffer between historic single-family and commercial areas, already fraught with tension arising from “incompatible land uses.”[90] In that survey, NPU-E ultimately refused to express support for Beltline rail; it gives each neighborhood an equal vote, thus weighing Midtown and its 19,000-plus residents the same as neighborhoods like Sherwood Forrest with fewer than 500 residents.[91]

Further up the northwest segment of the trail to NPU-D, representing neighborhoods like Blandtown and Berkley Park, a sense of uncertainty becomes apparent.[92] Chairperson James Martin described the proposed Beltline rail as “just lines on a map at this point,” fearing they probably aren’t going to build anything linking Beltline rail to his NPU.[93] When asked if he thinks Beltline rail will ever trek through his NPU, James Martin responded: “In our area? No. The Tax Allocation District is going to end in 2030. If they have any rail at all built at that point, that’s going to be rail built with More MARTA money [for the Streetcar East Extension] and then that will be all the rail there is.”[94]

Other local leaders like Hassan shared the sentiment that Beltline rail, even if built, would take a substantial amount of time to realize.[95] “The sad reality right now is that a lot of [residents] still need to utilize a car,” he said.[96] Hassan predicted that even if Beltline rail was built, construction would not be completed for “at least ten years” in Grant Park.[97] Most people Hassan knows “do have cars, but wish they didn’t really have to have a car, so they have it not because they love cars but out of necessity.”[98]

As discussed in Part I of this series, Atlanta is growing at a pace leaving the city almost unrecognizable to many of its longtime residents.[99] Martin, a leader of Berkley Park who has resided in Atlanta since the early 1980s and seen this growth firsthand, characterized the newly emergent West Midtown as a “fiction.”[100] West Midtown, part of the Blandtown neighborhood, continues to see growth as more development gravitates to where the Beltline meets the west side of the south’s metropolis.[101] West Midtown is a “place that never existed,” Martin believes.[102] “It’s a notion that developers started pasting on their developments. They would build something in Blandtown and say this is our new development in West Midtown.”[103] And as the Beltline continues onward, development continues to blitz intown neighborhoods, reshaping and sometimes redefining their homes.[104] Reflecting on the eastside trail’s success in his home of the Old Fourth Ward and how that has impacted neighborhoods on the Beltline’s horizon, Coley reflected that “investors saw what happened over here and went over [to areas like West End and Bankhead] and bought up [property] in mass.”[105]

But maybe Atlanta needs mass development. How can that be done fairly? Atlantans understand that the city’s population is booming and know that millions more people are on the way.[106] The city’s leadership is not ignorant of this, either: transit was a “big topic” at the influential Atlanta Committee for Progress meeting on December 13, 2024.[107] This meeting also served to hopefully signify a peace making between the Dickens administration and MARTA, as the two seemed to finally be on the same page again about the Five Points renovation.[108] Mayor Dickens elaborated the project is moving forward because, according to a reporter, “MARTA listened to the city’s concerns and figured out a way to have pedestrian access to the station during construction.”[109] But as the year came to a close, other transit topics were on the mayor’s mind, reiterating that “I have stated a thousand times that I’m pro-Beltline rail.”[110] He cushioned his support, however, pointing out that the city still did not know the cost of extending the streetcar along the Beltline to Ponce City Market.[111]

Zooming out on the transit debate, the mayor delivered a thirty-thousand-foot view, predicting the Beltline decision would have a 100-year impact.[112] However, how can the city balance the housing and transit growth needed now to support the population influx with Beltline encroachment pricing out many current residents from their homes?[113] BRN and their supporters\’ answer remains: Affordable housing relies on reliable public transportation and car-free transportation means freed income for housing and other basic needs.[114]

E. Growing, and Building, for the Future

How does the Beltline address this growth? How can it done equitably so that its success includes those moving but those who already here? Is it supposed to be a corridor that serves the neighborhoods of Atlanta or more than that? A 2019 study predicted the metropolitan area will add almost three million more people by 2050, pushing the twenty-one-county region’s population to 8.6 million people.[115] Is this additional growth—equivalent to the size of Metropolitan Denver and larger than all of Metro Charlotte—going to share Atlanta’s current transportation infrastructure with current Atlantans? This simply cannot be the case.

As in the 1990s when Ryan Gravel returned from his travels to find an Atlanta where the population used I-285 to get basically everywhere, 2025 Atlantans still take I-285 and other concrete jungles to get around the city.[116] Even though Gravel and others have tried to solve these issues, the public perceives Atlanta as still in the process of deciding its path and still far away from addressing its transportation needs. Those pandemic days of traveling through the downtown connector in a breeze are over, as traffic level has returned “[w]ith a vengeance.”[117] Indeed, Atlanta is now the worst city for driving in America.[118]

For generations, Atlanta’s workers have tackled lengthy daily commutes taking much longer than the mileage would suggest. A standard thirteen-mile commute usually takes almost thirty-five minutes to complete . . . one way.[119] Atlantans spend about seventy-four hours stuck in traffic each year, the “equivalent of an entire three-day weekend stuck in [a] car” just to get around the city.[120] But as non-car forms of transportation are proposed, a glaring issue remains: while eighty-one percent of Atlanta commuters travel to their jobs by car, only two percent utilize available public transit to get to work.[121] Thus, transit advocates must continue considering these questions: If great urban projects like Beltline rail are constructed to increase availability of non-car infrastructure, will Atlantans be interested, and will the city foster the right incentives to encourage drivers to turn over their keys and depend on alternative transportation? Moreover, do Atlantans have the altruism to patiently support large infrastructure projects, understanding that they themselves may not personally benefit from their costs?

BRN and BAT members can at least agree on one thing: Atlanta needs a culture shift in the way its people move around the city; putting the available infrastructure in place is only half of the battle. Hassan captured this notion perfectly:

If we want . . . massive cultural change in terms of the transportation methods we use, it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while. It’s going to be unreliable. It’s going to be annoying. There’s going to be budget issues and cost overruns. But the end goal that you get out of all of this is [a] more sustainable society [with] less reliance on cars. You just have to get through that period of significant discomfort. But for the vast majority of people, I think they simply don’t have the resources or time to weather that discomfort because they are trying to get by day to day.[122]

As the Beltline has stretched its legs along eastside neighborhoods, it has visibly catalyzed this needed culture shift and shown that transit is on Atlantan’s minds. Today, Inman Park’s front lawns approaching the Beltline are lined with yard signs both advocating for and fighting against Beltline rail. Neighborhoods not yet reached by the trail have closely watched how the Beltline’s infancy impacts eastside areas, especially Inman Park, which has become a battleground over the issue.[123]

Those who fight for an Atlanta without Beltline rail—namely Brown, Edelstein, Klein, and the rest of BAT—see precious transit money at stake that could be used elsewhere. A micromobility infusion could deliver transit solutions quicker, cheaper, and to more people now—and without inconveniencing Beltline businesses and residents with construction.[124] Additionally, it is easy to see their point. Taken at face value, the Beltline today is already a massive success—an unequaled modern escape from the bombardment of mind-numbing traffic that has somehow achieved a level of everyday normalcy in Atlanta. The Beltline unapologetically invites users to travel in a new way across the city and for those, like Brown and Edelstein, who have long fought through highs and lows for transit progress in Atlanta, betting on a high-stakes, ever-changing project like Beltline rail is a gamble that risks upending a flourishing status quo. If the Atlanta Beltline continues to expand into a network of entertainment, leisure, and urban escape opportunities for city dwellers who desperately need it, then perhaps rail on the Beltline does not make sense.

But forgoing rail would severally underutilize the city’s once-in-a-century infrastructure asset and miss a chance to positively influence transportation across the country. Despite its detractors, it may take a built-out and actualized vision to sell its eventual users on rail.

The Beltline has untold potential for Atlanta and the payout is worth the gamble, as a successful Beltline rail can be the bridge the city crosses into its next chapter. But for Beltline rail to work, it must come in conjunction with policies incentivizing Atlantans to take public transit that promote doing so as more efficient and optimal than driving. With a rising tide of a flooding population into our urban core, the Beltline stands the best chance to weather the blow; to connect disparate communities; to provide more housing; and to connect people to businesses without cars.

Educational leaders at institutions such as Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, and Emory University need to play a pivotal role in intertwining their footprint into the Beltline so that their students, faculty, and staff carry hundreds of thousands of footsteps across the trail every day. Student-advocates need to be found to push for Beltline rail. Atlanta’s universities who chain themselves to the Beltline will realize unimaginable dividends if they invest in connecting their infrastructure to the trail now. Atlanta Public Schools should fight tooth and nail so that their students can access the Beltline and all it has to offer them. Indeed, this idea should be a common thread amongst our youth: the city’s next generation should spend their time traversing the trail to explore our amazing city, not staring at highways filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. The potential linkage of educational offerings for Atlanta’s next generations must be of the highest importance, as the Beltline, through light rail, can connect students to opportunities across the city previously impossible before.

Business leaders should be courted, pitched, and collaborated with so that they want their brand and operations on the Beltline. While putting housing on the Beltline is the first step, a competitive and prospering job market will catalyze the trail from being a place that Atlantans use for runs after work or weekend strolls to somewhere they can live their lives completely.

Other municipalities outside the Beltline and the I-285 perimeter must be connected to the Beltline by infusing other paths to the trail. While pioneering projects like Path 400, which runs along the “spine” of GA 400 through Buckhead and will eventually connect to the Beltline are a great start,[125] other northern cities across the metro area in North Fulton, East Cobb, and West Gwinnett need to set out strategies so that their population of commuters can get out of their cars and get on transit that leads to the Beltline.

And of course, transit includes micromobility and cycling. The city should continue to build out infrastructure that supports it. One of the biggest takeaways from this inquiry has been that Beltline transit via either micromobility or light rail does not need to be mutually exclusive ideas. Atlanta needs to embrace a biking culture and get more people out of cars. Once completed, however, light rail will carry with it a lower barrier to entry to connecting people to opportunities than biking does—anyone from a life-long resident to a traveler arriving from the airport would have immediate linkage to most parts of the city right away.

Finally, the most important key to all of this will be Atlanta City Hall, MARTA, developers, and neighborhoods getting on the same page so they can work together. Neighborhoods—those most impacted by all of this—continue to support transit on the Beltline in the form of light rail. Mass transit is offered for the masses, and while micromobility infrastructure should be pursued to alleviate many of the “last mile” issues facing our city, the Beltline to be fully realized must have a transportation option for both those who live in the city full time and those who are just visiting for the weekend.

  1. Jay Miller, The Beltline Streetcar is Not the Right Answer Now, Atlanta J.-Const. (May 28, 2024), https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-mayor-dickens-is-on-the-right-track/VPTEX3IK3BAQFESWEJNHX4KYA4/ [https://perma.cc/7NMP-HTMJ\]. ↩︎

  2. Riley Bunch, Majority of Atlanta Beltline to be Completed by 2026 World Cup, Atlanta J.-Const. (Apr. 24, 2024), https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/majority-of-beltline-to-be-completed-by-world-cup/4FSZHAA7YFB2VH6SZX5PO7SBLI/ [https://perma.cc/GQU5-6BUG\]. ↩︎

  3. Riley Bunch, Inside City Hall: Dickens Suggests Driverless ‘Pods’ Along the Beltline, Atlanta J.-Const. (Apr. 22, 2024), https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/inside-city-hall-dickens-suggest-driverless-pods-along-the-beltline/25LBUSFGZFFAHIIYIW6DAOQTYY/ [perma.cc/JRD4-G6Q3]. ↩︎

  4. See infra notes 39–40 and accompanying text. ↩︎

  5. Bunch, supra note 3. ↩︎

  6. Kirsten Beale, Bogdan Kapatsila & Emily Grisé, Integrating Public Transit and Shared Micromobility Payments to Improve Transportation Equity in Seattle, WA, 2677 Transp. Rsch. Rec. 1, 3 (2022). ↩︎

  7. Mariela Garcia-Colberg, Foreword to Colin Murphy, Terra Curtis, Evan Costagliola, Regina Clewlow, Stephanie Seki & Ruoying Xu, TCRP Research Report 230: Transit and Micromobility (2021). ↩︎

  8. Jeff Price, Danielle Blackshear, Wesley Blount, Jr. & Laura Sandt, Micromobility: A Travel Mode Innovation, 85 Fed. Highway Admin. (Spring 2021), https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/spring-2021/02 [https://perma.cc/P24N-2BCS\]. ↩︎

  9. Id. ↩︎

  10. Id. ↩︎

  11. Shared Micromobility in 2022, NACTO (2023), https://nacto.org/publication/shared-micromobility-in-2022/ [perma.cc/39R6-DGQ7]. ↩︎

  12. Ashley Finch, Shared Micromobility Program Overview (2024), https://www.atlantaga.gov/home/showdocument?id=62873 [https://perma.cc/SP3N-UQSE\]. ↩︎

  13. Walter Brown, 8 Micromobility Lessons from Holland, Better Atlanta Transit (July 8, 2024), https://betteratlantatransit.org/blog/bike-mobility-lessons-netherlands-atlanta-7a6Ox [https://perma.cc/BEF7-G8UV\]. ↩︎

  14. Walter Brown, Pedaling at Windmills, Better Atlanta Transit (July 8, 2024), https://betteratlantatransit.org/blog/pedaling-windmills-bicycle-infrastructue-europe [https://perma.cc/99D9-GF69\]. ↩︎

  15. Brown, supra note 13. ↩︎

  16. Why the Netherlands Leads the Way in E-Bike Adoption?, UNI4 (Sept. 1, 2023), https://www.honbike.com/blogs/news/why-the-netherlands-leads-the-way-in-electric-bike-adoption [https://perma.cc/DM89-JUH6\]; Ways of Encouraging Bicycle Use, Gov’t of the Neth., https://www.government.nl/topics/bicycles/bicycle-policy-in-the-netherlands [perma.cc/UDQ6-4CJQ]. ↩︎

  17. Ways of Encouraging Bicycle Use, supra note 16. ↩︎

  18. Bicycle Highways in the Netherlands, BESV, https://besv.eu/bicycle-highways-in-the-netherlands/ [https://perma.cc/YET6-5XYR\]. ↩︎

  19. Id. ↩︎

  20. Id. ↩︎

  21. Id. ↩︎

  22. UNI4, supra note 16. ↩︎

  23. See Josh Green, New Downtown Atlanta Bike Lanes Among Nation’s Best, Urbanize Atlanta (Jan. 17, 2024, 8:11 AM), https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/new-downtown-atl-bike-lanes-among-nations-best [https://perma.cc/APN3-4M57\]. ↩︎

  24. Tyler Wilkins, Want an E-Bike? Atlanta Might Help You Pay to Ditch Your Car, Atlanta Bus. Chron. (https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2024/01/08/atlanta-ebike-rebate-program-approved.html [https://perma.cc/2LA9-TBS6\] (Jan. 8, 2024, 3:22 PM),. This program allows an income-qualified residents to receive a $1,500 rebate for a standard e-bike and $2,000 for a cargo e-bike. Id. ↩︎

  25. Ken Edelstein, Atlanta’s E-Bike Vouchers Wildly Popular, Better Atlanta Transit (July 5, 2024), https://betteratlantatransit.org/blog/scmprqgq4ltvivqzxzylj752scg7mk [https://perma.cc/NV2N-BXUT\]. ↩︎

  26. Brown, supra note 13. ↩︎

  27. Id. ↩︎

  28. Id. ↩︎

  29. Id. ↩︎

  30. Id. ↩︎

  31. Id. ↩︎

  32. Brown, supra note 13. ↩︎

  33. Id. ↩︎

  34. Beltline Rail Now!, 2021 Atlanta Candidate Full Survey Responses: Andre Dickens 1 (2021). ↩︎

  35. Rachel Garbus, Is Andre Dickens the Progressive in This Mayoral Runoff Election?, Atlanta Civic Circle (Nov. 23, 2021), https://atlantaciviccircle.org/2021/11/23/is-andre-dickens-the-progressive-in-this-mayoral-runoff-election/ [https://perma.cc/KY57-573P\]. ↩︎

  36. Andre Dickens Takes Next Steps Toward Creation of Atlanta Department of Transportation, Andre Dickens For Atlanta, https://andreforatlanta.com/andre-dickens-takes-next-steps-toward-creation-of-atlanta-department-of-transportation/ [https://perma.cc/HX7B-TLQX\]; Our Elected Officals, NPU-R Atlanta, https://npuratlanta.org/meet-your-representatives/ [https://perma.cc/6MJA-A4AQ\]. ↩︎

  37. Dickens, supra note 36. ↩︎

  38. 2021 Atlanta Candidate Full Survey Responses, supra note 34. ↩︎

  39. Id. ↩︎

  40. Id. ↩︎

  41. Garbus, supra note 35. ↩︎

  42. J.D. Capelouto & Wilborn P. Nobles, Dickens Wins Runoff Election, Will Become Atlanta’s 61st Mayor, Atlanta J.-Const. (Dec. 1, 2021), https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/polls-close-in-metro-atlanta-vote-counting-begins/V4XZWEBUYRC6TFUHWB3VKPYVVI/ [https://perma.cc/JF4T-43WS\]. ↩︎

  43. Id.; Maggie Lee, Atlanta Picked a New Mayor: How Did Your Neighborhood Vote?, Atlanta Civic Circle (Dec. 1, 2021), https://atlantaciviccircle.org/2021/12/01/atlanta-picked-a-new-mayor-did-your-neighborhood-vote/ [https://perma.cc/PDT8-QG39\]. ↩︎

  44. Lee, supra note 43. ↩︎

  45. The Mayor Has Questions: We Have Answers, BeltLine Rail Now! (Aug. 8, 2024), https://beltlinerailnow.com/news/2024/8/8/the-mayor-has-questions-we-have-answers [https://perma.cc/27K4-9SDY\]; WABE, Housing in Atlanta, What’s the Plan?, YouTube (July 30, 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_qy7rLBlnLo [https://perma.cc/3JRF-A6ZJ\]. ↩︎

  46. BeltLine Rail Now!, supra note 45. ↩︎

  47. Dickens Clarifies Beltline Rail Stand, Better Atlanta Transit (Aug. 8, 2024), https://betteratlantatransit.org/blog/dickens-beltline-streetcar-rose-scott-wabe [https://perma.cc/6KCU-6FLW\]. ↩︎

  48. Id. ↩︎

  49. T.A. DeFeo, MARTA Considering $654.5M Operating Budget for Fiscal 2025, TGV News (May 21, 2024), https://www.thegeorgiavirtue.com/georgia-local-government/marta-considering-654-5m-operating-budget-for-fiscal-2025/ [https://perma.cc/E66U-J5B9\]. ↩︎

  50. Id.; MARTA Secures $1.75M To Form Regional Transit and Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator, MARTA (Oct. 27, 2023), https://itsmarta.com/marta-form-regional-tod-accelerator.aspx [https://perma.cc/WX37-VEU3\]. ↩︎

  51. MARTA, supra note 50. ↩︎

  52. J. Scott Trubey, Where Georgia Ranks for ‘Hidden’ Costs of Car Ownership. It’s Not Good, Atlanta J.-Const. (Aug. 13, 2024), https://www.ajc.com/news/business/georgia-ranks-highest-in-nation-for-hidden-costs-of-owning-a-car-study-says/DZZ7INTAUZDINMTAHPN4FLWWPI/ [https://perma.cc/MVW8-57FF\]. ↩︎

  53. Jeff Amy, Officials Plan to Spend Additional $1.5B on Georgia Transportation Projects, Fox 5 Atlanta (July 19, 2024 6:19 AM), https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-transportation-projects-budget-roads [https://perma.cc/YV6F-2QSZ\]; State General Funds FY 24, GA. Dep’t Of Trans’p, https://ssf-gdot.hub.arcgis.com/ [https://perma.cc/UHC6-SVY6\]. ↩︎

  54. InfraStrategies LLC & Deloitte Consulting, Atlanta BeltLine Inc. Transit Task Force 9 (2019), ↩︎

  55. Id. at 6. ↩︎

  56. MARTA, More MARTA: Fact Sheet 2 (2017). ↩︎

  57. Id. at 1. ↩︎

  58. Id.; Matthew Rao & Patty Durand, More MARTA Must Get More Creative, Faster, Atlanta J.-Const. (June 30, 2019), https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-more-marta-must-get-more-creative-faster/C0AmSbz9iULBNVYj4ks1fK/ [https://perma.cc/H6RJ-3LKD\]. ↩︎

  59. Rao & Durand, supra note 58. ↩︎

  60. Id. ↩︎

  61. Id. ↩︎

  62. Id. ↩︎

  63. Id. ↩︎

  64. Matthew Rao, Stephanie Warner & Colleen Finn, Staying on Board: Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) Continue to Support BeltLine Rail 1 (Beverly Miller, Michael Fleming, & Nathan Clubb eds., 2023), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b6799645b409b9876b2a389/t/654e86e285b49a2dc4cf44ad/1699645189113/2023+NPU+Report [https://perma.cc/P4D3-3THT\]. ↩︎

  65. Id. at 5. ↩︎

  66. Id. ↩︎

  67. Neighborhoods by NPU, Atlanta City Council, https://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/other/neighborhood-planning-unit/npu-by-neighborhood/neighborhoods-by-npu [https://perma.cc/CMZ6-UD3G\]. ↩︎

  68. See Rao et al., supra note 64, at 36. ↩︎

  69. Id. ↩︎

  70. Id. ↩︎

  71. Id. at 5. ↩︎

  72. Audio Recording of Sky Hassan (Nov. 15, 2024) [hereinafter Hassan Interview] (on file with the Georgia State University Law Review). ↩︎

  73. Id.; Atlanta City Council, supra note 67. ↩︎

  74. Hassan Interview, supra note 72. ↩︎

  75. Id. ↩︎

  76. Id. ↩︎

  77. Interview with NPU-M Chairman Forrest Coley (Nov. 19, 2024) (on file with Georgia State Law Review) [hereinafter Coley Interview]; Atlanta City Council, supra note 67. ↩︎

  78. Coley Interview, supra note 77. ↩︎

  79. Id. ↩︎

  80. Rao et al., supra note 64, at 5. ↩︎

  81. Id. at 8. ↩︎

  82. Atlanta City Council, supra note 67. ↩︎

  83. Infra, Section A. ↩︎

  84. Atlanta’s Premier Business Location, a Center of Innovation and Talent, and an Exceptional Urban Experience, Midtown Alliance, https://www.midtownatl.com/explore/business/invest-here [https://perma.cc/9NYZ-LCT4\]. ↩︎

  85. Audio Recording of Courtney Smith (Nov. 26, 2024) [hereinafter Smith Interview] (on file with the Georgia State University Law Review). ↩︎

  86. Id. ↩︎

  87. Id. ↩︎

  88. Rao et al., supra note 64, at 9. ↩︎

  89. Id. at 9, 47. ↩︎

  90. Id. at 47. ↩︎

  91. Id. at 8; Maria Saporta, Time and Time Again, Atlantans Have Spoken: Build BeltLine Rail, SaportaReport (Oct. 23, 2023, 4:35 PM), https://saportareport.com/time-and-time-again-atlantans-have-spoken-build-beltline-rail/columnists/mariasmetro/maria_saporta/ [https://perma.cc/5VF8-UGN5\]. ↩︎

  92. Atlanta City Council, supra note 67. ↩︎

  93. Audio Recording of James Martin (Nov. 15, 2024) [hereinafter Martin Interview] (on file with the Georgia State University Law Review). ↩︎

  94. Id. ↩︎

  95. Hassan Interview, supra note 72. ↩︎

  96. Id. ↩︎

  97. Id. ↩︎

  98. Id. ↩︎

  99. Myles Fogle & James Granade, Beltline Rail: Setting the Scene—Nimbys and Yimbys Take on Atlanta, Ga. St. U. L. Rev.: Blog (Oct. 1, 2024), https://gsulawreview.org/post/2713-beltline-rail-setting-the-scene-nimbys-and-yimbys-take-on-atlanta [https://perma.cc/XAP6-76BG\]. ↩︎

  100. Martin Interview, supra note 93. ↩︎

  101. Josh Green, In Booming Blandtown, Mixed-use Project Moves Forward, Urbanize Atlanta (Aug. 9, 2024), https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/blandtown-mixed-use-development-construction-west-midtown [https://perma.cc/S5BN-4MJY\]. ↩︎

  102. Martin Interview, supra note 93. ↩︎

  103. Id. ↩︎

  104. Kathy Dean, 30 Years of Intown Real Estate: Realtors Share Their Memories and Insights, Rough Draft atlanta (Nov. 5, 2024, 11:00 PM), https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2024/11/05/atlanta-real-estate-history/ [https://perma.cc/RN2N-QYHX\]. ↩︎

  105. Coley Interview, supra note 77. And as flurries of development floods into Atlanta’s neighborhoods, NPU leaders appear to share a cohesive reflection: more citizens need to be involved in their NPUs. Id. ↩︎

  106. Fogle & Granade, supra note 99. ↩︎

  107. Maria Saporta, Mayor Andre Dickens Says Fixing MARTA Will be a ‘Big Push’ in 2025, SaportaReport (Dec. 16, 2024, 4:01 PM), https://saportareport.com/mayor-andre-dickens-says-fixing-marta-will-be-a-big-push-in-2025/columnists/mariasmetro/maria_saporta/ [https://perma.cc/J7HH-V44Z\]. ↩︎

  108. Id. ↩︎

  109. Id. ↩︎

  110. Id. ↩︎

  111. Id. ↩︎

  112. Id. ↩︎

  113. Willoughby Mariano, Lindsey Conway & Anastaciah Ondieki, How the Atlanta Beltline Broke its Promise on Affordable Housing, Atlanta J. Const. (July 13, 2017), https://www.ajc.com/news/local/how-the-atlanta-beltline-broke-its-promise-affordable-housing/0VXnu1BlYC0IbA9U4u2CEM/ [https://perma.cc/3XAH-37L5\]. ↩︎

  114. Let’s Get Loud!, Beltline Rail Now!, https://beltlinerailnow.com/news/2023/8/1/q3svl4wy9t3qndklak4lzewd0sqd5x [https://perma.cc/Y8JW-4KQW\]. ↩︎

  115. Metro Atlanta Population to Grow by 2.9 Million and Reach 8.6 Million by 2050, Atlanta Regional Commission Forecasts Show, Atlanta Reg’l Comm’n (Oct. 10, 2019), https://atlantaregional.org/news/press-releases/metro-atlanta-population-to-grow-by-2-9-million-and-reach-8-6-million-by-2050-atlanta-regional-commission-forecasts-show/ [https://perma.cc/4RUQ-EH63\]. Atlanta’s growth is surging in the exurbs, the “areas just beyond Atlanta\’s urban core,” too. Douglas Sams, Apartment Construction Surges Outside Atlanta’s Urban Core, Atlanta Bus. Chron. (Aug. 3, 2024), https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2024/08/03/apartment-development-units-construction-exurbs.html [https://perma.cc/9DHG-X6TJ\]. An apartment boom is adding thousands of housing units along Atlanta’s exurban fringe with up to twenty apartment projects under construction along parts of Interstate 75, including in Bartow and Cherokee Counties. Id. As manufacturing, industrial, clean tech, and remote working jobs pour into the state, populations have surged in these areas. Id. Cherokee County north of Atlanta, and other counties south of the city, such as Henry County, have even outpaced the surging growth of urban Atlanta since the pandemic. Id. ↩︎

  116. Ann Hoevel, I-285 and a Trip to Paris: The Story of Ryan Gravel, Ga. Tech (Sept. 2016), https://news.gatech.edu/archive/features/beltline-impact.shtml#seg-link-2222051 [https://perma.cc/7QG5-V7J9\]. ↩︎

  117. Josh Green, Analysis: Atlanta Clunks as Bottom Five U.S. Commuter City. Ouch!, Urbanize Atlanta (Oct. 4, 2023, 3:13 PM), https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/study-finds-atl-traffic-worst-commuter-america-cities [https://perma.cc/L9P8-AMPD\]. ↩︎

  118. Josh Green, Analysis: Atlanta is the Worst U.S. City for Driving in 2024, Urbanize Atlanta (Nov. 14, 2024, 1:57 PM), https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/analysis-atl-worst-american-city-for-driving-2024-ouch [https://perma.cc/RAD3-4YJH\]. ↩︎

  119. Green, supra note 117. ↩︎

  120. Id. ↩︎

  121. Id. ↩︎

  122. Hassan Interview, supra note 72. ↩︎

  123. See Riley Bunch and Zachary Hansen, Debate Over Atlanta Beltline Rail Heats Up, Atlanta J. Const (March 12, 2024), https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/debate-over-beltline-rail-heats-up/KUNOP2A4JVEUPBIPSQ7AYDAP6A/ [https://perma.cc/YU9M-ULUE\]. ↩︎

  124. Edelstein, Brown, Dobbins, Klein, Rader & Wertheimer, Mobilize the Beltline: Choices and Challenges 2–3 (2024), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64cbd9b5ec937b74d5c2667b/t/675f4106174b4e65ada87b7b/1734295816055/Mobilize+the+Beltline+241215.pdf [https://perma.cc/8VFU-NAZP\]. ↩︎

  125. About PATH400, PATH400, https://www.path400greenway.org/about [https://perma.cc/P73Z-ESGT\]. ↩︎