January 22, 2016
COMMENTARY
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Redefining MARTA: A Call to Action; GM's Vision for Bold, New Agency

BY KEITH T. PARKER

Redefining MARTA is the singular mission for us to grow and evolve in the years ahead. It will require us to abandon old-school thinking that no longer serves the best interests of the agency—or our customers—and it means embracing an entrepreneurial culture that encourages risk-taking and the willingness to constantly find better and more productive ways of doing business.

MARTA can become a testing ground for ideas, a laboratory where tech startups, universities and trailblazing thinkers and doers come to work and do business. We know that everything we try won’t work out as planned. That’s OK. Great companies always learn as they go, and that’s how they grow.

Redefining MARTA will take us in profoundly different and exciting new directions. Let me share a few.

By the end of January, MARTA will be going to the state legislature seeking support for a ballot referendum that could dramatically expand the footprint of our system. We’ll be seeking additional funding to supplement our existing sales tax in our current jurisdictions to generate local revenues that will be needed to build out our three proposed transit corridors.

As we work to build out our current footprint, we’ll be building ­partnerships with companies such as Uber and Lyft—as well as other private sector ­players—that are “actively disrupting” the transportation industry as we know it. Our goal is to identify and implement innovative ways to extend the effective reach of our existing public transit system.

We’re also moving forward with the Clayton County High-Capacity Transit Study that could result in commuter rail service, with the long-term goal of extending commuter rail to the state’s mid-point and eventually its southern border.

Our six major TOD projects are designed to produce long-term revenue for MARTA, help build ridership and contribute to “creative place-making” that transforms our stations into more than just locations for people to go when catching a train or a bus. Instead, we see these projects as having the potential to be places that offer music, arts, food and cultural activities that create vibrant centers of community life.

In the next several months, I will be appointing a task force of the most prominent arts organizations and cultural leaders in metro Atlanta to help us develop a full-fledged public transit arts program. The goal isn’t to merely create art for art’s sake. We are looking for artful design that is pleasing to the eye and also economical, durable and functional.

We’re embarking on this program as a prudent business decision. Research confirms that public transit systems that invest in art and other cultural offerings are more attractive, safer and eventually generate more revenue and public support.

Based on the task force’s recommendations and guidance, my intention is to ask our board of directors to dedicate a percentage of the agency’s capital budget to develop a full-fledged arts and cultural program. If approved, the funding would be used to restore and preserve the existing artwork in our stations that has fallen into disrepair and invest in future art and cultural activities system-wide.

Be Like Mike
To help us envision this bold new MARTA and how it works, imagine “Mike,” our prototype customer of the future as things might look years from now.

Mike is a native New Yorker who makes a point of attending the Super Bowl every year. Suppose Atlanta is hosting the Super Bowl at the state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mike has never been to Atlanta and never heard of MARTA, but that won’t stop him from seeing the game and getting around the city.

To arrange his trip from start to finish, Mike pulls out his iPhone 10 and opens the MARTA mobile app. From this app, he purchases tickets to the game, books his flight and reserves an Airbnb condo. He also uses his phone to load his MARTA fare for a trip that will take him from the artfully redesigned rail station at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to the Peachtree Center condo where he’ll be staying.

Super Bowl weekend comes around, and Mike boards the plane for Atlanta. Once he arrives, Mike hops on a MARTA train and gets off at Peachtree Center Station in no time flat.

Fast forward to game day. America’s favorite team, the Oakland Raiders—I mean the Falcons—win the Super Bowl. After the game, Mike pulls up another MARTA app to find a celebration party closest to a rail station. He taps his phone and checks out a MARTA-branded bicycle that’s parked just outside the arena. He pedals onto one of the city’s dedicated bike lanes, beats traffic and arrives at the restaurant where the party is in full swing. He parks the bike in a nearby dock.

After a fun night (and maybe a little too much to drink), Mike pulls out his phone again only to discover that MARTA has ended its rail service for the day. But from the MARTA app, he calls an autonomous vehicle to pick him up and take him safely back to his condo. The next morning as Mike heads home to New York, he boards a MARTA train for the airport, arriving in plenty of time to catch his flight.

Sound farfetched? All of this travel flexibility, convenience and effortlessness is possible, but it’s not going to happen tomorrow nor will it be easy.

But please know this: No matter what it takes, MARTA is dedicated to becoming a comprehensive, complete and collaborative organization working to forge strong partnerships with its stakeholders in the public and private sector, striving to continually redefine itself and aspiring to anticipate—and meet—the travel needs of Mike and all of his counterparts.

Parker is general manager/CEO of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. This Commentary is based on his recent “State of MARTA” remarks.

“Commentary” features points of view from various sources to enhance readers’ broad awareness of themes that affect public transportation.
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