Atlanta ranks 143rd in population density among U.S. cities & that’s not good. The common misperception that Atlanta has gotten ‘too dense’ is about cars, not people. What we’re too full of is car-centric places, generating a glut of car trips. daringivens.medium.com/atlanta-rank...

It's very sad that Vision Zero programs across the nation have largely turned out to be a sham -- a deadly one at that. City leaders are using Vision Zero as part of their buzzword salad to put in PR materials, meanwhile they have zero vision for genuine, bold implementations of consequence.

Every weekday afternoon, Eastbound buses on North Ave and Ivan Allen Blvd are trapped in traffic from cars headed to the interstate. The 51 bus is 24 min late & the 2 is 34 min late. This undermines the whole high-frequency concept of the new system. And it pisses me off since it's my commute.

Question: Is there an Atlanta street, or block, or neighborhood that's particularly vibrant with pedestrian activity on weekday mornings? I heard form someone that Midtown sidewalks can be creepily quiet in the mornings, given the density. Just wondering if any place has a lot of activity.

MARTA buses are always delayed in North Ave traffic. - expand the 3rd St tunnel under 75/85 & make it a bus/bike/ped path - divert buses through the GT campus to the tunnel - create a bus bay on 3rd St at the North Ave Station entrance - develop the top of the current bus bay with apartments

"Atlanta council president wants a city car and driver for official business" Tell her that a car would be too expensive & disruptive for the route. Instead, we're going to to a pilot an autonomous shuttle. Perhaps a gondola. We'll release a study in a year or two. www.ajc.com/news/2026/04...

Unfortunately for Hawks fans attending Game 4, marta's single tracking the entire system this weekend. I promised @humantransit.bsky.social to revisit the bus network redesign after a full week of implementation; so far today, one out of eight buses has no-showed (we don't know how many were late).

The MARTA bus route closest to our building used to connect us directly to Virginia Highland. But with the redesigned system, the bus takes us to Little 5 Points instead and I'm not mad about it! I'm enjoying our weekend visits.

This is surely not the only collision between a driver and a cyclist at this dangerous intersection with a street and the Beltline path, off of Bill Kennedy Way. There's no signage alerting drivers they're about to turn across a bike path. Ridiculous. www.11alive.com/article/news...

Look at the current late-running times for four buses on the '2' route. This is what we have to deal with for getting home from work now. It's every day. And the buses are running in pairs of bunched vehicles. It's nuts. I hope MARTA is able to make adjustments and correct this situation.

This is *amazing* news from DC. Their red line is the same 1970s vintage as MARTA rail, and it's being converted to an automated system with platform screen doors.

Georgia film studios sit empty as productions move to the U.K. Why? Universal healthcare. F*** around & find out, U.S. "While Georgia offers tax incentives & infrastructure, the U.K. offers a system where healthcare costs are no longer tied to employers." finance.yahoo.com/sectors/heal...

I have now entered the "oh damn, this is messed up" phase of discovery with the new MARTA bus system and the problems it's causing for my trips to regular destinations. I'm suppressing the urge to post about every little issue. I'll give it a month.

DC's Red Line is roughly of the same 1970s vintage as MARTA rail. Converting it to fully-automated trains, with platform screen doors, would be a huge win for safety and operational efficiency. I hope MARTA is watching and taking notes. If we can't be leaders, we can at least be good followers!

Like, this is absolutely pathetic. We passed these funds 4 years ago. Less than 20% spent. In large part because we still had a backlog of the infrastructure projects funded through the two major ballot initiatives in 2015-2016. atldot.atlantaga.gov/maf-dashboard

Reminder for this weekend's Inman Park festival (and every other big event in the city): MARTA rail is *free* to ride until May 2nd! If the lack of a Breeze Card has held you back from trying rail, now is your chance. [Buses are not free, though, so keep that in mind.]

It really is something watching Dickens line up all the city institutions in support of his Neighborhood Reinvestment TAD scheme while in parallel using Zoning 2.0 to stridently preserve the Jim Crow zoning maps that caused the disinvestment in the first place.

Our trip on the new MARTA bus system today: a combo of the 7 and 22 buses to get to the Glenwood Park neighborhood and the newly opened section of the Beltline path that's immediately south of it. Both buses were on time 🙌

We rode the new Bus Rapid Transit line from South Downtown to Summerhill! The bus is really comfortable and the covered platforms are nice. It arrives every 10 minutes & it's free to ride for now. It's definitely in need of more traffic light priority. I assume that's coming.

We took our first trip with the new MARTA bus system today on the 51 route to get lunch; it was on time and the driver was very patient and friendly. It bodes well, I hope!

For this new episode, we chat with Andrew Pofahl, a MARTA Project Manager, and Andy McBurney, a MARTA Service Manager, about what this weekend's new MARTA bus system redesign means for riders (and why some of us are pretty nervous about changes). open.spotify.com/episode/7k9v...

Renewal of Atlanta's TADs: I'm 90% sure they'll get renewed regardless of any pushback b/c Dickens wants it & he has a gift for getting his way. Nonetheless, it's a mistake. Wanna fund affordable housing? Design a tool specifically for it; one that can't be co-opted for questionable projects.

Meet the Phoenix Line: a proposed rail transit line that converts existing, underutilized freight tracks into a high-capacity passenger transit corridor for Atlanta. Thanks much to Nick Durham for sharing this fascinating concept through a new guest post! www.threadatl.org/blog/hiding-...

I can't get over how cool it is that GDOT is building a protected bike lane on 14th Street, and they're doing it about ten times the speed it took the City of Atlanta to build the Juniper Street bike lane. Points, team GDOT. 🙌

Five Points MARTA Station is a mess of construction right now but I'm very impressed with the new designs for the train platforms. This will look great with the cool new train cars.

Join us this Saturday for a discussion about the data centers coming to Atlanta, with a group of independent experts moderated by King Williams. 6pm at Connections Metropolitan Church

In case you're wondering if kids today are just weak minded and too scared to walk and play outside like you did in your youth: nope. We built a fleet of deadlier vehicles since then. You're probably driving one.

Using the MARTA Tracker & Trip Planner, you can now set your departure time for a trip as April 18th (or later) and see what your trips will be like when the new bus system goes into effect on that date. tracker.itsmarta.com

Uber and Lyft have been cutting driver compensation. This can only lead to a less skilled and reliable workforce, which means a worse service for customers. Leading transit agencies, meanwhile, are doing the opposite.

Local architect & builder Eric Kronberg is sharing smart criticisms of Atlanta's concerning new zoning rewrite. Most residential areas are maintaining their suburban-style restrictions (large lot sizes, no new density). That's not good. More on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/posts/eric-k... 1/3

It's been over a year since Mayor Dickens announced that rail on the Eastside Beltline was no longer a priority (here's a post from 3/2025 about it). And boy did he mean it. The project appears dead. I guess you can't say he hasn't followed through on promises. www.threadatl.org/blog/dickens...

"Only 8% of the zoned land in metro Atlanta allows housing to be located alongside non-residential uses. People can’t walk down the street to grab a coffee or stop into the office. They have to get into their cars to do virtually everything." GIFT link: www.ajc.com/opinion/2026...

Random prediction: It's only a matter of time until MARTA announces that both the Campbellton Corridor and the Clifton Corridor's Bus Rapid Transit projects have been postposed indefinitely while they study the potential for them to become AV shuttle routes instead. I hope to be wrong.

Why do so many people mock Atlanta's growth by making snide comments about "new condo towers"? You could count on one hand the number of actual condo towers built in the middle of the city in the last few years. Condos are very rare compared to rental apartments.

On a new ThreadATL Podcast episode, Patrick King of the Natural Resources Defense Council shares wisdom on transportation & environmental-justice issues in Atlanta. open.spotify.com/episode/5tKG...

Sometimes I'll look at one of my photos and think "Oh dang, that looks like a nice city. I could live there." And it's Atlanta. Certain views -- you can see glimpses of a more pedestrian oriented future.

Several parking lots and at least one empty, boarded-up building line the east end of the streetcar route. Construction for the streetcar began 13 years ago. We've had so much time to make this right. I don't get it.

One of the weirdest car-brained things I see: people posting videos complaining about a new protected bike lane being built -- and the videos were made with their phones while driving, which is illegal and unsafe. You're just proving the point that cyclists need protection from unsafe drivers.

Them: "Cars and sprawl are freedom. Density is oppression; public transit is government waste." Me: "I can't drive. For me, transit & walkability are freedom." Them: "Just sit in freeway traffic in a self-driving car. Then you'll be free with the rest of us." It's like a cult.

The transformation of the Georgia-Pacific office tower in Downtown will include more than 130 apartments rented at below-market prices; that's according to a new AJC article (paywalled): 1/ www.ajc.com/business/202...

Walking home from Midtown tonight after buying a few groceries and having dinner, I was constantly looking to the west to watch the sunset colors. It was so beautiful that I could almost forgive the pollen. Atlanta does spring well.

Years worth of studies for a potential MARTA line on the I-20 corridor have resulted in nothing but frustration for its under-served communities. An analysis of those ideas, spearheaded by Zachary Starbuck, aims to help turn studies into projects that get built. www.threadatl.org/blog/i20corr...

I discovered a cool new hack for getting to Virginia Highland without worrying about parking. It's called the 36 bus and it's a stone groove, man. I dig it.

It's great if regular citizens now understand - despite the relentless spin campaign - that the TADs are a scam. But the Atlanta Way is to ignore citizens. Just buy or bully enough votes on Council & School Board. Will it work this time? #GApol

An hour of metered parking on Atlanta streets will now cost $3.50, up from $2. The price hike will help boost salaries & staffing for parking officers and address widespread complaints about illegal parking. Related news: MARTA exists. Also, bikes. www.ajc.com/news/2026/03...

The high costs of rents came down in Austin, TX after the city: > Tweaked zoning to allow large apartment buildings near jobs & transit > Used a $250 million bond to repair affordable housing > Reformed permitting processes to speed development and reduce costs. 1/ www.pew.org/en/research-...

I've also been accused of getting money from developers as a kickback for urbanism advocacy. Though not to the same degree as Sam, who (rightly) has a larger audience. Would that it were. Daddy needs new shoes. But alas no, I get no donations. I'm an unpaid shill for walkable cities.

Downtown Atlanta's afternoon commute. Many Georgia leaders drive through this, to and from the Capitol. Is their bias against public transit (and cities) so harsh that they never think: "man, this stinks; maybe we should start providing state funds to MARTA" ?

Here's a photo I took in Caen, France a couple of years ago. Notice how calmly people are walking across the tracks as the train approaches! This could be the Eastside Beltline in Atlanta if we can get our priorities straight.