MARTA: The Original Plan

The 1967 MARTA proposal.

The year 1971. A city's first Jewish Mayor hangs from the side of helicopter. In his hand a megaphone amplifying his pleas to the traffic below. Cars lined up as far as the eye could see. This only a few years after the completion of several highways within the metropolitan area. The city Atlanta, and the Mayor Sam Massell.

The "City too busy hate" was frozen in gridlock. White flight had occurred only a few years earlier and turned the major american city into an expanse of suburban sprawl, and commuters were beginning to pay the price. Little did they know a new moniker for where these commuters had been born. Even possibly by someone sitting and staring at the back of a car in this exact traffic jam.

The OTP (Outside The Perimeter) and ITP (Inside The Perimeter) is separated by a veritable asphalt moat designating a traffic no-mans-land. Separating a skillfully cultivated home life from a profitable city work-life. But with the two separated by a wall of traffic eating away at the hours and the lives of the OTP. The possible solution, Mass transit. But as Mayor Sam Massell found out the hard way, Atlanta loves the idea of an International city, just not in my backyard.

A 1961 Marta Proposal

Enter 1961 and group of optimistic engineers trying to foresee density issues and bottlenecks within our growing city, tasked with the audacious task of creating an wholistic traffic plan. This plan included stations linking points on a compass East - West and North - South. But that original plan was never to become reality. The helicopter and Mayor Massell did not create enough votes and only Fulton County and Dekalb county voted to levy taxes to crate a Mass Transit rail. MARTA is also the only mass transit to be wholly funded by local taxes with no involvement from the state. Being handicapped financially Atlanta decided to implement as much of the original plan as possible. And all of the stations and track lie within the two counties and not addressing huge growth north of I-75 and I-85.

Riders attempting to enter a new MARTA station.