Atlanta leaders want transit expansion. Will suburban voters ever agree?

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens sees expanding MARTA into Cobb and Gwinnett counties as a key step toward better regional connection, while metro Atlanta residents continue to struggle with traffic congestion that’s both frustrating and dangerous.

But his plan means reversing half a century of opposition, after voters in both counties continue to reject the idea of transit expansion to their communities.

In 2024, Cobb and Gwinnett voters defeated separate measures to impose 1% countywide sales taxes to fund transit expansion. And in Gwinnett, it was the fifth “no” vote on a transit referendum since 1971.

Local officials in both counties say there are a multitude of reasons why more robust transit hasn’t made its way to the suburbs: Racial discrimination played a heavy role in 20th century votes, while MARTA’s poor reputation has driven widespread doubt the agency is up for the challenge.

And when weighing the most recent 1% countywide sales tax increase, pressure on voter pocketbooks and attention drawn to economic uncertainty by the federal election stifled the opportunity to generate funds toward expansion, they say.

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Is there hope for another try in the near future? Former chair of the Gwinnett County Commission Charlotte Nash is skeptical.

“We’ve had three failed referendums within a few years,” said Nash, who was a vocal advocate for transit expansion while in office. “My impression is the voters are weary of this issue being brought to them.”

And that’s despite Cobb and Gwinnett’s diversifying and politically evolving populations.

Voters in both counties flipped Democratic in 2016 for the first time since Jimmy Carter’s win in 1976. As the counties became more Democratic, transit expansion advocates saw the possibility of growing support.

Two special questions on the Democratic primary ballot in June 2020 showed that 84% of voters said they’d support joining MARTA, and 64% said they’d support a 1% transportation tax.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

But the recent transit referendums still lost by wide margins. In Gwinnett, voters rejected penny sales taxes by 28,000 votes and in Cobb it lost by 95,000 votes.

City leaders are still pushing voters to change their minds. Especially Dickens, who is the first Atlanta mayor to serve as chair as the Atlanta Regional Commission and frequently calls on municipalities to work together to solve issues like homelessness and, now, traffic congestion.

A spokesperson for the mayor pointed to the massive growth in regional population: 1.8 million people are projected to move to metro Atlanta by 2050.

“It is impossible to accommodate that kind of growth without a robust transit network that increases access to jobs and amenities while decreasing car dependency,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.

“MARTA expansion is also critical for affordability and should be considered an economic and moral imperative,” the statement says. “Mayor Dickens is committed to ensuring the entire Atlanta region thrives and looks forward to engaging all stakeholders — and ultimately voters — on this issue.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Dickens looks to sway suburban voters

Many local officials in Gwinnett and Cobb have praised Dickens for his transit vision and regional leadership — others question why he’s weighing in at all.

In a September interview with the AJC, Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson said the mayor worked to rally support for the 2024 transit referendums in both counties.

“He was a proponent of expanding access from a region standpoint, and so he helped to amplify our messages,” said Hendrickson, who also advocates for transit expansion. “We hold about just over 5 million residents in the 11-county region, and transit and mobility are key to economic opportunity.”

Regional polls of transit access and traffic solutions show voters have mixed feelings.

A 2025 public opinion survey of around 4,100 residents conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission found that 31% of Gwinnett County respondents said they lack the transit access needed to go about their days. In Cobb County, that number was 22%.

And in Cobb, 46% of respondents said expanding public transit was the best way to get rid of traffic congestion. In Gwinnett, 40% of surveyed residents felt the same.

In a video shot on a county bus in October 2024, Republican Gwinnett Commissioner Matthew Holtkamp urged his constituents to vote against the transit referendum. He said the county’s population estimates for the approved transit plan at the time were inflated and would lead to dozens of unused buses if approved.

Holtkamp told the AJC he was confused when Dickens popped up recently on WSB-TV, promoting another vote on the issue.

“I’ve never actually met him before and, like I said, he’s never called me, so I’m confounded where he thinks that after five ‘no’s’ he thinks he’s going to get a ‘yes,” the commissioner said. “It’s got to come from the people — I’m all ears!”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Is MARTA ready for regional challenges?

Cobb resident and transit advocate Matt Stigall said there’s no denying the northwest Atlanta county is a prime example of car-dependent suburban sprawl — but it’s also running out of vacant land that can be developed.

“We have to find a way to meet the demands of a growing region, economy and population by growing within ourselves,” he said. “We can’t just keep adding lanes of traffic here and there and putting a Band-Aid over a wound.”

But Stigall also says suburban voters haven’t seen an example of what a well-functioning transit system looks like. Cobb’s transit system — first launched as Cobb Community Transit, then rebranded in 2016 as CobbLinc — has nine routes.

“CobbLinc was never really meant to be successful; it was more of a check box — moving low-income workers to jobs,” Stigall said. “Where transit is actually successful is when it actually is usable by everyone.”

Last year, county officials announced the public transit agency will be the first in the state to begin using autonomous vehicles in the busy Cumberland district to help fill the gap of first- and last-mile connections, hopefully making the ride more appealing to residents.

MARTA's development and history has been defined by race. Credits: AJC | Georgia State University | MARTA | National Archives | Ernie Suggs / AJC

But hesitancy around MARTA and the agency’s ability to operate transit outside city limits persists.

MARTA recently faced an upheaval in leadership with the abrupt departure of Collie Greenwood, the former agency head who had clashed with both the Dickens administration and Atlanta City Council. At the same time, the system made headlines for an escalator malfunction at the Vine City station that sent seven people to the hospital.

MARTA’s new Interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt sat for a lengthy interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial board last month, and said he is focused on project delivery, which he said is key to winning back public trust and support.

He also said, unequivocally, that MARTA wants Cobb and Gwinnett voters to back an expansion. Hunt pointed to improvements on the horizon such as new train cars and an updated Breeze card system where riders can tap a credit card or mobile phone to pay.

“The faster we can be, the more reliable we can be, we get you on easily, get you off easily and in a safe manner, the better feeling they have,” he said. “We want Gwinnett, we want Cobb to join Marta — 100%.”

“They have wonderful systems, but I’d love to have a fully integrated regional system,” Hunt said.

But Nash, who retired from office in 2020, said people were more hesitant to vote in favor of a referendum when MARTA was involved. Voters didn’t want their tax dollars overseen by a non-county agency, she said.

“I think most people that are weary of MARTA, anything that has the name of MARTA associated with it turns those people off,” she said. “And let’s be honest, some of what’s happened over the more recent years has not done much to help the reputation of MARTA.”

She pointed to Clayton County’s transit woes.

Clayton County voted to join MARTA in 2014, expanding the system for the first time since 1971. Part of the pitch was commuter rail extending south from the East Point station to Lovejoy. But the commuter line was scrapped because of right-of-way issues, and now the agency plans to pursue a rapid bus line instead.

Another promised Clayton project, a rapid bus line to Southlake, also is delayed.

“You can sort of understand why there’s a question mark with people about whether they should give control of the money over to MARTA,” Nash said.

So, the most recent referendum in Gwinnett scrapped the MARTA collaboration altogether and asked voters to back a 1% countywide sales tax to fund transit expansion — not a MARTA penny sales tax.

The referendum still failed.

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