ABSTRACT
Atlanta has managed to continue a history of public transit planning that is marked more by its failures than its successes. The narrative that sees transit as a social service is based on the premise that cars are a necessity for transportation in Atlanta. Alas, the emphasis on congestion relief did nothing to help Atlanta residents needing to get to the annex or the low-income black communities on the west side of Atlanta. This chapter examines the response to Atlanta's noncompliance with Clean Air Act and the creation of transit for congestion relief. More importantly, the failure of the transportation referendum is partially due to the limitations of the two narratives identified: transit as a social service and transit as a means of congestion relief. The project list included half transit projects, but the campaign for the referendum was unwilling to sell transit as congestion relief within the context of the long history of transit as a social service.
