GROUPS TURN OUT TO BLOCK MARTA FARE HIKE

GROUPS TURN OUT TO BLOCK MARTA FARE HIKE

Atlanta, GA, June 16, 2000 -- More than 70 neighborhood associations, civic clubs, civil rights groups, environmental organizations, and elected officials attended a community briefing on Wednesday, to learn about the impact that a proposed fare hike would have on MARTA’s poor, transit dependent, and people of color riders.The Wednesday evening briefing was held at the Environmental Justice Resource Center on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. The meeting was moderated by Glenn S. Johnson who is a research associate at the center and co-editor of Just Transportation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility, a 1997 book that chronicles communities struggling against transportation racism.

After learning of the proposed MARTA fare hike this past February, the center began to investigate the potential impact that such a fare increase would have on MARTA riders. In April a preliminary report was submitted to the MARTA board. An expanded analysis was presented at the May 3 MARTA public hearing on the proposed fare increase.

The center retained the services of nationally known transportation consultant Thomas A. Rubin to review MARTA’s budget figures. On June 1, the center submitted its legal and budget analysis to the MARTA board. The major findings and conclusions of the center and Rubin are as follow:

MARTA's existing $1.50 cash fare is the second highest of all major U.S. urban transit operators.

If the quarter increase is approved, MARTA's $1.75 adult cash fare would be the highest in the nation.

Considering costs of living, MARTA's cash fare is the highest in the nation now.

MARTA's 34.2% farebox recovery ratio is the highest of comparable Sun Belt transit systems.

Since the 15¢ fare ended in 1979, MARTA's adult cash fare has increased ten-fold.

Factoring in cost of living changes, it has increased over 300%.

MARTA will be in full compliance with all statutory requirements for both FY01 and FY02 without a fare increase.

MARTA has absolutely no shortage of cash.

MARTA is spending $464 million for the two-mile, two-station rail extension to North Springs, plus over $4 million a year in continuing operating subsidies, in order to increase ridership approximately 5%.

Not doing the fare increase, plus adding service to carry the riders that will not be driven away by it, would cost $14 million a year, to avoid losing 5% of MARTA's existing riders.

Compared to the "new" riders, the "lost" riders are far more likely to be low-income, transit-dependent, people of color who reside in, and pay sales tax in, Fulton and DeKalb Counties.

View Mr. Rubin's charts here.

The proposed fare increase is not necessary, justified, or wise.

Dozens of groups attending the briefing signed on to a petition letter that will be forwarded to the MARTA board along with position statements compiled by the center. The groups also endorsed several possible next steps that include protest demonstrations at the MARTA headquarters, mass attendance at the June 19^th MARTA board meeting, filing an administrative complaint with MARTA, the U.S. DOT, FTA, and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights, seeking an injunction to block the fare increase, and working with state legislators to change the MARTA Act. The groups will hold a press conference at 12:30pm on Monday June 19th (before the MARTA board meets) in the front of MARTA headquarters (2424 Piedmont Road, N.E.).

There was general agreement among the attendees that MARTA should scrap its plan for a fare hike and undertake an aggressive plan to expand ridership, capture all of its fare box revenue, charge for parking, increase advertising revenue, streamline its administrative staff, acquire more state, regional, and federal funding for public transit, and explore the feasibility of a fare reduction.

Atlantans turned out in record numbers to get the other side of the fare hike saga.

The issues surrounding the MARTA fare hike and their impact are not new. Dr. Glenn S. Johnson and his colleagues at the center have been working on and writing about transportation racism since the mid-1990s.

The briefing led off with a panel of community leaders, academics, and transportation policy analysts. The panel included Terry Allen (co-chair of the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Coalition or MATEC), Sherrill Marcus (MATEC), Robert Bullard (EJRC), and Thomas Rubin (transportation consultant).

Terry Allen outlines MATEC's position on the proposed fare hike.

MATEC member Sherrill Marcus provided an update on the community organizing efforts against fare increase.

Professor Robert D. Bullard's research on transportation equity laid the foundation for much of the analysis of transportation racism in the U.S. His research shows that the MARTA fare increase would disproportionately and adversely impact the poor, transit dependent, carless, and people of color.

Using MARTA's own budget figures, nationally known transportation consultant Thomas A. Rubin reports that MARTA's proposed fare increase is not needed in FY01 or FY02.

Information coming from MARTA has been skimpy, one-sided, and misleading. Fulton and DeKalb taxpayers want the facts.

Atlantans turned out in record numbers to get the other side of the fare hike saga.
	The issues surrounding the MARTA fare hike and their impact are not new. Dr. Glenn S. Johnson and his colleagues at the center have been working on and writing about transportation racism since the mid-1990s.
The briefing led off with a panel of community leaders, academics, and transportation policy analysts. The panel included Terry Allen (co-chair of the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Coalition or MATEC), Sherrill Marcus (MATEC), Robert Bullard (EJRC), and Thomas Rubin (transportation consultant).
	Terry Allen outlines MATEC's position on the proposed fare hike.
MATEC member Sherrill Marcus provided an update on the community organizing efforts against fare increase.
	Professor Robert D. Bullard's research on transportation equity laid the foundation for much of the analysis of transportation racism in the U.S. His research shows that the MARTA fare increase would disproportionately and adversely impact the poor, transit dependent, carless, and people of color.
Using MARTA's own budget figures, nationally known transportation consultant Thomas A. Rubin reports that MARTA's proposed fare increase is not needed in FY01 or FY02.
	Information coming from MARTA has been skimpy, one-sided, and misleading. Fulton and DeKalb taxpayers want the facts.