Foursquare ITP and the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority (ATL) have established an objective, data-driven evaluation framework to assess individual and collective project benefits and to identify strategic funding priorities for transit projects across the Atlanta region. The ATL Regional Transit Plan (ARTP) is a statutorily required regional transit plan that the ATL must develop, annually review, and amend, as necessary. The ARTP and the Annual Report and Audit (ARA)—which Foursquare ITP also developed—are the primary work products for the ATL and jointly inform policy and funding decisions for the entire region. Foursquare ITP worked with ATL to identify projects from the ARTP that are recommended to the Governor and state legislative bodies, providing significant new opportunities for the Atlanta region to receive regular state funding to move forward strategic investments in transit.
The 2022 ARTP that Foursquare ITP helped lead established a vision, goals, and a framework to identify and prioritize transit projects based on stakeholder input and data-driven analysis that focuses limited resources on priority projects to meet current and future system needs. Our work also identified sustainable funding strategies to deliver cost-effective programs and projects and developed a performance monitoring program to track progress in meeting the plan vision and goals.
This plan serves as the transit vision for the 13-county ATL region for the next four years and has helped the ATL to organize goals, project development, investment strategies, and implementation priorities. The network gap analysis, which Foursquare ITP had a key role in, can be viewed here.
Solutions and Outcomes
- Developed data-driven analysis of equity-related and other transit service and coverage gaps.
- Identified sustainable funding strategies to deliver cost-effective programs and projects.
- Developed a performance monitoring program.