Economy

The Myth That Mass Transit Attracts Crime Is Alive in Atlanta

Fears that new buses and trains will bring "unsavory people" persist, despite evidence to the contrary.

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By Eric Jaffe

December 11, 2014 at 7:10 PM UTC

Last month, metropolitan Atlanta celebrated an enormous victory for public transportation when suburban Clayton County voted to join the MARTA transit network. The move is not only historic—Clayton has rejected MARTA since the agency's inception back in 1971—it's vital to the region's mobility. MARTA will start running buses in Clayton next year (the county's own service stopped in 2010) and will plan a rail or rapid bus route for the future.

But despite the overwhelming support for joining MARTA among Clayton residents, with three-quarters having voted in favor of the action, not everyone is comfortable with the change. At a public meeting led by MARTA there last week, at least two locals reportedly spoke out that they didn't want their neighborhoods to be part of any new transit routes, for fear of drawing criminals to the area. Here's how one woman described her experience with the previous county bus service, via the Clayton News Daily: