Transit Planning Board

Last updated March 15, 2019

The Transit Planning Board was a joint commission of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), and Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA).

A Joint Venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to access a new market, particularly emerging markets; to gain scale efficiencies by combining assets and operations; to share risk for major investments or projects; or to access skills and capabilities.

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the metro Atlanta, Georgia, USA region, defined as the 10-county area of Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, including the city of Atlanta. It also serves as the metropolitan planning organization for those and ten more counties in the region: Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Coweta, Forsyth, Hall, Newton, Paulding, Spalding, and Walton counties.

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority or GRTA is a government agency in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was set up under former governor of Georgia Roy Barnes, in order to address mobility, air quality and land use and how they relate to the transportation needs of metro Atlanta, including both roads and public transit. It came about in large part because the numerous cities and counties in the region could not effectively work with each other to achieve a comprehensive solution to the area's traffic woes, and increasing summertime smog problems.

A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations may partner to increase the likelihood of each achieving their mission and to amplify their reach. A partnership may result in issuing and holding equity or may be only governed by a contract.

A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Many various types of meetings exist.

Specifically, TPB will:

Develop a regional transit plan including a comprehensive financial plan;
Work to improve regional service coordination, including integrating fares, marketing and customer information;
Measure system performance; and,
Advocate for increased federal funding for regional transit."

Members

Some of the following may have changed since 2007.

Agency representatives

GDOT Chair, Gena Abraham
GRTA Chair, Walter Deriso
MARTA Acting Chair, Michael Walls
MARTA General Manager, Beverly Scott

Local elected officials

Atlanta Mayor, Shirley Franklin
Cherokee County Chair, Buzz Ahrens
Clayton County Chair, Eldrin Bell, TPB vice-chairman
Cobb County Chair, Sam Olens
DeKalb County CEO, Vernon Jones
Douglas County Chair, Tom Worthan
Fayette County Chair, Jack Smith
Fulton County Chair, John Eaves
Gwinnett County Chair, Charles Bannister
Henry County Chair, Jason Harper
Rockdale County Chair, Roy Middlebrooks
Spalding County Chair, Eddie Freeman

Shirley Clarke Franklin is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party who served as the 58th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2002 to 2010. She currently serves as a member on the board of directors for both Delta Air Lines and Mueller Water Products.

Samuel Scott Olens is an attorney with the global law firm Dentons, and the former Attorney General of Georgia. Olens was elected Georgia AG in 2010, resigning on November 1, 2016 following his appointment as President of Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He subsequently resigned as KSU's president on February 15, 2018 - a decision he'd announced in December 2017 - due to controversy over his handling of issues that included a protest by football cheerleaders who knelt during the national anthem.

Vernon Jones is an American Democratic politician from the US state of Georgia. Jones was chief executive officer of Dekalb County, Georgia, from 2001 until 2009, and in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001. As Dekalb County CEO, Jones presided over the Board of Commissioners, oversaw a 7,000 employee county workforce, and managed a $2.6 billion county operating budget. He unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in 2008. After unsuccessful runs for the US House of Representatives (2010) and DeKalb County Sheriff (2014), Jones was elected to the Georgia House in 2016.

Appointees of the governor of Georgia

Douglas Tollett
Lara O’Connor Hodgson
Pam Sessions

It does not have any representatives from Cobb Community Transit (CCT), Gwinnett County Transit (GCT), or C-TRAN, the local suburban bus systems.

In the common view, political representation is assumed to refer only to the political activities undertaken, in representative democracies, by citizens elected to political office on behalf of their fellow citizens who do not hold political office. However, the lack of consensus in the political literature on political representation belies this common view. Theorists of representation differ not only in their definition of representation but also, among other things, on what the duties of a representative are, who can be called representative and how one becomes a representative. In her seminal work on political representation, Hanna Pitkin defined political representation as, "a way to make [the represented] present again" and identified four views of political representation which, since her book's publication, have shaped contemporary debates on political representation. Recently, Jane Mansbridge has identified four other views of specifically democratic political representation which, although they are distinct, share some similarities with Pitkin's. On the other hand, Andrew Rehfeld has critiqued the failure of theorists like Pitkin and Mansbridge to articulate a purely descriptive view of political representation and has proposed a general theory of representation that recognizes that political representation can be and often is undemocratic.

Gwinnett County Transit or GCT is the bus public transit system in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States, one of metro Atlanta's three most populous suburban counties.

Concept 3

Concept 3 is the third and final draft of a plan to build an extensive network of commuter rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit by 2030, totaling about 500 miles or 800 kilometers. It was finalized in July 2008 and adopted in August 2008.

Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city centre and middle to outer suburbs beyond 15 km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis. Trains operate following a schedule at speeds varying from 50 to 225 km/h. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.

Light rail, light rail transit (LRT), or fast tram is a form of urban rail transit using rolling stock similar to a tramway, but operating at a higher capacity, and often on an exclusive right-of-way.

Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to improve capacity and reliability relative to a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or purchasing fares. BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a metro with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system.

External links

TPB official website

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