Downtown rarely gets to vote on its own streets. Between December 2024 and February 2026, it got three chances, as MARTA, the Atlanta Department of Transportation, and the City of Atlanta each opened a major planning effort to public comment. Individually each was a survey link in a newsletter. Together they amount to the most consequential transportation planning window downtown has seen in a decade.
The first was MARTA's NextGen Bus Network, which the agency called a 'once-in-a-generation system redesign' meant to deliver a 'smarter, faster, better' transit experience across the region. The draft network was presented to the public from December 2024 through February 2025, with public hearings on the plan folded into MARTA's fiscal-year 2026 budget process. Feedback was to refine the proposal ahead of a planned implementation in late 2025. For downtown, where nearly every regional bus route terminates, the redesign determines which corridors get frequent all-day service and which lose it.
The second came from ATLDOT. From October 29 to November 19, 2025, the department collected community feedback to inform the City of Atlanta's first Comprehensive Transportation Plan since ATLDOT was established as a stand-alone department in 2020. The improvement district ran its own Downtown Community Survey in parallel, asking residents and workers about transportation, safety, and quality of life, with a 'Downtown Delights' giveaway as the incentive.
The third, announced in February 2026, was the city's Docked Bikeshare Business Plan. ATLDOT is evaluating whether to launch a new docked bikeshare system 'that supports everyday transportation, improves access to jobs and services, and complements existing transit options' as well as the current dockless shared-micromobility program of scooters and e-bikes. The department paired its survey with an interactive map where residents could propose dock locations - the first time since the shutdown of Relay Bike Share in 2020 that the city has formally studied bringing station-based bikes back.
Downtown has a stake in all three. The Rapid A-Line bus rapid transit corridor that opened April 18, 2026, was the first physical product of MARTA's bus rethink; the ATLDOT resurfacing and Vision Zero work on Forsyth, Courtland, and Ted Turner Drive is the kind of project a comprehensive plan is supposed to prioritize; and a docked bikeshare network would give the district's new protected lanes something to carry.
None of the three plans had produced a final adopted document as of the February 18, 2026 Downtown Navigator that announced the bikeshare survey. The comment windows have closed; the decisions are still being made.
Source: Downtown Navigator, February 2026 (Central Atlanta Progress / ADID), published February 18, 2026.