After facing community pushback for removing a bus stop in front of a Southwest Atlanta senior home, MARTA officials say they’re evaluating if they can include the senior home in its newest shuttle service.
For some, who now have to travel more than half a mile to a bus stop, that process could take too long.
The MARTA bus stop in front of Berean Village, located in Mozley Park, was one of the stops shuttered in April as part of MARTA’s Next Gen bus initiative. MARTA consolidated roughly 30 bus routes across the city to increase bus ridership and efficiency.
MARTA said the Berean Village stop was ended because of “low ridership.” Since then, seniors living at the community said they’ve been forced to travel about a half mile to get to the next closest stop.
Residents, many of whom have medical and mobility issues, said the walk is taxing and dangerous as it includes crossing a traffic-heavy street and walking across a bridge.
LeRon Moore, a Berean Village resident who recently went through chemotherapy, said he relies on the bus to get to his doctors appointments. The 84-year-old told Capital B Atlanta in May that since the bus stop shut down, it’s been difficult for him to get to his appointments and have sometimes forced him to cancel them.
“When I was using the bus service, all I had to do is walk out to the front and take the bus and go where I had to go at, but now since the situation changed, it’s at least 20 to 25 minutes away,” Moore said. “My feet hurt at times, it’s difficult to do. It affects me very much.”
In an email to Capital B Atlanta, Payson Schwin, MARTA’s manager of communications, said officials met with residents last month to discuss the situation. Schwin said the transit authority is “currently gathering data” to see if the senior community can be added to the MARTA Reach program, a curb-to-curb shuttle service designed to help areas impacted by the Next Gen initiative’s changes. That process will take at least until December, Schwin said.
“Expanding a Reach Zone is considered a major service change, and all major service changes require public input and public hearings. The hearings need to be scheduled, advertised, and convened by MARTA,” Schwin said. “Once the team gathers public input, the final changes then must be planned, scheduled, reviewed with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), picked by our operators, and finally, communicated in advance to the public.”
Belinda White, a Berean Village resident, said she felt like MARTA officials did not take accountability for the situation as they reiterated in the meeting that the bus stop closed down due to low ridership. The transit system has said previously that the stop had roughly five boardings a day.
She said officials also continued to stand by the MARTA Mobility program — a curb-to-curb bus service for qualifying passengers with disabilities and health conditions — as a solution to the problem. White noted that not everyone can qualify for the program, which also has received criticism this year for issues including long wait times.
The meeting also included Atlanta City Council member Jason Dozier, who represents Berean Village’s residents, and administrative members of Berean Village.
Dozier said that while he shares the frustration that Berean Village residents have about the situation, the city has no governance role in the Next Gen bus initiative. He has asked the MARTA state overview committee to take a look at the issue and said he will continue to push the transit authority to follow through on its promises to the community.
“I’m not going to fault MARTA for using whatever methodology that they did to make their decisions. I mean, they need to defend their methodology and do their engagement in a way that is above and beyond what might be required by the federal government or by the state, and I don’t believe that they haven’t done that,” Dozier said, “But at the end of the day, the decision that was made negatively impacts my constituents, so I’m going to stand with my constituents and try to reverse some of these operational decisions.”
Schwin said MARTA officials also provided Berean Village’s administration with information on how to request special bus services for residents in the short term. They are also working on a follow up meeting about this information.
Berean Village’s administration did not immediately respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.
In the meantime, the senior residents are waiting and hoping for the situation to change.
“I’m very frustrated and very disappointed because I feel that basically it’s a run around because this is day number 81 and we’re still walking, and that’s the important thing,” White said. “When are they going to step up to the plate with a concrete plan with goals, objectives, and a time frame that we can at least look at to know where we stand in terms of getting transportation?”
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