Debra's Story

Age: 56

Tenure: Atlanta Native

Debra has lived in southwest Atlanta her whole life and she emphasises how important indpendence is for her. However Debra never learned to drive, she hated the high speed nature of driving in Atlanta and laments about how some drivers just act like they don't care about others. So while many of her peers might base thier independence on car ownership, Debra refuses to secure independence this way. Additionally, As an older woman who travels alone often she doesnt feel safe in Ubers or Lyfts. She also stresses that ride sharing apps are too expensive for her limited income shes afforded by working part-time at a local bank.

While Debra exclusively uses MARTA buses, and trains if the distance is longer, she says she isnt depedent on MARTA, rather:

"I depend on God to get me where I need to go"

In the city that is famously known to "pray for transit" (Karner and Duckworth, 2018), Debra centers her relationship to God during her day-to-day actvities and movement.

However, these prayers can often go unanswered as it did for Debra on a sweltering summer afternoon in late May of 2024.

Overall, Debra does find it relatively easy to move throughout the city

It seemed like a normal afternoon for Debra. As she usally does, she signalled the driver to left her off at her stop, a mere few 100 feet from her home. As the bus doors came smashing open, Debra began to step off the bus. To her suprise, the bus hadn't been stopped correct, and the driver never lower the bus to the ground as protocal requires. Miss Debra fell of the bus, hitting the hard pavement, with only her wrist to break her fall.

In the aftermath of her fall, Debra in shock worried that she broke her face, was assited off the ground by the bus driver and a fellow bus passenger. Immediatly after, she noted she was fine besides a few scratches on her face, but the next day her wrist was still in pain, so after a trip to Urgent Care it was confirmed Debra sprained her wrist. At the time of the interview (August 2024), Debra was still healing from the incident and praying she didnt need surgery as one of her doctors suggested.

Emily's Story

Age: 22

Tenure: 2 Years

Emily is young college student living and working in downtown Atlanta. Originally from a small rural town in South Georgia, Emily and her partner are both working towards thier Bachelor degrees and working part-time to support themselves as independently as possible. Emily's background is standard to the middle-class rural-small town upbringing, with her parents gifting her an older model car when she was 16 which she was determined to drive until it couldnt drive anymore.

Emily's Story

One late night while driving home from work, Emily was driving on Dekalb Avenue, a nutorious arterial that runs through and parrallel to Edgewood, a historically Black business district. Despreate to get home and to avoid the aggressive driver in front of her who was repeatly break-chcking her, she attempted to switch into a turning lane early. Dekalb avenue, a very bumpy ride, is notoruus for deep and recorrung potholes. As Emily switched lanes she felt a rather large bump which to her suprise was not a pothole but infact a low grade pedestrian median nearby a MARTA station. "ole betsy" was totaled.

"The police tried to blame me, but the median has no signage; it's only a walkway and the concrete pads. I had almost hit it probably 3 times before in broad daylight as well. Afterwards they installed pedestrian crossing signs. Those also keep getting knocked over. Every once and a while I’ll pass the same spot and I’ll see pieces of cars scattered across the roadway and it makes me feel less alone."

Emily's Story

Emily described the situation as a financial nightmare, and while her family was moderately affluent, even they were in no position to help Emily. With no other solution, Emily took out a student loan to cover the loss of her car and purchase a new one. Emily needed a car. Both her and her partner's jobs werent accessible by MARTA, and thier apartment was a 20 mintue walk from the closes train station. She had to buy another car soon after, because Emily operates on a extremely restricted income, she would only afford older, used cars which just didnt seem like they could hold up against these mean Atlanta streets.