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Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Sal IV, Universitetshuset, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, Friday, 24 September 2021 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Associate Professor Theresa Enright (Department of Political Science, University of Toronto).
Abstract Mohall, M. 2021. An infrastructure of freedom. Atlanta, race, and the struggle over public transportation in the capitalist city. Geographica 31. 230 pp. Uppsala: Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2894-4.
This thesis provides a multiscalar analysis of the production and struggle over the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), the main transit system in metro Atlanta. It examines how the actions and visions of the state, capital, and transportation activists intersect to structure how and to what extent transit systems can be organized to realize their distinctive potential to allow urban residents to meet their basic mobility needs. In a city steeped in white supremacy, the development of MARTA is significantly constrained by how the lives of the Black residents, who comprise the majority of its riders, are inherently devalued, and by a racialized opposition to expanding the system more generally. What MARTA can be is also deeply shaped by the combined impact of a range of other forces, including both direct interventions in the transportation sphere such as the rise of ride-hailing services, as well as processes which profoundly impact transit planning even though they do not follow from attempts to do so, such as how capital circulates in the built environment. While MARTA’s planners endeavor to design a system geared towards the needs of transit dependent riders, the possibilities to do so are severely limited by the geography of transportation that these forces create. This geography also limits what merely expanding the system can accomplish. Concomitantly, the planning of MARTA is heavily influenced by the actions of pro-transit activists and transit skeptics, who propagate radically divergent ideas about what the transportation system should be, ideas grounded in differing conceptions of how planning practices are – or should be – conducive to freedom. What emerges is a picture of how the organization of public transportation is plagued by core contradictions which follow from how it takes place within the structure of the capitalist city in its totality, and how these intersect with the city’s broader racialized politics of mobility. Critically, the study draws attention to the merits of analyzing how transportation infrastructures are produced and struggled over by combining a decidedly material approach with an attention to the impact of imaginations about what amounts to a transportation system productive of freedom.
Keywords: public transportation, transit, transit struggles, transportation, planning, mobility, politics of mobility, transportation politics, infrastructure, capitalism, race, USA, US South, Atlanta
Marcus Mohall, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Box 513, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.
© Marcus Mohall 2021
ISSN 0431-2023 ISBN 978-91-506-2894-4 URN urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-449492 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-449492) "(%,
$=?9ACGHCH<9FH<=B;G5H<9G=G=G57C@@97H=J9IB89FH5?=B; !5A=B 896H98HC5@5F;9BIA69FC:D9CD@9K IF=B;H<9G9@5GH:9KM95FG!<5J9699B:CFHIB5H99BCI;<HC6956@9 HC7C@@56CF5H9K=H<5B8@95FB5@CH:FCA(PF/=?A5B5B8+5F5CFG69F; F9GD97H=J9@M ! Contents 1. Introduction ...... 15 The production of public transportation ...... 17 Aim and research questions ...... 20 Organization of the study ...... 22 Atlanta: a brief history ...... 24 White flight, growth, and sprawl ...... 26 2. Transportation, struggle, freedom ...... 29 The role of the state, the needs of capital ...... 29 Neoclassical perspectives ...... 30 The needs of capital ...... 31 The “public benefit” and the modern infrastructure ideal ...... 32 The infrastructure crisis and the end of the modern ideal ...... 35 Mobility struggles and the distinctiveness of public transportation ...... 37 Fundamentals of public transportation ...... 37 Transportation and the right to the city ...... 39 Freedom and the freedom of mobility ...... 42 Mobility, freedom, and unfreedom ...... 43 Meanings of freedom in the US ...... 46 One interpretation of freedom ...... 46 Black freedom and the struggle for mobility ...... 49 Conclusion: a synthesis of sorts ...... 53 3. Reflections on methods ...... 55 Fieldwork and data sources ...... 55 Interviews ...... 55 Public meetings ...... 57 Newspapers, archival materials, and additional sources ...... 57 Questions of anonymity and confidentiality ...... 59 Positionality and limitations to this study ...... 61 Giving something back ...... 64 Conclusion ...... 64 4. From Keynesian prestige project to an infrastructure in crisis ...... 65 Early visions of a modern rapid transit system ...... 68 The 1968 and 1971 referenda ...... 73 An initial failure ...... 74 The decisive second referendum ...... 77 Building MARTA ...... 81 Neglected promises ...... 82 The energy crises ...... 83 Federal support and the turning economic tide ...... 86 A partial success, erosion of federal support ...... 90 Reaganite neoliberal transit policy ...... 92 A continued decline ...... 96 Conclusion: a multifaceted story ...... 101 5. What can transit be? Planners’ visions, urban development, and the rise of Uber ...... 103 The visions and goals of planners ...... 104 Urban development and the specter of displacement ...... 107 The BeltLine ...... 109 Displacement and the suburbanization of poverty ...... 113 Implications for public transportation ...... 117 The falling ridership ...... 120 More than transit-oriented development ...... 123 The emergence of ride-hailing services ...... 127 Reshaping transit ...... 129 Conclusion: the challenges of transit planning in the capitalist city ...... 132 6. An infrastructure of freedom and survival ...... 134 Transit struggles in Clayton County ...... 135 The termination of C-TRAN ...... 136 Bringing MARTA to Clayton ...... 139 The freedom of public transportation ...... 143 Excessive mobility and the limits to transit ...... 148 Conclusion: between freedom and unfreedom ...... 153 7. Transit skepticism and libertarian visions of mobility ...... 154 A dislike of rail, MARTA, and transit more generally ...... 158 Transit for whom? ...... 161 Ride-hailing services and private solutions ...... 165 Protecting the suburbs ...... 167 Race, class, and “crime” ...... 170 Freedom as automobility ...... 175 The express lanes solution ...... 177 Conclusion: distinctive visions of mobility ...... 181 8. Conclusions: the contradictions of transit and mobility as freedom ...... 183 The racialized politics of mobility ...... 183 The totality of the capitalist city ...... 184 Mobility and freedom ...... 186 Imaginations of freedom ...... 187 Coda ...... 188 Appendix A. List of respondents ...... 191 Appendix B. Maps of metro Atlanta’s racial demographics ...... 192 References ...... 194 List of abbreviations ABI Atlanta BeltLine, Incorporated AC The Atlanta Constitution AJ The Atlanta Journal AJC The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ARC Atlanta Regional Commission BOC Board of Commissioners BRT Bus Rapid Transit FOCT Friends of Clayton Transit FTA Federal Transit Administration GDOT Georgia Department of Transportation GRTA Georgia Regional Transportation Authority MARTA Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority MATSC Metropolitan Atlanta Transit Study Commission NHGIS National Historical Geographic Information System T-SPLOST Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax TOD Transit-Oriented Development UMTA Urban Mass Transportation Administration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