An Analysis of Transportation Demand in Atlanta

Transportation in Atlanta is considered poor by national standards. I look at the MARTA light rail expansion proposals from the Atlanta City Government. I use survey data from the 2011 Atlanta Regional Commission’s Household Travel Survey to estimate travel demand. Since explicit coordinates are not given for each survey participant, I use Traffic Analysis Zones as proxies to estimate distances. A discrete choice multinomal logit model is then estimated by maximum likelihood estimation. Change in predicted ridership is then calculated by adding the proposed train stations to the choice set. Clifton and Campbellton are predicted to be the most successful lines, and then I examine the demographics of those who benefit the most from the MARTA expansion.