Mayor announces new transportation department head, $200M mobility plan

There’s big, potentially consequential news on the City of Atlanta’s transportation front.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced at a press conference this morning Renew Atlanta general manager Josh Rowan will now serve as commissioner of the city’s new department of transportation.

The new DOT will absorb the city’s Office of Mobility Planning and the Renew Atlanta Infrastructure Bond program, as well as all other transportation-related operations of the departments of Planning and Public Works, Bottoms said.

That means, among other duties, the new transportation department will be charged with regulating dockless mobility vehicles that have become ubiquitous in Atlanta and carrying out the goals of the $5 million mobility focused action plan the mayor announced in September.

The mayor also unveiled the One Atlanta Strategic Transportation Plan, which lays out a three-year framework to reach Vision Zero—the goal of having zero traffic fatalities or serious injuries—by way of more than $200 million of mobility infrastructure projects.

“We’re breaking records for pedestrian fatalities,” said Rowan at the press conference. “I don’t know how anyone can be comfortable with that.”

City of Atlanta

MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker told Curbed Atlanta the creation of the DOT should speed up the More MARTA program, which is expected to boost the city’s transit network with some $2.7 billion in new transportation infrastructure and improvements.

“We’ve been working very closely with [city officials], but clearly we now have a great structure of organization within the City of Atlanta to implement these projects,” he said.

Rowan told Curbed he’s not sure what the DOT’s formation means for the more than $200,000 in uncollected impound fees for dockless devices, although he said city leaders are looking into a solution.

Below are highlight projects included in the One Atlanta Strategic Transportation Plan unveiled today, as divided by the west and east sides of the city:

One Atlanta Strategic Transportation Plan

One Atlanta Strategic Transportation Plan