Last weekend, I volunteered at a super awesome event here in Atlanta: Atlanta Streets Alive! For four hours on Sunday, we closed busy North Highland Avenue to cars and opened it up to pedestrians, bikes, dancing, music...people. It was a magical day, and I loved seeing a road that I associate with traffic jams and parallel parking taken over by people soaking up some sun and getting a little bit of exercise.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a ton of photos on Sunday, because my volunteer shift was at the info booth on the north end of the event. The upside to working the info booth is that in my downtime I got to peruse the flyers and pamphlets on the table, including the awesome map above showing what Atlanta's transit system, MARTA, could look like if we pass the upcoming Transportation Investment Act on the July 31st ballot.

MARTA is notorious for not going anywhere. We basically have two rail lines right now: North/South and East/West, and the system is badly underfunded. To give you an idea of how big these changes are, take a peek at the current MARTA map:

If you live here in Atlanta, July 2nd is the deadline to register to vote in the July 31st election that will decide the future of the Transportation Investment Act. If you want to see the map above become a reality, vote YES! The folks at Citizens for Progressive Transit (CFPT) shared the language that you'll see on your ballot, so you'll know exactly where to vote yes on the 31st:

Ballot Question: “Shall [YOUR COUNTY'S] transportation system and the transportation network in this region and the state be improved by providing for a 1 percent special district transportation sales and use tax for the purpose of transportation projects and programs for a period of ten years?”

The one percent sales tax will fund rail expansion and repairs to existing rail lines as well as "other transportation initiatives," like adding and maintaining bike lanes. What I heard from the CFPT folks over and over on Sunday was that if this Act doesn't pass on the 31st, Atlanta's transportation future is going to be pretty bleak.