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Posted on: June 18, 2026
How will emerging technology shape our region’s transportation future? That was the question put to a diverse group of metro Atlanta leaders at ARC’s recent ConnectATL: In Focus.
About 60 attendees took part in facilitated focus groups that dug deep into this topic from three angles: autonomous vehicles, micromobility networks, and advanced air mobility. Each focus group included a panel discussion and a “visioning session” in which participants were asked to imagine their ideal transportation future and the challenges this might bring.
The feedback collected will be used to shape the development of Mobility 2055, ARC’s long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which is set to be adopted in early 2028. Here are some of the main takeaways for each focus group topic:
Scooters, e-bikes, bike share, and the infrastructure that supports them
Carol Antunez, Government Relations Lead for Lime’s U.S. South region, said Atlanta’s micromobility market has reached a point of maturation. Since Lime’s 2019 launch, the city has seen more than 9 million trips, reflecting genuine transportation demand rather than novelty.
Lillian King, Senior Manager of Business Intelligence at Lyft Urban Solutions, said bikeshare belongs alongside buses and trains as a core transit offering.
Aaron Gaul, Principal at Alta Planning and Design, pointed to Portland and Seattle as a preview of where bikeshare is headed. In Portland, 42% of e-scooter users can’t ride a traditional bike. In Seattle, recipients of a $50 per month transportation subsidy are using micromobility twice as often as ride-hailing, at a fraction of the cost.
Safety comes first. Participants ranked it above cost and convenience as the top barrier to adoption. Protected lanes, separated paths, and safe crossings are ‘must-haves.’
Density isn’t destiny. Micromobility doesn’t require high density to thrive, as the golf cart network in Peachtree City shows. Smaller deployments are viable in places like school campuses and transit hubs. Participants agreed that the region’s micromobility future will be won or lost in the suburbs.
Design with communities, not for them. Real adoption, especially in underserved communities, requires treating residents as co-designers from the start.
Connected and autonomous vehicles, signal preemption, and the future of mobility systems
Tejas Santanam, Head of Research and Product at BEEP, argued the real AV challenge isn’t autonomy itself but everything autonomy doesn’t include: routing, headways, ADA compliance, real-time passenger support, multimodal coordination.
Ronald Barrett, Director of IT for the City of Marietta, said the city’s traffic signal preemption for fire and emergency vehicles has cut response times by two minutes per call.
Pouyan Azizpour, Startup Incubator Lead & Advisor at Curiosity Lab, described a 3-mile public roadway run by the city as a live test environment, complete with a 5G network, the first fully integrated CV2X system in the US, and 400+ cameras.
Moving from technology to transit system. Putting AVs on the street is just a starting point. Systems must be built that turn these vehicles into a transportation network people can depend on.
Regional connectivity is crucial. Successful technology adoption will create a region that functions as a single, interconnected transportation system.
AVs as problem solvers. The technology can provide mobility options to older adults, move freight more safely and efficiently, and address “first- and last-mile” connectivity challenges.
Drone delivery, electric air taxis, and the region’s role in the emerging air mobility ecosystem
Clement Solomon, GDOT’s Division Director for Intermodal Transportation, framed Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) as a modal choice story, not a tech story: give people real options, and they’ll adopt them. He cited Georgia’s momentum, such as Archer Aviation’s Covington manufacturing plant and the Delta-Joby partnership.
Tariq Rashid, who manages Wing’s U.S. drone delivery operations, said the company runs over 4,000 deliveries daily across four U.S. regions — including roughly 1,000 per day in Atlanta since its December 2025 launch.
Daniel Ketchel, of Delta Air Lines’ AAM Strategy team, described the Delta-Joby partnership and its vision for eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) as an airport access product, not a replacement for commercial aviation. Launch markets are New York and Los Angeles, with demo flights already completed from JFK to all three Manhattan heliports.
Power infrastructure as a constraint. Electrical capacity—already strained by data center growth—is the limiting factor on vertiport development. Any serious AAM planning must treat power infrastructure as a co-investment, not an afterthought.
Demystify first. To build trust, the region should lead with medical and public safety use cases —applications that serve everyone — before promoting premium products.
Making an equity case. Instead of asking how to make air taxis affordable, focus on problems in underserved communities that air mobility can solve, such as hospital access, disaster response, and food desert intervention.
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