Cobb County opens public comment on proposed changes to Cobblink circulator and commuter routes

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 April 8 to authorize service equity analyses and 30-day public comment periods for proposed modifications to Cobblink services, including the Cumberland green circulator and commuter routes 100, 101 and 102.

The move authorizes the Department of Transportation (DOT) to publish the analyses and hold public meetings and a public hearing before the board, and it clears the way for staff to gather feedback and return to the commissioners with final recommendations. "We are proposing to do the, put the service equity analysis out so that we can get public comment on it," Morgan Simmons, deputy director for the county Department of Transportation, told the board, describing the steps DOT would take.

The hearings come after several public commenters urged the board either to preserve existing services or to make bigger operational changes. "We must support these services to drive ridership if we're gonna continue to use ridership as a metric of whether or not we fund it," said Matt Stegall, a District 1 resident and member of the county Transit Advisory Board, reflecting repeated pleas from riders and transit advocates for more marketing, better ridership data and operational fixes.