MARTA and the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition are here to jumpstart a new way of getting to work by helping you finish the first and last mile of your commute! Thanks to MARTA, you will now experience last-mile connectivity in our classes. Starting in November, when you take a City Cycling or Hack Your Commute class, you get a Breeze card loaded with two trips.
Let's say it's Monday morning and you're steeling yourself for your daily commute. The West End MARTA station is too far to walk and the bus stop is a 1/2 mile away. The bus runs every 30 minutes and you hustle to make your train. You finally arrive at Chamblee MARTA station, then walk another 1/2 mile to work.
You're just not feeling your commute. Frankly, you haven't been into it for a long time. But you've decided to make a change today - after work you are going to a free bike class led by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. You’re ready for your commute makeover.
You'll start our class with some basic instruction on how to bike safely on all sorts of streets, ride a couple of miles, hop on MARTA with your bike, get off a few stops later and bike back to where we started.
MARTA is a national transit leader in bike friendliness in these United States. Not only did they donate these free Breeze cards to help make your commute a little easier, but MARTA stations also have bike racks and DERO Fix-It stations for quick DIY bike repairs, and absolutely no space or time constraints on when you can bring your bike with you on the train.
The next morning, you're feeling excited and a little nervous. You pumped up your tires last night, checked your brakes, put a few drops of oil on your chain. It's a nice cool 57 degrees out. You bike that 1.2 miles to the West End MARTA in under 10 minutes - your body feels wide awake and your mind is super alert.
You and your bike go through the extra-wide fare gates and hop on the elevator. You get off at the concourse and in a few minutes, you and your bike are on the train. You got a smile going on. You reach the Chamblee station, hop on your bike and you’re at your office in 5 minutes. You’ve got a little extra bounce in your step as you walk on into work and everyone notices. Ahh!
