Develop a transit travel behavior database for the atlanta metropolitan region that is designed to support periodic updates for ongoing testing of alternative future growth scenarios

The Federal Transit Administration awarded the Atlanta Regional Commission $1.5 million on June 6, 2026, under the Federal Transit Formula Grants program (CFDA 20.507) to develop a transit travel behavior database for the Atlanta metropolitan region through March 30, 2033.

The project will implement a scientific survey to collect transit rider travel data representing 10 percent of daily transit ridership on weekday service, capturing trip patterns, mode choice, origin-destination pairs, and household socio-economic characteristics. Survey activities include design and sampling plan development, quality assurance and control, instrument design and training, survey administration, and data analytics. The collected data will update the Atlanta Regional Commission's ActivitySIM mode choice model and the Simplified Trips-on-Project Software (STOPS) application to support travel demand forecasting and scenario testing for the regional transportation planning process.

The database and analytical outputs will serve transportation planning agencies and transit operators with current travel pattern and demographic data to inform service improvements and competitive positioning for future transit funding. The award is structured as a formula grant under the Urbanized Area Formula Funding Program, which provides annual apportionments to support transit capital, operating, and planning activities in urbanized areas. Place of performance is Georgia.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to develop a transit travel behavior database for the atlanta metropolitan region that is designed to support periodic updates for ongoing testing of alternative future growth scenarios. The survey provides a means to update and estimate various model components used in the ARC travel demand forecasting process including mode choice modeling. The transit rider travel data will supplement the ARC household travel survey data by collecting transit ride data by purpose length mode origin-destination and household socio-economic characteristics. The survey will collect transit trip patterns and associated socio-economic characteristics from 10% of daily transit ridership representative of weekday transit behavior. The survey data will be used to update the atlanta regional STOPS model. The simplified trips-on-project software (STOPS) is a forecasting tool developed by FTA.

Activities

Activities to be performed center around implementing a scientific survey including survey design and sampling plan quality assurance and quality control survey instrument design and training administration of the survey and survey data analytics and behavior storytelling and travel demand modeling.

Expected outcomes

Administration and implementation of a scientific survey and analytics to support the travel model estimation for the mode choice modal component of the ARC activitysim model as well as the ARC stops model application.

Intended beneficiaries

The intended beneficiaries include transportation planning agencies operators in that IT will provide current information on travel patterns and demographics for transit riders informing transportation plans . IT will benefit the region as a whole as the extensive and recent data will make the region more competitive for future transit funding opportunities. Transit riders and the general public will benefit as planners will be able to how recommended service improvements will perform and better benefit riders themselves.