Atlanta developers can't build or widen more roads in the city, and traffic has increased to a breaking point. With the car and roadways perceived as a burden, Baynes sees many people choosing to live closer to our human functions of work—eating out, shopping, worship, and so on—because the time required to get there in a car just isn't worth it.

“Cars alone can't get a 2016 person the mobility they want,” Baynes says. “Mass transit in large cities is a great means of transportation. In addition, walking, biking, Uber and Lyft—and soon self-driving cars—are all viable and increasingly appealing alternatives. We want to accomplish what we need to do—whether it is for work or for play—in a smaller area than ever before.”

Baynes points to the value premium on housing and commercial real estate positioned near transit, and where transit connects to other types of mobility. These locations must have the human functions nearby to be relevant.

With all this in mind, second-tier mobility cities like Atlanta stand to be huge winners if they can source the long-term investment in transit required to get to premier tier mobility and developing a robust mass transit network, according to Baynes. Of course, he admits, there are second-tier cities ahead of Atlanta, such as Denver, Dallas, Charlotte.

But, he says, Atlanta is hard at work trying to catch up, with the November SPLOST a key voter crossroads for the initiative. The transit authorities are also benefitting from these types of projects, as developers are providing a broader customer base and promoting transit to residents, visitors and patrons.

“Obviously, though, the citizens are the clear winners with this trend,” Baynes says. “And they measure their winnings in time. If I need to drop the kids at school, pick up the dry cleaning, get to work, and stop by the grocery store on the way home, how much time will it take for the connectivity. The cities that invest in addressing reducing time behind the wheel and increasing the amount of time we have for what we want to do are the winners as well.”

ATLANTA—Transit-Oriented Developments are nothing new—not really. New York City and other major metropolitans have organically developed around transit systems for decades. But there is newfound interest in transit-oriented developments and Atlanta is a prime example of the new breed.

“In Atlanta, MARTA's general manager Keith Parker has been the force behind activating the dead parking lots around the transit stations,” Dillon Baynes, co-founder and managing partner of Columbia Ventures, tells GlobeSt.com. “A key strategic initiative of his has been to go with the current of TOD rather than against it, to activate these dead zones with life, and additional ridership revenue and ground lease revenue to the transportation authority.

Because of his vision, Columbia Ventures and MARTA have now broken ground on the first TOD in the city of the modern era. It sits at the Edgewood/Candler Park MARTA station—and more are steadily following.

“In the 1950s and 60s, with the war over and Americans forming families, we pivoted to an auto-centric approach,” Baynes says. “We had these incredible interstate systems that connected far flung locations. Closer to home, in the following decades we dramatically extended the road networks between the city core and the highway system. The car became our connector between home, and work, and shopping, and worship and everything else. It has worked until it stopped working.”

Atlanta developers can't build or widen more roads in the city, and traffic has increased to a breaking point. With the car and roadways perceived as a burden, Baynes sees many people choosing to live closer to our human functions of work—eating out, shopping, worship, and so on—because the time required to get there in a car just isn't worth it.

“Cars alone can't get a 2016 person the mobility they want,” Baynes says. “Mass transit in large cities is a great means of transportation. In addition, walking, biking, Uber and Lyft—and soon self-driving cars—are all viable and increasingly appealing alternatives. We want to accomplish what we need to do—whether it is for work or for play—in a smaller area than ever before.”

Baynes points to the value premium on housing and commercial real estate positioned near transit, and where transit connects to other types of mobility. These locations must have the human functions nearby to be relevant.

With all this in mind, second-tier mobility cities like Atlanta stand to be huge winners if they can source the long-term investment in transit required to get to premier tier mobility and developing a robust mass transit network, according to Baynes. Of course, he admits, there are second-tier cities ahead of Atlanta, such as Denver, Dallas, Charlotte.

But, he says, Atlanta is hard at work trying to catch up, with the November SPLOST a key voter crossroads for the initiative. The transit authorities are also benefitting from these types of projects, as developers are providing a broader customer base and promoting transit to residents, visitors and patrons.

“Obviously, though, the citizens are the clear winners with this trend,” Baynes says. “And they measure their winnings in time. If I need to drop the kids at school, pick up the dry cleaning, get to work, and stop by the grocery store on the way home, how much time will it take for the connectivity. The cities that invest in addressing reducing time behind the wheel and increasing the amount of time we have for what we want to do are the winners as well.”