Is a Car-free Lifestyle Possible in the City of Atlanta?

Atlanta’s Transportation Juxtaposition: The Yellow Mini Cooper Story

So let’s add a bit of context to my fascination with Atlanta and its transportation challenges. The photo of the yellow Mini Cooper will have much more significance as I share my journey of interests discovery.

Since about late 2024 I had been considering what it would mean for me to enter the electric vehicle industry and take part in the electrification of transportation as my career. I’ve always had a love for cars since I was a kid, and realized pretty early on that electric vehicles would make them even better being quieter and zero tailpipe emissions alternatives, something important to someone who struggled with year round allergies. I began considering, however, if the electrification of vehicles would repeat the same mistakes of past industrial revolutions. Could the “clean-tech revolution” avoid the pitfalls of unrestricted resource extraction that oppressed communities and left them in seemingly endless conflict and war? As I began researching it became pretty evident that those challenges of exploitation would exist for a while without the intervention of serious regulations and consequences for corporations.

The story could end there. “No hope in cleaning up the act of major corporations who will do anything to make shareholders happy.” But I couldn’t accept that. I imagined that for one, there has to be a better path forward to make the supply chain more humane and sustainable. Secondly, I challenged my love for cars by exploring how consumers could be less car-dependent. This led me down the wonderful rabbit hole of walkable cities. Automotive companies could do less damage if they extracted and produced less. The only way for that to happen though is if the people who “need” their vehicles didn’t need them at all. If people could get to their job, school, grocery store, or means of entertainment simply by walking or biking, fewer resources are extracted due to lower demand and more time and care could be spent in making the process humane.

“Problem solved! Let’s just redesign all of our cities to be walkable paradises with public transit to fill in for longer distances!” Ha ha! “This is America” as Childish Gambino would say. If I thought changing the business practices of corporations would be difficult, why would I think challenging politicians, NIMBYs, and lobbyists would be any easier? Well, the city of Atlanta, one of the most car-dependent cities in the nation, began to give me hope. I slowly began to watch a new identity for the city of Atlanta form around the bustling rail to trail development known as the Atlanta Beltline. The Atlanta Beltline is a 22 mile trail encircling the city of Atlanta, connected by parks, marketplaces, businesses, and housing. Envisioned by Georgia Tech alum Ryan Gravel, but championed and birthed through grassroots efforts of the local community, the Atlanta Beltline offers a peek into a walkable, pedestrian-independent, future for Atlanta, with promises of rail someday along the Beltline.

In my frequent visits to different sections of the Beltline, particularly near Ponce City Market on the eastside, I’ve fallen in love with what Atlanta is becoming. It’s clear that the Atlanta Beltline brings joy to those who use it daily for transportation and challenges the imagination to consider what car-free living could be like in the city. Okaayy, that last part might just be me. I want to know if it is possible to live like a New Yorker in the city of Atlanta, with hopes of moving to the Beltline very soon. So I’ve been exploring the most walkable areas of the city by foot and skateboard, getting a vibe for the life of a pedestrian in the city.

This lands us back to the yellow Mini Cooper. I took this picture while skateboarding along a section of the Beltline on my way to Krog Street Market where there were shipping containers with street art to my right and the beautiful brownstone homes pictured to my left. The yellow Mini Cooper in my mind captured the current juxtaposition of a city like Atlanta. While Atlanta feels as if it has always been a car-dependent city, it was once filled with streetcars taking people from place to place. Those were pushed out the way for the personal automobile and new lanes of highway every few years to “fix” Atlanta’s traffic problem. Now autonomous robotaxis from Waymo and the Beltline exists pointing towards another evolution of Atlanta’s modes of transit.

So with the vision laid out, let’s explore the possibilities and reality of living a car-free lifestyle in a city as car-dependent as Atlanta.

Fieldwork via Skateboard

Methodology: Kick, Push

I’m a novice at best when it comes to doing any urban planning work, but I took this as an opportunity to try doing what I’ve seen some of my favorite YouTubers in the space do (they’ll be listed in my inspiration section below). They simply walk around the city noting any interesting things along the way. Things like “How safe does it feel?”, “What are the people like?”, “How often do I see people?”, “Is there good food?”. My slight twist to this activity would be that I would zoom around a little bit via skateboard, as I did in my undergrad days as a CS (Computer Science) student at Georgia Southern University.

My overall methodology went something like this. I built a Notion page with a simple database where I could record my field notes for 3-4 locations over 2 days exploring the city by foot. I would make observations about options for housing, food, groceries, activities, parks, and access to things I personally cared about (diversity, rock climbing gyms, parks, EV charging access, etc.). The database table had three columns, the name of the place, a specific attraction to the area, and the Walk and Bike Score for that area.

Observations

The Walk and Bike Scores were key metrics to compare my own personal observations to. The Walk Score is a great metric to know how walkable a city may be. It uses information like proximity to grocery stores, shops, and other POIs, the amount of infrastructure dedicated to pedestrians and other factors to determine the walkability of a location on a scale from 0 to 100. The Walk Score methodology scores addresses 90 and above as a Walker’s Paradise, 70 and above Very Walkable, 50 and above *Somewhat Walkable, and below that location is considered Car-Dependent. The Bike Score follows a similar methodology but for bikes.

The locations I initially decided to explore over those two days of exploration needed to have a Walk Score of at least 70 and above, making them Very Walkable. When you initially search for the city of Atlanta on Walk Score’s , however, this would seem a bit challenging as it is considered Car-Dependent with an overall Walk Score of 48 and Bike Score of 42. Not a great look, but if you look closely you’ll see pockets of bright and dark green on the map, hinting at Atlanta’s walkable oases.

So the first four places I planned to visit were Ponce City Market (Old Fourth Ward), Midtown, Georgia Tech, and Atlantic Station. I would later visit some other locations with what I thought were promises of future walkability due to proximity to the Beltline or where quite walkable but just located further from the city center. Below is a peak at what my Notion database looked like with links to the Walk and Bike Score for each locaiton.

Each location had their own page where I took notes as I walked, checking off a checklist of things the community had or didn’t have (like grocery stores within walking distance) and overall general observations in a bulleted list. These locations were each deserving of a detailed page that recognized their individual yet familiar character. The vibe around Ponce City Market (PCM), Midtown, and Georgia Tech (GT) was robots like Waymo and food delivery bots were everywhere. PCM and GT felt more “people-friendly” (as I began coining) due to its many trees and narrower streets that made walking feel more pleasant compared to the towering business buildings in Midtown. Many more people were walking in these areas than you saw in Midtown and chance encounters felt more likely. Drivers were much more used to pedestrians at GT and PCM due to this compared to Midtown for this reason. Drivers knew to look out for you at certain intersections rather than the default reaction of “mow through you” if you were in the way of a regular Atlanta driver.

Atlantic Station was a curious place for me as it felt upscale with nice apartments and connected beautiful parks, but it felt more built for private use rather than public use. Again, the roads were wide and buildings towering with just glass to look at as you walked by. But things shifted as you walked to what most people know as Atlantic Station, a literal town square with plenty of food, shopping, and activities like a nice movie theater. People typically drive to the location, park underground, and pop up from stairwells that bring you to the square, but locals in nearby apartments could walk here and a nearby Target for groceries if they desired. There were plenty of families and dog walkers around to show that this was a lived in space.

Lee+White, located in West End, offered a chiller side of the Beltline than what PCM offers. While the city of West End, a historically black location, has been under invested in for some time, the promise of the Beltline to bring economic development and foster community to all parts of Atlanta seems to begin to materialize here. I actually loved being in West End and on the Westside trail of the Atlanta Beltline. It felt so homey and overall chill despite some of the city’s rough edges. I met so many friendly faces there, from a clothing brand owner in her shop within a shipping container in the parking lot (a normal siting on the Beltline), from the baristas and guests at a local coffee shop at an apartment complex you can get to right from the Beltline (they had amazing avocado toast!). There is a lot of room for growth in the city, but it already feels, again, like a lived in palce. That’s what walkable cities built with intent can do. They elevate the presence and culture of the people that make that place feel real. This includes the animals that live here, as a flock of birds surprised me with a stunning display launching in and out of tress in unison along the Beltline, giving the community a show.

The same can be said for the city of Decatur, a city a bit further out from Atlanta proper, but with a MARTA station that will take you right into the city. I visited Decatur sometime after my initial Atlanta field work, initially hesitant to visit the city due to it being 20 or so minutes away from the center of Atlanta. But it was well worth the visit! Downtown Decatur is the modern upgrade of the small southern downtown city you’ll see pop up every now and then throughout Georgia. With a few towers and apartments alongside well designed streets that keep traffic slow near the city and invite walking around, Decatur feels like what happens when suburbia decides to become walkable. The MARTA station there is surrounded by plenty of shops and public space, making it easy to grab a bite to eat after doing a few skate tricks with your friends in the city (there’s always a group of teenagers doing just this near the station). Places like this always invite chance opportunities as you enter nearby shops and restaurants. At a local ramen and poke bowl shop, I happened upon a silent book club and book swap meet, an activity they do regularly. They had a book there I hadn’t read since high school, The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks, which I perused reminiscently as I waited on my food. It was just a surreal experience seeing how the community can come together in surprising ways.

Living in Atlanta’s Juxtaposition

Hopefully my personal exploration through the most walkable parts of a car-dependent city like Atlanta (score of 48 remember) have painted a picture of the many benefits that come with intentional city design that promote walkability, while also noting there is still work to be done. While its clear there is a deep sense of community along the Beltline and throughout the city, there is still the challenge to include every community in the uplifting spirit and momentum the Beltline brings. In cities like Decatur, its clear where the line ends for the haves and have-nots. Where walking and using public transit is used for leisure rather than a necessity to get to work despite not having even a bench to sit on waiting for the bus.

Driving along I-75/I-85, with its charging Hellcats and silver Nissan Altimas, reminds you that this is still very much a car-dependent city. Hopefully the Waymos stick to city streets rather than the highways, but even that may be a daring adventure (one I took at night on my way back to my car at GT). This takes us back to the yellow Mini Cooper I happened upon on my skate from Reynoldstown to Krog Street Market. I nearly forgot to mention my time there in my fieldwork, but it slots in perfectly here.

There is this great taco and coffee place in Reynoldstown that was once an old rail station that now serves as an entry way to the Eastside Beltline. I skated from there to Krog Street Market, a place similar to PCM with many food options, shops, and apartments all along the Beltline. You could walk from there all the way to PCM and many people do as it is full on the weekends with people traffic as bad as I-75 (a great signal that this is something people desire). Along my skate there to Krog Street, I found myself on this stretch of the Beltline with street art covered shipping containers to my right and beautiful apartments to my left, perfectly framing one of my favorite cars, a Mini Cooper.

I, like Atlanta and many other American cities, will exist in this transitionary period. A love for cars and the sense of freedom they provide (emphasis on sense) alongside this budding love for walkable neighborhoods that provide a true freedom most of us didn’t realize we were missing. It will take some time to get there, but it will also feel like this happened all at once and how it always was. The Beltline is already living up to its promise, and I believe someday sooner than we imagined, Atlanta will become a walkable community, a place that truly feels lived in.

Venturing Further: What’s Next for the walkability of Atlanta?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. There’s so much more I could discuss and hope to soon. Understanding what really makes the communities I explored feel like lived in places and how to continue creating that feeling throughout the entire city. There’s a joy and anxiety to seeing the transformation of a place and I hope to record that journey as Atlanta continues to evolve. From fast moving cars and puzzling robots, to leisurely strolls from you home to a local coffee shop. This is a peak at a city born great.

Inspiration: Helpful Resources

Here are some helpful resources I’ve gathered over the past couple years that have helped form my imagination around the Beltline and provide a deeper dive into everything revolving around its creation.

Books

• City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future by Mark Pendergrast
• Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities by Ryan Gravel

Videos

• Walkable Cities But They Keep Getting More Affordable — Ray Delahnty, CityNerd
• SolarPunk Cities: Our Last Hope? — DamiLee

Events

• Life After Cars on 03/13/2026 @ Plaza Theater near Ponce City Market: A stop for Life After Cars book tour with authors Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon. Hosted by the bike advocacy group Propel ATL.