re: PSA: Ride MARTA for the SEC Championship

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I live in Georgia, so I have plenty of experience with MARTA. I used it for the SECCG and Peach Bowl in 2019 with no issues, and it saved a lot of headache once I got back to Doraville both times. It also goes right to the airport, so I've also used it for that.

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I don't live in Georgia, but pre-2020 I had ridden the MARTA multiple times with no issues. In the summer of 2021 a friend and I were visiting a friend in north Georgia. We had a Saturday mid-morning flight back home and figured we'd just get dropped off at the northern most MARTA stop, North Springs, and ride the rest of the way to the airport...as I had done previous times before.

When we boarded it was us and about 4 black people on the car. Nothing odd there. It's Atlanta. However, one black guy appeared to be agitated and kept muttering what sounded like gibberish or prayers. Again, no big deal. Atlanta is a large city and there are going to sometimes be crazy people on public transportation.

But then the guy kept staring at us. His muttering became louder and more agitated with each passing stop. Soon it became loud enough to make out he was saying racist shite such as "white devils!"..."cracker arse mother frickers!" He was rocking back and forth. At the Medical Center stop we made the decision to get the hell out of there and uber the rest of the way to the airport. Given we had 10+ stops left at that point to get to the airport and the fact he was getting more and more pissed off at each stop, it wasn't worth the risk this nutjob might try something crazy.

That was the first time I'd ever truly felt unsafe on MARTA. I'm sure it will be fine for a large crowd of people traveling to a game. But that is probably the last time I will hop on unless I'm traveling to a large event.